Is this a shutdown?

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Sometimes I get frozen. I sit still and stare into empty space. This usually happens if I have to do something, but it's too overwhelming. It also happens when I'm practicing accordion and processing what I'm learning. It isn't an unpleasant feeling. It's kind of relaxing actually. It's only unpleasant if people force me to do stuff or communicate with them.

Daydreaming, or if it's a problem, most likely dissociation. That's what it sounds like to me.

its not what describes a shutdown [thats just a informal label anyway] it sounds like a typical autistic zoning out moment.
just google 'zoning out' or 'zoned out'.

I was told by my psychologist and psychiatrist that yes, it is a shutdown. I have these often. I just shut down and my vision sort of goes while I go inside of myself. I find them relaxing too and they happen because of stress for me.

Yeah, it sounds to me like daydreaming or just kinda "zoning out." I do it all the time and could identify the description you gave.

I have that experience and also find them a good thing. I call them zoning out.

For me, a shutdown is more like a meltdown turned inward. It's like in order to avoid a meltdown I instead just shutdown all thinking, emotions, and activity. It is not at all a pleasant experience, and usually requires recovery time much like a meltdown does.

I guess I don't get shutdowns or meltdowns anymore. When I'm zoning out it seems like my conscious mind quiets down and my subconscious mind takes over. I can get quite angry when people disturb me. It is quite unpleasant forcing myself not to zone out especially when I really need to zone out.

Happens to me all the time, usually when I have sensory overload (which is almost every 20 minutes or less if I'm doing something). It sucks because this is one of the main reasons I can't drive.

For those saying this is simply "daydreaming", no... just flat out, no... not even close to the same thing, anyone who would think so obviously has never had a shutdown, seriously. This is a completely involuntary thing, it can't be escaped until it has run it's course. In other words, you can't simply "snap out of it" when you want to. In fact, some of us (myself included) don't even have memory for those times, it's just some mystery time lapse where the only thing we remember is a few seconds before and after the event, the stuff in between is completely blank, no memories, no information, just nothing.

When I freeze and can't move, that's not zoning out or daydreaming. Those are very different experiences for me from just freezing and being unable to move. The latter is one of the ways I experience shutdown.

And what Jaden said about not being able to just snap out of it is true for me. I do find I can try to hold them off a bit, but it costs me other (usually temporary) skill losses, like speech or sensory processing or reading, for example. I can still have that happen even if I don't try to hold it off, but that's usually due to experiencing multiple shutdowns in a short period of time.

I have the thing described by Jaden. The experience is of just sort of suddenly coming back, without realizing you have been gone.

You know that you are frozen, staring in some random direction, but you have not been seeing, or really connecting with any senses and suddenly you are reconnected with everything. You don't know what happened, only that there was a sudden discontinuity in your experience, like someone hit your main circuit breaker.

And you wonder if people have noticed. (At least, I do when this happens at the office.) this has never happened while I was driving. That is a scary thought.

I dislike this because it feels very vulnerable just to have been cut off, however briefly, from sensory input. And what if it wasn't so brief?

its just a space out, normal in AS, ADHD, and NTs

I technically can snap out of it. It's just very irritating to do so. Especially if it's because of other people.

So a few hours ago I decided to lay down because I felt a bit exhausted. Then I could not move for probably an hour or so. I didn't fall asleep, I had very little "thought continuity" and very little memory of anything that may have happened during that time. Eventually, this passed, and I fell asleep for another hour. When I woke up, I found I couldn't speak. This happened three hours ago and I still cannot speak. I can, however, sing.

This is the kind of shutdown that is easiest for me to identify, and happens frequently.

I do this when I have a lot on my mind. It's not really shutting down as much as it is being distracted heavily.

Also, a description of shutdowns:

http://everything2.com/user/Zifendorf/writeups/shutdown

And another one:

http://www.fearlessswimming.com/files/S ... Autism.pdf

Another version of the above link:

http://www.de-poort.be/cgi-bin/Document.pl?id=374

One of the two is more complex than the other but right now I am not sure which is which.