🧠🔧 Interoception is your brain’s ability to notice what’s going on inside your body.
Or in real-life terms? It’s your body’s dashboard — the warning lights, the fuel gauge, the “hey, you forgot to eat and that’s why you’re crying at laundry” alert.
But for those of us with neurodivergent wiring — ADHD, Autism, trauma history, sensory issues — that dashboard is glitchy as hell.
Sometimes the lights don’t come on.
Sometimes they flicker randomly.
Sometimes they scream “ENGINE FAILURE!!” when you just need a snack.
Sometimes they say nothing… until you’re halfway unconscious.
🧩 What’s Interoception Actually supposed to do?
It’s what lets you know:
- You’re hungry
- You need to pee
- Your heart’s beating faster
- You’re starting to get sick
- That pain in your leg? Yeah, that’s bad.
- You should lie down before you throw up or punch someone
Basically, everything that keeps you alive and functioning. If you’ve ever wondered how someone can forget to eat or not notice a broken toe — it’s probably glitchy interoception.
By the way, even if this confuses you and doesn’t apply to you, keep reading. About 30% of the population is neurodivergent, which means you almost certainly know someone who deals with interoception problems.
🚨 Glitchy Dashboard Syndrome
When your interoception is off, the internal messages get scrambled. Like:
“I’m not sure if I’m anxious or hungry or have to pee. Let’s just scroll TikTok and dissociate for a bit.”
Or:
“This migraine doesn’t feel that bad — I’ll just finish writing this blog post, pick up the kids, do the dishes… oh no I’m on the floor.”
And because the signals are either too quiet or too chaotic, you start ignoring them.
You start thinking:
“That warning light is always on. It’s probably fine.”
Until it’s very much not fine.
Real Life Examples from My Personal Circus
Let me just drop a few highlights:
🤕 Aonghus tripped and hurt himself on grass.
Literally nothing there. No rock, no stick. Just grass. He didn’t cry — just stood up and carried on. I only found out because his toe was all cut up (as though he had kicked a rock HARD) and bleeding, and he couldn’t explain how.
🔥 Eve grabbed a hot water pipe and blistered her hand.
Didn’t flinch. No tears. Just calmly showed me the damage. She once walked into the ER with a nail in her leg and was more curious about how weird it looked than concerned about the whole “impaled” thing.
😵 I’ll belch all day (and not even notice that) until someone reminds me to take a Tylenol.
That’s pain. But I rarely feel it. I burp it. My friend and massage therapist (hi, Elizabeth) says I should warn doctors that my pain scale is unreliable at best and misleading at worst.
🤕 I work through migraines all the time.
Mine are usually triggered by sinus pressure, which is bad enough — but I also have a recurrent brain tumour (astrocytoma), so when that area gets irritated, I get next-level migraines. My neurologist once asked, “Do you need to lie down in a dark room when these happen?” and I said, “Well, I could, but that’s not life, is it?” Apparently, most people don’t keep on living life when this happens, though.
🧠 What Happens When Pain Signals Go Weird?
Here’s where things get fun. When your brain doesn’t know how to say “hey, something hurts,” it improvises.
Here are a few weird, but totally legit, glitchy pain signals:
- 😆 Giggling (instead of crying or reacting appropriately — very common in kids)
- 🤢 Nausea (your stomach says “maybe I’m the problem?”)
- 🚽 Urgent poop run (hello vagus nerve)
- 🥶 Feeling cold/shivery/clamy (your body reacts like it’s in fever mode)
- 😐 Going emotionally flat or dissociating (can’t feel it if I’m not here)
- 🛏️ Sudden exhaustion (shutdown mode: activated)
- 🧴 Breaking out in rashes or hives
- 😡 Irritability (pain = pissed off and no one knows why)
- 😴 Sleepy for no reason (spoiler: there is a reason — your body just won’t say it out loud)
🧂 Why This Matters (Besides It Being Wildly Inconvenient)
If you can’t accurately interpret pain, hunger, illness, or stress … it’s really easy to ignore your needs. Or get dismissed when you do speak up, because your body isn’t reacting the “right” way.
“She’s not crying, it can’t hurt that bad.”
“He said he was fine.”
“They laughed, so it couldn’t be serious.”
(Ahem. Let me direct you to the 4-year-old bleeding from the face who said he was fine after falling on the pavement and the school just went with it. We changed schools. Immediately.)
🛠️ Living With a Glitchy Dashboard
We’re not broken.
We’re not being dramatic.
We’re just running an operating system that doesn’t send clean signals.
And learning to translate your body’s weirdness — and advocate for it — is a big part of neurodivergent survival.
You might need:
- Pain scale translations (“If I say 4, it probably means 7”)
- A partner/kid/friend who says “hey, you look pale, sit down” or “you’re belching again, take a Tylenol”
- Schedules (or timers) with snack/pee/water breaks even if you “don’t feel like it”
- To trust the data, not the feels
Final Thought
Interoception isn’t about being “in tune” with your body. It’s about having a working feedback system. And when it’s scrambled? You’re doing your best with unreliable tools.
This blog — like our lives — isn’t about being perfect. It’s about figuring it out as we go. Glitches, brilliance, body weirdness and all.
Want to Share Your Weirdest Glitchy Body Signal?
Drop it in the comments. I want to hear all the best “I walked on a broken ankle for three days and thought it was a cramp” stories.
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