Sensory Perception

[Outdated]

I often don’t notice when I’m sick. It was easier when I was working, other people would point it out to me, but at home by myself I tend not to notice a lot.

The last two days I was ravenously hungry, and I started having trouble sleeping again. Although it’s often at odd hours when I go to sleep I normally have 9 hours of unbroken sleep, but in the last couple of days I’ve only been sleeping for a few hours here and there.

I’ve also been having trouble focusing on any of my games, I just don’t seem to have the amount of attention required. I’m also still really hungry and although I have a fairly wide variety of food and snacks here I don’t feel like eating any of them.

It was only this afternoon after waking up from another two hour nap that I realised I have a sore throat, blocked sinus and a mild headache. Now it makes sense, I have a cold.

Not looking for sympathy, it’s only a cold and I’ll recover quickly enough, I always do. I was just curious if other people also have trouble realising that they’re ill.

 

[Misty Avich]

I don't, and never have. But I often get paranoid and think I'm getting ill. This usually occurs when I have plans, like going on a trip. I start thinking I have a sickness bug or a cold coming. I think it's because I know these things can just hit you at any moment and one of my worst nightmares is getting sick while on vacation.

 

[Cryptid]

I've never had trouble knowing that I was ill.

I have, however, often had trouble convincing other people I was ill . . . like that babysitter who refused to believe that I was about to "lose my dinner" until I put a new design on her new designer jeans . . . or that gym teacher in whose class I passed out . . . or that employer who would not believe that my first heart attack was real . . . or that my second heart attack was as serious as it was . . . or . . .

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I have trouble recognizing symptoms and figuring out or remembering how to treat them. It’s like I am stumbling around in the dark, trying to get on with typical daily tasks, but nothing works quite right. Typically I’ll start making mistakes, dropping things, or smashing a finger in a door, before I realize something is wrong.

 

[Outdated]

Typically I’ll start making mistakes, dropping things, or smashing a finger in a door, before I realize something is wrong.

That's usually the way it goes for me too. I didn't put two and two together until this afternoon when I was hungry but didn't feel like eating anything. That's when I finally noticed something was wrong. Looking back I realised I've been off for a couple of days.

[Edit] Concentration wise I'm reduced to playing Monopoly.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I often don’t notice when I’m sick. It was easier when I was working, other people would point it out to me, but at home by myself I tend not to notice a lot.

The last two days I was ravenously hungry, and I started having trouble sleeping again. Although it’s often at odd hours when I go to sleep I normally have 9 hours of unbroken sleep, but in the last couple of days I’ve only been sleeping for a few hours here and there.

I’ve also been having trouble focusing on any of my games, I just don’t seem to have the amount of attention required. I’m also still really hungry and although I have a fairly wide variety of food and snacks here I don’t feel like eating any of them.

It was only this afternoon after waking up from another two hour nap that I realised I have a sore throat, blocked sinus and a mild headache. Now it makes sense, I have a cold.

Not looking for sympathy, it’s only a cold and I’ll recover quickly enough, I always do. I was just curious if other people also have trouble realising that they’re ill.

When your mind is occupied and focused upon other things, work for example, you're not focusing upon yourself. It isn't until you have some "downtime" that you then revert to thinking about yourself.

I think this is, in part, why some people are actually in a better state of mental and physical health when they are active and working, and it might not be a job, but it could be travel, creating or building something, engaged in a special interest, whatever. Being sedentary or mentally bored is never good. Not having a reason to get up in the morning, not having goals, is never good. For most of us, the moment we pause and begin to internalize and sense ourselves is when our mental and physical health decline. The exceptions, of course, might be that of actual meditation, in this context, the goal is to heal or to become better in some way.

 

[Misty Avich]

I have a fear of getting sick, so it's always on my mind usually. I'm often worrying about when I'm next going to get a cold, or even worse, norovirus or some other stomach virus. I lead quite a healthy and hygienic lifestyle so I very seldom get sick, but even so, I'm still going to get sick one day, because your body kind of needs to get sick once in a while in order to maintain a healthy immune system.

 

[Mary Terry]

That's usually the way it goes for me too. I didn't put two and two together until this afternoon when I was hungry but didn't feel like eating anything. That's when I finally noticed something was wrong. Looking back I realised I've been off for a couple of days.

[Edit] Concentration wise I'm reduced to playing Monopoly.

What's that old saying? Feed a cold, starve a fever? Or is it feed a fever, starve a cold?

 

[jsilver256]

Yes. Colds don't really affect me unless they turn into laryngitis / asthma.

Asthma coughs are impossible to ignore. If it's garden variety bronchitis, you can take a cough suppressant and go to sleep. But asthma coughs are literally waking you up at night because it's your swollen windpipe closing on itself. You got to breathe.

But when I've been exercising regularly enough, I don't even notice having a cold. Being in good physical condition suppresses inflammatory response. Fun fact - Teddy Roosevelt went into boxing because it was the only way he could control his asthma.

I also don't typically notice a lack of sleep and neither does my son. Probably the number one reason we both tend to sleep 5-6 hours.

 

[Neia]

I always think I "only have a headache" or am "only a bit dehydrated".
It doesn't help that my normal body temperature is naturally low, around 35ºC, and that only those thermometers that go in your ear works for me.

By the time I feel like my headache is killing me, and it won't go away even with any of the meds I usually take, Ill go to the hospital and find out that I have a seriously high fever, and have the flu or an "almost" pneumonia.

Having asthma has made me ignore serious lung issues before, because in my head it's only another asthma attack

 

[Roisin]

I had covid last month, in the days before I tested positive I felt more tired than usual, bit of a headache, foggier brain than usual, but I put this down to social changes in work, hormone fluctuations, a reaction to food, etc.

I think as a late diagnosed person, I had to ignore lots of signals from my body, or feel them and minimise them so I could push through and get the expected task done.

Sometimes I don’t recognise when I'm hungry or tired or that a clothing tag has been irritating the hell out of me, even though I'm normally hypersensitive to touch irritations like clothing tags seams, these are intensified when I'm anxious.
Perhaps illness causes a more hypoarousal response for me.

 

[Misty Avich]

I find colds too distracting. I can't focus on anything when I have a cold, which is why I find it so difficult to get myself motivated to go to work or carry on with other things.

But I can easily differentiate between a cold and rhinitis.

For me a cold involves:-
- Sore throat
- Fever
- Fluctuating body temperature
- Unpleasant smell or taste in nose and back of throat
- The mucus in the nose making me feel unwell and groggy
- Body aches, including an ache at the back of my neck
- Dry ears but a different sort of dryness to the dry ears I normally get
- Brain fog, complete inability to focus on anything
- Swollen sinuses (tops of cheeks) and nose pain
- Nausea
- Swollen glands
- Green mucus
- Symptoms don't really go away until the cold is passed
- Contagious

With rhinitis:-
- Sometimes loss of smell
- Nose being blocked but constantly runny at the same time
- Excessive sneezing
- Headache
- Dry, itchy ears
- Itchy throat, tongue, roof of mouth, and lips
- Symptoms can be treated although it can be difficult to get rid of them once they start but an attack only lasts a few hours at the most
- Needing to blow/wipe nose way more than with a cold, as the mucus with a cold is thicker
- Clear mucus
- Swollen sinuses (tops of the cheeks)
- Not contagious

To other people rhinitis can look like a bad cold, so whenever I get these attacks of rhinitis I have to tell people that it is not a cold and so I am not contagious.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Sometimes I have difficulties with that, sometimes less. I especially have difficulties recognizing that I'm sick if it's something I've rarely - or never - experienced before. I don't have trouble recognizing a cold or another respiratory infection in myself, since I'm used to those feelings.

Some anecdotes, though. Mind you, I'm a doctor and was at those times an advanced medical student. I KNEW about these things, cognitively, and would have had no trouble diagnosing them to someone else.

A while ago, for the first time I had a real asthma exacerbation (worsening), brought on by some virus infection. I woke up during the night with a dry cough that wouldn't stop. For some reason, though, it never occurred to me that it might be my asthma acting up, and to take my spray, although it was obvious. I just kept coughing and wheezing and coughing, until eventually I went back to sleep. The next morning, my boyfriend scolded me when I told him about it (we didn't live together at the time). For the days after, I was wheezing the whole time, but it seemed more interesting to me than anything else.
Edit: Oh yeah, I don't know if that's related, but I ran around since age 12 or so with obvious asthma, thinking I was just untrained. It took me not being able to climb the subway station stairs in my early 20ies to think that something might be wrong. Related?

Another time, I got a urinary tract infection for the first time. But instead of thinking of it, I was genuinely convinced for a day or so that my urethra was constricted and that I needed surgery. Another weird thing about it: At that time, I couldn't tell whether it had always been this hard to pee, or whether it was new. In retrospect, it's even laughable, but at the time, it was like my brain way on stand-by.
That same protracted UTI brought me a kidney involvement. I started having kidney pains, and since I'd never had that before and it wasn't that painful (more like sore muscle pain in a weird location), I observed it more in a detached, interested kind of way. Thank god I recognized it and got me some antibiotics.

It seems to me that I'm often scared of having some illness. But when I really do have it, I experience it more in a detached way. Like "huh, I guess I have that now. So that's what that feels like. Interesting."

 

[Outdated]

Mind you, I'm a doctor....

Just a curious question here, a lot of autistic people have problems with doctors, especially in the area of communication, so how well does an autistic doctor get on with other doctors?

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Just a curious question here, a lot of autistic people have problems with doctors, especially in the area of communication, so how well does an autistic doctor get on with other doctors?

Interesting question. I have to think about it.

As a colleague/medical trainee, it's mostly fine. I feel like there are surprisingly many doctors with apparent autistic traits. Also, we have that shared topic of medicine/our patients, so I struggle less with not knowing what to say. It depends also on the specialty. Within the medical community, certain specialties attract certain kinds of characters. A surgeon usually has a different communication style than a psychiatrist, a radiologist talks differently than a GP. Age also plays a role.
So far, my experiences have been like with the general population, though. With some it was fine, with others it was hard. I found it harder with the non-doctor medical staff. All those hierarchies and social protocols, and no matter what you do, someone will find fault with it.
So far, I have taken on the "role" of the very shy, somewhat unsure and super-eager medical intern. It wasn't faking, but I kind of fell into it and it suited me, it was sort of my social go-to in the hospital so I knew how to behave. Now, I will have to transition from that to being a doctor, with a new authority. I don't know how I will manage that yet.

As a patient, it depends a lot on the doctor. I hate it when I feel like they don't listen to me. I have a GP and a pneumologist whom I both really like. They're very different - one only talks the necessary amount, the other won't stop talking - but both really listen to what I say. I have met other doctors who don't listen. I guess, as a doctor myself I have a certain advantage because I often know what's more relevant and can filter the information I give them.
I might find communication with doctors easier because I know their way of thinking and I know what's important to them.

 

[Outdated]

It depends also on the specialty. Within the medical community, certain specialties attract certain kinds of characters. A surgeon usually has a different communication style than a psychiatrist, a radiologist talks differently than a GP.

Sounds similar to my experiences. I've never had any issues with specialists and I almost married a radiologist once, but normally to get to them you have to go through a GP and that's where I've had a lot of trouble in life. Now I'm far more likely to just go and present at the hospital emergency department, GPs in there seem to be easier to talk to than those in private practice, and the hospitals all bulk bill which is handy, no out of pocket cost.

 

[Mary Terry]

Interesting question. I have to think about it.

As a colleague/medical trainee, it's mostly fine. I feel like there are surprisingly many doctors with apparent autistic traits. Also, we have that shared topic of medicine/our patients, so I struggle less with not knowing what to say. It depends also on the specialty. Within the medical community, certain specialties attract certain kinds of characters. A surgeon usually has a different communication style than a psychiatrist, a radiologist talks differently than a GP. Age also plays a role.

Interesting perspective. My husband is a retired radiologist and has obsessive compulsive tendencies. He chose radiology because it entailed less one-on-one contact with patients. He has some mild autistic traits, too. I never really thought about it before.

 

[vergil96]

I experience it exactly the same way

 

[Neonatal RRT]

As a colleague/medical trainee, it's mostly fine. I feel like there are surprisingly many doctors with apparent autistic traits. Also, we have that shared topic of medicine/our patients, so I struggle less with not knowing what to say. It depends also on the specialty. Within the medical community, certain specialties attract certain kinds of characters. A surgeon usually has a different communication style than a psychiatrist, a radiologist talks differently than a GP. Age also plays a role.
So far, my experiences have been like with the general population, though. With some it was fine, with others it was hard. I found it harder with the non-doctor medical staff. All those hierarchies and social protocols, and no matter what you do, someone will find fault with it.

"I feel like there are surprisingly many doctors with apparent autistic traits." Agree. That has been my experience, as well. Some, perhaps, don't realize they are on the spectrum themselves, but I know a "brother from a different mother" when I see one. Then, I can think of at least three others, a pediatric cardiac surgeon, a pediatric neurologist, and a pediatric ophthalmologist that actually needed a nurse assistant to walk around with them and keep their mind on track because their executive functioning was so bad. All three were friendly acquaintances, shared literature, were on committees together, and we spoke often. We understood "our language" and despite what derogatory words some neurotypicals would say behind their backs, I always gave them support and they rewarded me with some professional opportunities my colleagues were not privy to. Those three have since retired, and I miss interacting with them.

https://www.livingonthespectrum.com/health-and-wellbeing/autistic-doctors/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10393275/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8249017/

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

From the 1st article referenced above:

We received 225 responses. 64% had a formal diagnosis of autism. The mean age of receiving a formal diagnosis was 36 (range 3–61). Most were currently working as doctors (82%). The most common specialties were general practice / family medicine (31%), psychiatry (18%), and anesthesia (11%). Almost half of those working had completed specialty training (46%) and 40% were current trainees. 29% had not disclosed being autistic to anyone at work. 46% had requested adjustments in the workplace but of these, only half had them implemented.

Three quarters had considered suicide (77%), one quarter had attempted suicide (24%) and half had engaged in self-harm (49%). 80% reported having worked with another doctor they suspected was autistic, but only 22% reported having worked with another doctor they knew was autistic. Having never worked with a potentially autistic colleague was associated with having considered suicide.

Most preferred to be called “autistic doctors” (64%). Most considered autism to be a difference (83%). Considering autism to be a disorder was associated with preference for the term “doctors with autism,” and with having attempted suicide.

I found this very interesting.