Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Continuing our series on interoception, this month I will be looking at what is interoception.
The interoceptive sensory system gives us the ability to feel what is happening inside our body. It gives us our internal sense of wellbeing.
Just close your eyes for a moment and think what you can feel inside your body.
- Can you feel your heart beating?
- Can you feel yourself breathing?
- Are you hungry? If so, how do you know you are hungry?
- Or are you full?
- Are you thirsty?
- Are you feeling hot or cold?
- Do you have any pain within your body?
- Are you feeling nervous, or stressed, or calm, or happy? What do these emotions feel like inside your body?
Within our body, we have specialised nerve receptors that gather sensory information and send it to our brain. These receptors can be found in areas such as our heart, intestines, stomach, bones, muscles, genitals. This information is then used by our brain to determine how we feel, and this then often leads us to an action. I am currently writing this newsletter just before lunch time. I am noticing that my stomach is rumbling, my throat feels a bit dry, I feel slightly what I would term ‘light-headed’. All this information signals to me that I need to eat and drink. I can wait a little, but I know if I don’t eat and drink soon, my performance, my ability to write this newsletter will decrease, I will get a bit irritable and cranky if I leave it too long. My body is telling me something, that I know I need to pay attention to. This is interoception working well.
Interoception and Sensory Processing
As seen in the above example, when interoception is working well we can sense what our body needs and then do something to meet that need. I was hungry so I ate. Just like in other sensory systems, we can experience sensory processing differences within our interoceptive sensory systems.
If you are over responsive to interoceptive input then you will experience these sensations more intensely, you may well me much more sensitive and aware of changes within your body. For example, you may be much more aware of hunger and thirst than others, you may feel pain more acutely than others, you may feel that you need the toilet when your bladder is not full, you may feel emotions in your body much more strongly and acutely than others.
The opposite will be seen if you are under responsive to interoceptive input. You will experience these sensations much less intensely others and may not notice these internal signals. You might not recognise that your bladder is full, you might not notice that you are hungry or thirsty, you might recognise that you are holding your muscles tightly, you might not feel pain, you might not know that you are tired.
In the next newsletter, I will look at how interoception is connected to our emotions.
