Go to the Base of the Emotions Iceberg: Poor Interoception

Intero…what you might say? 🙂 The truth is that not many people have heard of interoception. Even Wikipedia doesn’t have a decent page on this subject, as I’m writing this article.

Try to pronounce it like this: [IN] + [TE]+ [Rō] + [SEP] + [SHUHN].

Have you ever wondered how we know when to eat, drink, or use the bathroom before it’s too late? Or how do we know sadness from anger?

We can feel all of these due to a thing called “interoception.”

The word “interoception” might not sound intriguing, but scientists call it our eighth sense, and, as you’ll see in this article, it is a big deal.

It provides the foundation for self-regulation.

And self-regulation is tricky for our HSCs.

Let’s dive right in.

In this article:

• What is interoception?
• What poor interoception looks like
• Examples of how interoception works
• How you can help your HSC understand what’s going on inside their body:
  • Notice what sensations your HSC seeks and what they avoid
  • Teach your HSC to pay attention to body cues and emotions
  • Build a list of sensory activities
  • Manage your HSC’s environment
  • Poor interoception and the magic of heavy work

What is interoception?

Interoception is considered our eighth sense.

Nerve endings (called proprioceptive receptors) send messages to the brain from our internal organs. Our brain processes the information and links it to our memories, triggering a particular sensation or feeling.

When our interoception sensory system works correctly, we can identify that sensation or feeling.

Examples of interoception

Due to interoception, we:

• feel hungry when our stomach rumbles and moody if we don’t eat.
• recognize thirst and know we need to drink liquids.
• know when to use the bathroom.
• walk in the shade when it’s too hot.
• feel it when our heart beats faster than usual.

In our day-to-day lives, we process this type of information unconsciously. For example, we know when to use the bathroom, when to put on more clothes and why we feel sad. 

What poor interoception looks like

But sometimes, our brain doesn’t process the information right, especially when there is too much stimulation (which often happens to HSCs).

When overstimulated, we have either too weak or too strong reactions (we are under-responsive or hyper-responsive).

Poor body cues

We might not realize that we’re hungry until it’s too late. Or once at the table, we don’t stop eating because we don’t sense that we are full.

Also, we might resist sleep even if we are exhausted.

And if we are doing something exciting, we might forget that we’re too hot or too cold. But, as our brain gets jammed by information, we start to get fussy without knowing why. Younger children, who have lower self-regulation capacity, might even throw a temper tantrum.

Exaggerated reactions to physical discomfort

On the contrary, other people feel emotions and body cues intensely when overwhelmed. For example, a child might go into a meltdown because they bruised their knee, even if the bruise was not that bad.

Poor emotional awareness or powerful feelings

Additionally, some kids and adults are so aware of their heartbeats and breathing that they might dislike intense physical effort, transitions, and unexpected changes. Generally speaking, they are extremely cautious because they want to avoid sensations.

As a result, they are more prone to get into a fight, flight, or freeze mode. Moreover, kids with high interoception sensitivity might have lagging gross motor skills, avoid new things and be shy with new people.

As you might expect, struggling with the interoceptive sense can easily make HSCs feel different and less capable than their peers.

HSCs are already very sensitive to criticism and know that they are different from 80% of their peers.

Fortunately, there are several steps you can follow to help your HSC develop self-awareness and prevent meltdowns:

1. Notice what sensations your HSC seeks and what they avoid

Some kids calm themselves by breathing exercises, while others jump on the trampoline.

Many of us assume that quiet activities like reading a book or playing games on the tablet can help our kids regulate. However, some children need physical activities to calm down.

We are all different, so the first thing you want to do is observe what sensations your HSC craves and which ones they avoid.

2. Teach your HSC self-awareness

HSCs with poor interoception can have difficulty reading their body and mental cues when they feel overwhelmed.

So, it’s best to teach them first about identifying their emotions and then self-regulation. Secondly, talking about and preventing their body needs can also help avoid meltdowns.

Here are some practical tips for teaching emotional self-awareness:

• Talking about triggers
• Keeping a trigger journal (when, where, and what triggers them; what strategy you applied and whether it helped; sometimes a method works and other times it doesn’t, depending on the sensory needs your HSC has at that moment)
• Pretend play
• Reading books about emotions
• Going through visual emotions cards, labeling emotions, and talking about how you feel
• Short guided meditation for kids
• Mindfulness practice
• Social stories
• Yoga.

Here are three practical tips for teaching your HSC how to read their body cues:

• Take short quiet breaks during the day for meditation and mindfulness practice.
• Be sure to include snacks and a bottle of water in their backpack.
• Have regular mealtimes.
• Read books about how our body works.

It’s best to try these strategies when your HSC is calm and focused.

3. Build a list of sensory activities

Think of some activities your HSC would like to try when they feel overwhelmed. Then try them first when they are calm so that it won’t feel like they need to try something new and go into defense mode.

Some strategies work on one day, but they don’t on another day. That’s normal.

Sometimes, our HSCs need alone time, and other times they need quality time with us.

They might need to hear an audio story one day and play roughhousing the next day to decompress.

Here are some calming strategies for your HSC:

• Counting heartbeats.
• Rainbow breaths (draw a rainbow with your hand while breathing slowly).
• Sun and rain breaths (deep breath in as hands go up (sun goes up) and breath up with hands going down (rain goes down).
• Visualizing a happy place.
• Slow down your breath with an expandable ball.
• Drawing or painting your emotions.
• Name your feelings and write them on a sheet of paper and rip it up.
• Praying
• Remind yourself that emotions come and go.
• Remind yourself that it’s okay to be angry or sad.

Sometimes, children need more sensory input to regulate. Calming breaths don’t work in this case. Instead, they might need physical activity, fidget toys, rhythmic music, or something similar.

Here are some activities for HSCs who need more sensory input:

• Jumping on the trampoline
• Standing on a balancing ball
• Stamping feet
• Chewing gum.
• Eating something crunchy.
• Sucking a smoothie through a straw.
• Bear hugs before bedtime and a heavier blanket during sleep
• Cozy and sensory corner.
• Sensory toolbox.

4. Manage your HSC’s environment

Kids thrive in a predictable and organized environment, especially if they are too young to organize themselves or find it difficult to prioritize their tasks.

HSCs mainly thrive with routines because they have difficulties fine-tuning the various stimuli.

Of course, it’s essential that, now and then, our HSCs step out of their comfort zone. Doing something new is how they acquire new skills, after all.

So, when doing something new or stimulating, try having one or two activities at most on that day. For example, if your HSC starts taking swimming lessons, consider scheduling them on Saturday and keep your schedule light on that day.  

5. Poor interoception and the magic of heavy work

Heavy work can work like magic due to its calming effect on our brains: we sleep like babies after a full day of hiking or two hours of swimming.

Heavy work helps because repetitive actions involving our muscles and joints (like pushing, pulling, and lifting) help our brain organize information better.

Imagine our brain is like a crowded intersection. The cars coming from various directions represent messages sent through our body’s neural paths to our brains. All the vehicles want to reach the corner, but they can’t. Our brain is overwhelmed by so much information coming at the same time.

Heavy work helps the brain calm, prioritize and organize information from our senses.

It does not have to involve heavy work activities per se. It can be fun, too.

Here are some examples:

• Pushing boxes around the house
• Pushing the shopping trolley at Target
• Carrying laundry bags/vegetable bags
• Pushing a stroller
• Wall push-ups.

Related article: A Scientifically Proven Tool to Help Your Rowdy HSC

A Take-Home Message

Here’s what to keep in mind: interoception is the foundation of self-regulation.

And here’s something else: poor interoception does not mean that your HSC needs to be fixed. It’s who they are.

Our job as parents is simply to accept them and teach them coping skills so that they learn to know themselves better.

References

Price CJ, Hooven C. Interoceptive Awareness Skills for Emotion Regulation: Theory and Approach of Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT). Front Psychol. 2018;9:798. Published 2018 May 28. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00798 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5985305/

Evan E. Dean, Lauren Little, Scott Tomchek, Winnie Dunn; Sensory Processing in the General Population: Adaptability, Resiliency, and Challenging Behavior. Am J Occup Ther January/February 2018, Vol. 72(1), 7201195060p1–7201195060p8. doi: https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2018.019919

Craig, A. How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nat Rev Neurosci 3, 655–666 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn894

Hugo D. Critchley, Neil A. Harrison, Visceral Influences on Brain and Behavior, Neuron, Volume 77, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 624-638, ISSN 0896-6273, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2013.02.008. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627313001402 )