Body awareness

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I've heard a lot of people (NTs in the regular world) talk about how "most" people are disconnected from their body, unaware of the feelings in their body. From how many times I've heard it, from just anybody as well as therapists, I guess it is a common problem or experience. But I feel the opposite. I feel constantly aware of every little sensation in and on my body which is why I can only tolerate loose clothes. I feel every little itch and have a need to scratch it, and every sore muscle and need to stretch or massage it - which may appear as some kind of stimming to those who observe it or maybe it is a form of stimming? I feel sensations both pleasant, unpleasant and neutral inside my body all the time and am very aware of little aches and pains and don't seem to habituate to any physical sensation. I'm almost always aware of being too hot or too cold. So I have never been able to relate to this idea of being disconnected from bodily sensation.

Wondering how others on the spectrum, and the NTs out there, are in this area? Is this an autism thing?

That's like me, except on top of that, my body doesn't necessarily listen to me. If I tell my arm to do something, I'll do something approximating that, but knowing exactly how I want to complete a complex hand-eye coordination task doesn't keep me from having the worst performance.

I've found that it helps both this increased awareness and not being aware of your body to do activities that include knowing your body - dance is often recommended, as is yoga. I prefer kayaking.

Yes Emtyeye---I relate to you on this. I too am ultra-sensitive with my body. When you mentioned clothing, I thought about how my clothes have to be on a certain way in order to not irritate me. My socks cannot have any hint of a wrinkle in them---and they cannot be too tight. My pants have to fit loosely around my legs or I have difficulty wearing them. My shirts have to feel just right---and no itchy label. The list goes on and on. I feel every little itch in what must be an amplified way in contrast to NTs. I am very sensitive to things.

NT here. And to be honest I feel like I am much more closely connected with my body than the majority of people. When it is even a little too cold or too hot I get very uncomfortable; when I have a small itch it must be scratched or I'll go crazy. I can't have a single lump in my mattress/blankets or I can't sleep, and I've woken up multiple times in the middle of the night from pain in an ingrown fingernail or something similar. My boyfriend (who has AS) has a much lower pain tolerance for the most part, but he is generally more immune to things like this than I am. So if I get cut, it doesn't bother me as much as it would him, but if my pillow is lumpy, I can't stand it, but if it happened to him, he wouldn't mind or care.

I have pretty severe eczema and spend a lot of time outdoors, so in the summer I have lots of bug bites; these are really horrible, and sometimes I can't resist itching, even though I consciously know it's bad for my skin.

I'm not sure if this what you were asking for, but that's my two cents.

I think this is interesting and really subjective, I think everyone has different levels of tolerance whoever they are, I guess I'm a bit odd. I can't tolerate certain clothing, I can't cope with clothes labels, I can't STAND anyone lightly touching me to get my attention, but.. I do martial arts and I can easily cope with being kicked punched arm locked and choked....

Yes it's the sensory issues that Aspies often get. Like a hyperfocus on every little ache and pain. I think the only cure is to keep life interesting. That way, the focus moves onto other things. Trouble is, take it too far and you can harm your body without knowing it till it's too late.

I think it varies, both among us on the Spectrum, and the NT community. My wife will go nuts if there's a grain of sand in her shoe, and she'll have to stop immediately and take care of it, or if a shirt tag is made out of one kind of material vs. another, she can't wear the shirt. And she's NT. I'm H.F.A., and I couldn't care less about things that most people even consider painful, like injections or electric shocks. I have large body piercings, which honestly didn't bother me or stop me from doing it, but did hurt... It's just that pain of most kinds, is tolerable and I can even ignore it in many cases. Even jamming a big needle through the nipples. I can go all day with a big stone in my boot, and not bother to remove it. I'm probably the exception to the rule on this in the Autism/Asperger's community though, based on what I've read & heard.

Charles