interpreting hunger

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i find that i dont really interpret hunger, i often dont know that i need food until i start feeling cold and faint, it does cause issues because i end up feeling unwell, so i dont eat then because i feel nauseous, i keep having to remind myself that this just means i need to eat. i dont really feel hunger pangs, or if i do i dont interpret them as hunger.

is this an aspie thing or just something that people generally have a problem with?

I don't think it's an Aspie thing, and in fact I get very upset if my meals are delayed and/or I am too hungry. One thing that could cause your lack of sense of hunger, could be if you're on any ADD meds. Many of us with Asperger's and High Functioning Autism, are on low doses of Adderall and/or Prozac for ADD & OCD, which of course are common issues with us. Adderall is a strong appetite suppressant, and a side effect of taking it is often unwanted weight loss and even malnutrition due to "forgetting to eat". If you're not on anything like that, it could just be a quirk, but again, I don't think it's much of anything to do with Asperger's.

Charles

I have this too, though I don't know whether it has anything to do with asperger's. Could maybe have something to do with sensory processing, I guess.

I was very much like this before I started to work out regularly and strenuously, now my metabolism is high enough that I get hungry /often/ and I've become better at feeding myself before I get to the hypoglycemic stages. Now that I'm much fitter and have more muscle, I find I really need to stick to an eating schedule.

my son when younger would freak out when he was hungry, we would have to feed him immediately. There was no warning signs he would just go ballistic shouting for food and then all was calm again. I dreaded when I would forget to put food in the car etc. This went on till he was about 10yrs.

He is a teenager now can control it better but will get upset if hungry and has to wait for food.

I tend to be hypersensitive to hunger at times. The thing I seem to be hyposensitive to is fatigue. I can get so tired I start to experience panic attacks because I am not aware that I am simply tired - this doesn't happen so much as I take medication to help me get to sleep when I want to instead of when my body decides to, and the medication effects are distinctive.

I relate to this.
Age 1 year old I was already severe underweight as I had no connection to being fed.
Food to me is shape and colour but so many things are shape and colour and I would not put them into my mouth, though I had pica as a child but not anymore.
I need people to watch that I am eating.
Smell of food sometimes can make me get a connection to it, but still there has to be someone preparing it as before food is being prepared there is no smell, so my brains do not respond to it.
I do not know if it is autism-related in general, but in my autism it is.
I was thinking about making a youtube video about how I experience an open fridge and processing the shapes and colours inside it as just shapes and colours, but not as what people refer to "food".

If you do that I would like to see the video. Please post here if you do.

I was like this but I saw an eating disorder specialist and she taught me to listen to my body and and about when and what I should be eating. She said it was a habit I'd got into, I'd taught myself to ignore hunger and I didn't recognise it anymore.

I never had a big appetite but the last couple of years I don't feel full anymore after I have eaten. I can just keep eating and eating without ever experiencing the feeling that I actually have something in my stomach. I used to be scarily skinny but I have gained more than 30 pounds in one or two years or so. Something I actually like because I always hated the fact that I was so thin.

This happens to me, too.

I would post it here, but I keep having ideas in my head and they stay in my head and do not find their way into me doing the action.
But writing about it makes the idea come closer again, as I have it in my mind for month already.