Hunger and thirst survey

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Hi,

My husband has been diagnosed with Asperger's, and one of the difficulties he says he has is with never knowing when he's hungry or thirsty. I'm also a student at University of Southern Queensland, and we have put together a survey on this.

If you are over 18 and have been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, autistic disorder or PDD-NOS, University of Southern Queensland would like to invite you to take part in a research project, which is an online self-report questionnaire. It should only take you about 10-15 minutes to complete.

The purpose of the research is to better understand how adults with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) perceive and interpret internal bodily sensations - feelings that include hunger, thirst and temperature. Your participation in this research will valuably contribute towards a better understanding of this area, and may help provide better outcomes for people with ASDs. Also undertaking this survey may benefit you in gaining a deeper understanding about body awareness, and how this is one of the 'other' senses in our bodies.


How?

Click on the following link.
https://psych.sci.usq.edu.au/ols/?p=IBA2013



Thanks everyone. If you have any questions about the survey, just let me know. John started all this, and we're really interested in finding out how it is for everyone else.

Kind regards
Lisa Fiene, Psychology Department, University of Southern Queensland
M 0409 905 264 E [email protected]

Thanks everyone.
Lisa

Last edited by LisaFiene on 25 May 2013, 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

When I am concentrating on something, particularly one of my special interests--but anything that I can really focus on, I can work for many hours without eating or drinking and I am surprised when I come out of my hyperfocus to discover that my lips are chapped and my tongue is dry, or I really have to pee, or I really need to eat and have gone hypoglycemic.

Do you want to do a formal survey? If so, you should ask Alex for permission.

If you don't need that, you could just put up some polls.

Thanks Adam. That's really interesting that you sometimes get so focussed you forget to eat or drink. Happens with John as well, and then he gets quite dizzy or irritable and wonders why. Anyways, I guess this survey is more of a formal thing as it's a link to a University research project. Can you tell me who Alex is and how I contact him? Thanks Adam.

I can forget about eating or drinking for a few hours if I'm in hyperfocus or just very busy with something but the longest I've ever been like that is 12-14 hours so it's never been a real problem. I don't live on my own though, so IDK how long I could go if there were no outside influences.
I certainly always know otherwise if I'm thirsty or hungry.

Alex Plank is a cinematographer, the creator of Wrong Planet, and a great person (if his videos and speeches are anything to go by!) -- I hope I get to meet him some day!

You can click on the "Contact Alex" button up at the top of this page, hidden up there in the grey menus under his picture...

Ha ha - I see them now. (How could I have missed??) Anyways, thanks for pointing them out.

If I am busy, or otherwise pre-occupied, I will go a whole day with very little to eat or drink, but very seldom do I go the entire day with nothing to eat. This doesn't seem to be a problem, as I rarely feel any adverse physical effects.

took the survey. i'm about average in the respect of paying attention to my body's often subtle signals.

Thanks Auntblabby. John is hypersensitive to sights and sounds etc (listens to the TV on silent a lot, and gets stressed with the banging of pans etc.), yet he's hyposensitive to his internal body cues. Just trying to understand it all really

us aspies are as different as the cars on a used car lot. clumsy analogy but you get the idea. I tend to not notice my body cues if I am preoccupied with something more pressing, I suppose that is not too uncommon a response. the things which push my stress buttons would be-

*rap music at any volume
*chain saws and other items with noisy 2-stroke engines
*unmuffled cars
*shrieking anything [machines, people, etc.]

lots more.

I'm always thirsty and never turn down a snack I like. I'm a big time foodie and spend lots of energy preparing food. Thank goodness my DNA makes it hard for me to gain weight.

lucky you, I am envious.

How do I take the survey?

I personally believe Autism is mainly about lacking a common Theory of Mind (the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different from one's own).

When you don't have a proper functioning Theory of Mind, you are not properly aware of other people's minds, but also not of your own mind. Instead of being aware of minds, you are really aware of "everything". The problem is lacking the filter that most people have: this filter makes you focus on people's minds (also your own), and filter out all other irrelevant things. Things are only relevant if they are relevant to the minds of people.

So that's why you can at the same time be hypersensitive to sights and sounds, but hyposensitive to internal body cues. There is no filter, so everything gets through, and the most noisy/overwhelming things come first instead of what is important - the mind shouting you are hungry/thirsty.

me 2

I often forget to eat, etc... due to being lost in thought.

I forget to eat, then realize how hungry I am and gulp down everything in sight.