I feel off and cannot say why: what to look at

When something feels off and you cannot say why, the feeling does not need a name before you can do something with it. You can look at what is going on around it, say a rough sentence out loud, or describe it through the body. Below are a few ways for each, and some ways autistic adults describe a feeling before the word arrives.

What can you check when something feels off?

The ordinary things come first. Any of them can happen at the same time as an off feeling, and none of them explains it alone.

• When the last meal or drink was.
• How the day has gone so far.
• How much sound, light and crowd the day has held. The article on sensory overload in adults goes into this.
• How much contact with people there has been, and whether more or less would suit you.
• Whether a task is waiting somewhere in the background.

Hunger has been studied. In one study, adults aged 18 to 60 rated their hunger, anger, irritability and pleasure five times a day for 21 days. When hunger was higher, anger and irritability were higher too, and pleasure was lower ^[1]. In a laboratory study, hunger led to negative emotions and to a more negative judgement of a researcher, but only when people were not aware that they were reading their state as an emotion ^[2]. These studies describe groups. They cannot say what is behind any one person's feeling.

Why can hunger be hard to tell from a feeling?

Body signals and feelings can feel like one thing. Some autistic adults, writing about their own experience, describe faint awareness of hunger, fullness or thirst ^[3].

Some people stop waiting for the signal and eat and drink at set times. Reframing Autism, an Australian organisation, calls regular times for eating, drinking and self-care "external reminders to address internal needs". It also mentions phone alerts as a way to prompt drinking water ^[10]. The article on not noticing hunger, thirst or the bathroom has more on this.

What can you say when you cannot name the feeling?

You can say the rough version. These sentences are there to borrow, for another person or for yourself.

With someone close, you might open with this:

"Something feels off and I don't have a word for it yet."

If you need room to work it out:

"I'm not sure what this is. I might be able to tell you later."

If the body is easier to describe than the feeling:

"My stomach feels tight and my head feels full."

If the day tells more than the feeling does:

"It's been a loud day and I haven't eaten much."

And if you would like company without a conversation:

"Could you sit with me for a bit? I don't need to talk."

Does a precise word matter?

A precise word is one option among several. Researchers have a name for putting feelings into exact words: emotion differentiation. An example is saying "irritated" instead of "upset" ^[4].

A 2018 review argues that putting a feeling into words can lower how intense it is. It also says this can work even when you do not notice it working ^[5]. Whether a rough label such as "off" or "heavy" has the same effect was not looked at in the studies read for this article. It can still be a first word, and a more exact one can follow if it comes.

Can you describe a feeling through the body?

Some autistic adults do. In a 2024 study, 24 autistic adults aged 18 to 35 talked in six online focus groups. The author reported that they described a wide range of intense and complex emotions ^[6]. A university news page about the study says the descriptions often mixed emotion words with physical sensations, especially in the stomach. One example was anger described as the body tensing, followed by headaches ^[7].

Reframing Autism suggests emotion charts and body maps as visual supports. Its example is a chart that "might help an individual identify that a headache is related to stress" ^[10].

A wider set of experiments, with people who were not selected by neurotype, asked volunteers to colour body outlines to show where they felt different emotions. The maps differed from one emotion to another ^[8]. Some people use a blank body outline at home in the same spirit. You can shade the place where the feeling sits and write a word beside it, if you like.

What else can help when something feels off?

These are ideas that guidance pages and people describe.

A body check-in is one. The NHS suggests noticing your thoughts, feelings, body and surroundings ^[11]. You can do it as a quick scan from head to feet, and nothing needs a name.

Some people write a line in a notes app: the time, when they last ate or drank, and where in the body they feel it. Over days, patterns can show up.

Others change one thing and see what changes. A drink, a snack, a quieter room or some company can each be tried alone. If the feeling shifts, that is something you noticed. If it stays, that is something you noticed too.

When can a clinician look at it?

If low mood is continuous, or interest in things that used to matter is lost, a doctor or other clinician can look at it. The NHS page on depression in adults lists continuous low mood and a lack of motivation or interest in things among its symptoms, and advises seeing a GP ^[9]. An off feeling and low mood can feel alike, and a clinician can look at the whole picture with you.

About this article

• The information comes from studies (hunger, putting feelings into words, autistic adults' own accounts), guidance pages from the NHS and Reframing Autism, and Mindum's own ideas: the list of things to check, the example sentences, writing a line in a notes app, and changing one thing at a time. You can change the wording to sound like you.
• The autism studies here are with autistic adults.
• A clinician can look at any change in eating, daily life, body or mood that lasts or worries you.

Sources

1. Swami V, Hochstöger S, Kargl E, Stieger S. Hangry in the field: an experience sampling study on the impact of hunger on anger, irritability, and affect. PLOS ONE. 2022;17(7):e0269629. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0269629
2. MacCormack JK, Lindquist KA. Feeling hangry? When hunger is conceptualized as emotion. Emotion. 2019;19(2):301-319. doi:10.1037/emo0000422 (abstract read)
3. Trevisan DA, Parker T, McPartland JC. First-hand accounts of interoceptive difficulties in autistic adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 2021;51(10):3483-3491. doi:10.1007/s10803-020-04811-x (abstract read)
4. Kashdan TB, Barrett LF, McKnight PE. Unpacking emotion differentiation: transforming unpleasant experience by perceiving distinctions in negativity. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2015;24(1):10-16. doi:10.1177/0963721414550708 (abstract read)
5. Torre JB, Lieberman MD. Putting feelings into words: affect labeling as implicit emotion regulation. Emotion Review. 2018;10(2):116-124. doi:10.1177/1754073917742706 (abstract read)
6. Dallman A. Affective contact in autism: a phenomenological study of the emotional experiences of autistic adults. American Journal of Occupational Therapy. 2024;78(4):7804205070. doi:10.5014/ajot.2024.050502 (abstract read)
7. Rutgers University. Getting autism right (news page about the study in source 6, 15 September 2024). rutgers.edu/news/getting-autism-right
8. Nummenmaa L, Glerean E, Hari R, Hietanen JK. Bodily maps of emotions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2014;111(2):646-651. doi:10.1073/pnas.1321664111
9. NHS. Symptoms: depression in adults (last reviewed 5 July 2023). nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/clinical-depression/symptoms
10. Reframing Autism. Interoception: knowing yourself inside and out. 24 July 2024. reframingautism.org.au/interoception-knowing-yourself-inside-and-out
11. NHS. Five steps to mental wellbeing. nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/guides-tools-and-activities/five-steps-to-mental-wellbeing. Accessed 14 October 2026.

By Mindum. An app to track and regulate emotions, energy, and focus.