Is it called something when you freeze up?

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I guess I shouldn't have called it "fear response", but more a fight/flight type situation... where you are stalled between fighting and running (flight)... Maybe you really were wanting to hit and fight back instinctively? at some gutt level? and stopped yourself? just an idea anyway...

I've had something similar happen.. it might have been that she stopped being able to get a reaction from you? you gave up on this person and tuned them out? some people can nag you to the point of this happening where you completely turn off to that particular person? like you will take no more?

Sometimes when I freeze up I go catatonic and people would be talking to me and I wouldn't respond. They could poke me and I would have no response. Sometimes it is a few minutes but it has lasted about an hour before. It even happens when I am walking and then I would suddenly stop and freeze. People are staring at me and talking about me.

I liked that article about autistic shut-down. I thought it was strange that the little girl actually fell asleep under stress. But today I suddenly remembered something similar. Years ago I would go to my friends' band practice (punk/rock). They had it in their living room and it was super super loud. For some reason I could never stay awake through the whole thing. I thought maybe it was the secondhand smoke from the pot they all smoked. I've never smoked pot in my life. But maybe I was shutting down from the loud noise. Hmmm...

Well, the briefest diagnosis I got from a psychiatrist was catatonia. But that was years ago and I never understood the word.3 I'm going to get a better diagnosis soon.

I always thought of it as shutdown rather than meltdown.

Like Felinity mentioned - 'Flight, Fight or Freeze' - Freezing would be a loss of cognitive abilities under acute anxiety or stress. Like 'playing dead' until the danger passes.

I lean more to calling it sensory overload. When it happens to me I am still aware I just loose handle on 'the controls' so to speak. It often happens when I'm in a crowd of people.

I refer to it as just "zoning out".

I think it's a self-preservation tactic...well for me anyways ....keeps me from melting down completely or choking the crap out of someone who probably deserves it at the time.

It happens to me when I'm very stressed, usually sensory or planning-related stuff. It's not a "trapped" feeling for me, though; it's more like I can't figure out how to move, nor really have the initiative to move. It doesn't last long, never longer than five minutes and usually only a few seconds.

Oh, KoR, your link was extremely interesting--I get a weak version of the same effect they describe when I try to do schoolwork without a proper plan in mind. Even if I'm very well rested, I can easily end up tired and falling asleep on top of my work! I never connected it to the tiredness I get when I'm overwhelmed by the usual stressors, but the way I tend to hibernate to get rid of stress, it makes sense that maybe sleep could be a response to stress.

Do NTs get sleepy if they have to do schoolwork and don't know where to start? Surely they must; isn't that part of what "boredom" is?