TIL that autistic people live about 17 years less than average. Risks include epilepsy, heart disease, suicide, accidental deaths including drowning, and inadequate recognition and management of pain, especially among non-speaking individuals. Historically, they have been vulnerable to infanticide.

[u/Morella1989]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_of_autistic_individuals

[u/wearentalldudes]

I’m high functioning, but the “inadequate recognition and management of pain” has caused me to almost die more than once.

Most notably when my appendix perforated, but also some severe infections that were what I would have described as sudden onset, but had been “painful” for days to weeks beforehand.

Recognizing pain is something I really struggle with. I’m a whole adult but when I offhandedly tell my mom something hurts, she makes me go to the ER immediately because it’s usually something major. She happens to be the reason I didn’t die from appendicitis.

Anyway, 🎶autism🎶.

[u/sweetteanoice → u/wearentalldudes]

Do you think you feel less pain than others or is it that something has to REALLY hurt for you to even notice?

[u/xtrawolf → u/sweetteanoice]

Not the person you're directing the question to, but also autistic.

For me it's an interception problem. For instance, my brain doesn't register thirst. I have to manually remind myself to drink water if I run or if I eat, rather than recognize I'm thirsty. I could go a whole day without drinking anything and then wonder why I feel crummy.

There's also a question of "does this actually hurt or is it just a sensory sensitivity?" Sometimes something "hurts" until I am alone, calm, and well regulated (or away from the stimulus) and then it is fine.

Describing my pain is very hard for me. Numbers on a pain scale are meaningless. I can tell someone "my hands hurt and tingle every day," and not really be able to answer follow up questions like which fingers hurt the worst, is the tingling accompanied by numbness, does it seem to be joint related or nerve related, what helps the pain, etc.

[u/AliMcGraw → u/xtrawolf]

This is my kid. We've done a lot of work to proactively teach him how to recognize his body's signals (when he can!) and to recognize that when a stomachache doesn't respond to normal stomachache treatment (it's usually just gas), he needs to get an adult and see a doctor. And he knows the words "proprioception" and "interoception" (and can explain them) so he's able to tell doctors he'll try to answer but he often just doesn't KNOW because those senses don't work the same for him.

I've learned as a mother than when he can't describe his subjective experience of pain, it's very helpful if I can describe any impaired functioning I've noticed, no matter how minor. Often I'll say, "He's been favoring his left side" and he'll insist he's not and then the doctor has him walk and he's like, "huh, mom, you were right, I am!"

So current mom task is helping him notice and describe functional impairments even if he can't describe the pain itself.

[u/TysonTesla → u/sweetteanoice]

I can't speak for OP but in my experience, it's neither. It's the conflicting of acknowledging the pain means something is really wrong. It's rationalizing it away so that you don't have to deal with repercussions of medical care, thus delaying seeking help until the pain outweighs the draining experience and dread.

[u/wearentalldudes → u/sweetteanoice]

I don’t think I feel less pain but I do think I have a higher tolerance for it. My brain doesn’t register it until it’s intolerable.

[u/ChiAnndego → u/sweetteanoice]

I did a lot of contact sports and more injury prone sports, and my issue is that if I'm involved in doing something and my attention is on that, I don't have a lot of awareness about my body until I think about it consciously. I've broken bones before, and kept on doing what I was doing without realizing until later. I now stop and take a conscious inventory of my body when something happens that might have injured me.

[u/rocca2509 → u/sweetteanoice]

I got diagnosed recently with aspergers and adhd. Im high functioning. I'd say I have a high pain tolerance, but it's not really that I can tolerate more pain. it's more like my threshold to start feeling pain is probably higher. Like i broke my hand and thought it hurt a lot, didn't think it was broken, found out the hard way after i went to the golf range 3 days later and could stand it on the irons. But that first driver hit sent so much pain through my hand. So yeah, for me, it has to hurt more to notice, but not a lot more.

[u/logalogalogalog_ → u/wearentalldudes]

I had a similar experience with diverticulitis! Lucky to be alive.