Interoception: The Brain-Body Issue I See in My Practice Every Day

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Have you ever noticed a child who never seems to feel hungry, refuses to drink water, or struggles with bathroom accidents? Or maybe you’re an adult who pushes through the day ignoring every signal your body sends you? What’s happening beneath the surface is often more than a habit — it’s a brain-body communication issue, and it comes down to something called interoception.

Interoception is your brain’s ability to receive and respond to the signals your body sends — things like thirst, hunger, and the need to use the bathroom. Think of it like a pair of legal scales: too little response and you miss what your body needs; too much and you’re overwhelmed by it. Balance is everything.

In my practice, I see this regularly. Kids who aren’t eating enough, aren’t drinking water, or are struggling with elimination. Some are even on appetite-stimulating medications. And while those interventions address the symptom, they don’t address the root — which lives in the brain.

Specifically, interoception is rooted in the limbic system, and an area called the anterior cingulate gyrus — a structure that sits right between both hemispheres of the brain. That means we’re talking about timing, brain-side communication, and developmental wiring. In children, this connects directly to their windows of development. In adults, it reflects how that part of the brain was wired over a lifetime.

This is exactly why I’m so passionate about connecting the dots between brain and body — not just looking at what’s happening from the neck down.

I’m doing a full deep-dive episode on interoception in the next episode. You won’t want to miss it.