Can you feel your brain?

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Joined: 25 Oct 2012
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29 Jul 2013, 9:39 pm

I can't offer an explanation why this phenomenon might be discussed here and not elsewhere, as I have recently been questioning friends about this. I have always felt that I could trace the path of my own thoughts, or that I felt as if I could feel the blood moving through the vessels in my brain, but lately it is so discomforting as to keep me awake at night. Most of my acquaintances regard this as borderline insane, but a few (not all "Aspies") have said they have felt such a sensation periodically.

If I were to hazard a guess, you may find more discussion of this in the AS community because people with AS frequently are quite sensitive to stimuli, external or internal, and respond quite dramatically to small sensory phenomena which others might not notice. You might be noticing this sensation because your brain is hyper-focused during your thinking / writing process, almost in a meditative state. But not being a neuroscientist, I can only speculate...

skibum
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29 Jul 2013, 10:25 pm

Pseudonymous wrote:

There are many sensory neurons in the brain. However, all of them receive their data from other parts of the body. In other words, you cannot feel your brain. Therefore, if you experience this, there can be only two explanations:

1. The feeling is based on real data, but coming from some other part of your body. You could be misinterpreting the data or perhaps cross-communicating, as in synesthesia. Basically, perceptual distortion.

2. The feeling is not based on real data. It is an hallucination. The possible reasons for this are too numerous to be listed here.

Could it be sympathetic pain perceived in the brain? I get that a lot in different pats of my body. But I have felt my head tingling before.

DJFester
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30 Jul 2013, 2:50 am

If one supposedly cannot feel anything inside their brain, then why do people get headaches and migraines, and feel "brain zaps" when reducing / stopping anti-depressants such as Effexor? I have experienced these things myself, so I know for a fact that they exist.

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Annaliina
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30 Jul 2013, 4:00 am

I get brain zaps too, but I think it's sensory ocerload. I'll get cloudy, tunnel vision, lose balance, lose coherent speech, and it feels like a seizure of electricity.

I didn't know anyone else experienced that too ö___ö

GregCav
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30 Jul 2013, 7:07 am

PunkyKat wrote:

I get these weird dizzy spells all the time that I can only describe as a "brain spasm". I felt like I was falling fowards the other day but I was sitting perfectaly still.

I get them too.
I also get stabbing pain in the brain some times when I get confused. It actualy hurts.

Annaliina
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30 Jul 2013, 8:19 am

GregCav wrote:

PunkyKat wrote:

I get these weird dizzy spells all the time that I can only describe as a "brain spasm". I felt like I was falling fowards the other day but I was sitting perfectaly still.

I get them too.
I also get stabbing pain in the brain some times when I get confused. It actualy hurts.

i though I was crazy for having headaches when I get confused! My doctors said it was anxiety, but since joining here and seeking a diagnosis, it seems the brain really can get overwhelmed nd confused. What else happens when you get these headaches, if I may ask?

skibum
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30 Jul 2013, 9:36 am

DJFester wrote:

I think they mean that there is a difference in if you feel something affecting the are of the brain or the actual brain muscle itself. Like when I get a concussion I feel that. I feel it because the brain has been injured but I don't know if I feel the actual brain. But this is a very interesting question and I could be wrong, I am just guessing but hopefully someone can explain it accurately.

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30 Jul 2013, 9:37 am

Annaliina wrote:

GregCav wrote:

PunkyKat wrote:

I get these weird dizzy spells all the time that I can only describe as a "brain spasm". I felt like I was falling fowards the other day but I was sitting perfectaly still.

I get them too.
I also get stabbing pain in the brain some times when I get confused. It actualy hurts.

When I get that confused I usually have a meltdown. I usually have a headache for awhile after the meltdown too, sometimes even a small migraine.

GregCav
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30 Jul 2013, 10:01 pm

skibum wrote:

Annaliina wrote:

GregCav wrote:

PunkyKat wrote:

I get these weird dizzy spells all the time that I can only describe as a "brain spasm". I felt like I was falling fowards the other day but I was sitting perfectaly still.

I get them too.
I also get stabbing pain in the brain some times when I get confused. It actualy hurts.

When I get that confused I usually have a meltdown. I usually have a headache for awhile after the meltdown too, sometimes even a small migraine.

You may ask... I can't think of "anything else that happens". I usualy get confused when talking with someone where my words and meaning were misinterpreted by another. They get upset and angry because of what I said, but in my mind I was being politie, accomodating, loving, forgiving, whatever. And they chew me out for being so mean and selfish. This is a typical example of what causes a stabbing pain in the brain.

I can't think and don't know how to answer. But I don't see those as being related to the pain.

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17 Dec 2013, 2:20 am

I think I can feel my brain as well stimulate the different sides of the lobes when I want to do something.I can also trace some thoughts and emotions as well as use the same sensation to stimulate different parts of my body.So far I've learned a few tricks here and there.

JSBACHlover
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17 Dec 2013, 9:16 am

Pseudonymous wrote:

This ^^^ YOU CANNOT FEEL WHAT HAPPENS INSIDE YOUR BRAIN. You can, however, somatically "project" a feeling into your brain. But this is as real and as unreal as a synesthetic act. Also, this is NOT an AS thing. It is also an NT thing. Which leads me to the next question:

Why do we Aspies and Autists think that we are so special that we can feel things others cannot? This is a common human experience, like dreaming. Nothing special.

dreamingofhome
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17 Dec 2013, 9:31 am

I was just thinking about this last night. It was really quiet and I felt like I could feel my brain in my skull, blood pulsing along it, etc. But it is impossible to actually "feel" anything inside or along your brain. What's probably being felt (or heard and interpreted as felt) are probably just the veins along the scalp.

dreamingofhome
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17 Dec 2013, 9:41 am

Pseudonymous wrote:

I think what it is is that we're hearing blood course over our skull and misinterpret it as feeling it. This is a possibility. For example there's this gif online somewhere with a truck hitting the road or something like that. Anyway, when it hits, you see it, and you hear a very clear "boom". There is no sound, and yet no matter how many times you see it, you hear it, too. I think that may be along the lines of what we're experiencing when we "feel" our brains.

dreamingofhome
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17 Dec 2013, 9:56 am

DJFester wrote:

Headaches aren't actually "in" your brain, unless of course there's a brain tumor, but that's a different story. But headaches are typically in the dural sinuses, muscles of head or neck, or, in migraines, blood vessels surrounding the brain which dilate and cause swelling and a feeling of pressure that is produced by the brain but not felt by the actual brain tissues.

dreamingofhome
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17 Dec 2013, 10:02 am

PunkyKat wrote:

I get these weird dizzy spells all the time that I can only describe as a "brain spasm". I felt like I was falling fowards the other day but I was sitting perfectaly still.

That's vertigo. I experienced the same thing a while ago when I had an inner ear infection and didn't know it.

LoveNotHate
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17 Dec 2013, 4:11 pm

Ascidian wrote:

The brain has no touch or pain sensing cells.

I lived with a hormonal disorder where the hormones smashed into my brain and it was painful.

You can feel the points of where the hormones hit the brain. It was a dull pain and diffuse on many points in the head.

There must be some explanation why one can have hormonal pain in the brain.

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