Is your body numb?

[Antecedent]

trigger warning: bringing awareness to parts of the body can be triggering for people with PTSD, (that's why it's numb to begin with)


Ok pick a part of your body, a part associated with safety hopefully, that you're not sitting on and its not leaning on anything and it's not in pain at the moment... can you feel it?

I don't have PTSD but I have plenty trauma symptoms but I did NOT know this was a trauma symptom... apparently people who don't have trauma can bring their awareness to ANY part of their body and feel things! feel teh clothes on the skin, or the warmth or cold... or.. i don't even know... what!!? I can only feel it if i'm touching it or putting pressure on it somehow.. WHAT... like even if i really really concentrate, i won't feel it unless i move it or touch it or put pressure on it.. is that not true for everyone!? seriously!?

[Hopelessly Broken]

This can happen for reasons other than trauma. Its called proprioception, or body awareness and the awareness of one's body and specific body parts in space. A lot of people who are autistic, and or who have ADHD struggle with proprioception, for the same reason we struggle with interoception, because they are almost the same thing, except interoception is for things like temperature, heart rate, breathing and appetite. 

Not saying that it isn't possible that yours is because of trauma, but I think that it is likely that your ADHD plays some role in it, possibly larger than the one trauma does. I have it for both reasons, too, but again, mine is more because it is part of being autistic for me than it is my trauma. For me, my proprioception is so poor that most of the time I can't tell where a body movement comes from, or even where a body part is, unless I can actually see it. 

For me its also a coping mechanism, as in I use the deficit to my advantage for other reasons, so getting rid of it or improving it is out of the question for now. 

Edited November 30, 2020 by Hopelessly Broken

[Antecedent]

Thank you that is really helpful, I didn't think of it as an ADHD thing...  are there Autistic people who don't have trauma on this planet? Maybe in some other societies but surely not ours, where most people expect you to conform and mask all the time, not to mention all the sensory nightmares..

I know where parts of me are as soon as I move them etc. but the rest of the time they might as well not be there. I'm a floating head

I'll also feel pain in my chest or stomach or throat when I'm anxious or whatever, I trained myself to notice if i feel anger welling up as well.. maybe I'm "so" emotional because feeling my body is rewarding somehow and i didn't realize it

Totally posted this in the wrong sections sorry.. maybe "I've still got issues"

Edited December 1, 2020 by Antecedent