Many people with a history of trauma or dissociation have reduced awareness of body signals like hunger, fatigue, or thirst. Dissociation can disconnect you from your body, so you may not notice signals until they become intense or disruptive. If your needs were ignored or if you were harmed for voicing them, you may have learned to tune out signals from your body.
In some systems, different parts may hold different awareness of the body. Some may not be aware of bodily sensations, while others may notice needs. Depending on who is fronting or close to the front, signals may feel inconsistent or unclear. Hunger, fatigue, stress, and emotion can also overlap, which can make it harder to tell what your body is needing.
This page is part of the What Is Dissociation? section of the CommuniDID site, which explains how dissociation works and why it develops.
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