hitting the wall/ just stopping/ feeble mindedness??

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i know this is part of my AS, as i have trouble explaining eloquently what i mean, but i am interested to hear from other people about how they cope with this- if in fact, others have it at all. i dont recall having read anything on this...

i get overloaded extremly easily; despite being inteligent (able to see there is nothing all THAT stressful happening) and on sickness bens (so not in a high pressure job).
this is best described as just hitting the wall- i just have to ..stop. just like that.

panic builds up, and i have to stop (ie go home, or lie down) or i just peter out... my brain literally slows down- like your laptop running down its battery til it closes- when you power it up, the stuff is all still open and working- it was just out of power.

i asked the psychologist who dx'd me, and he said it was 'learnt behaviour'- which is just BS.
anything can trigger it- a single noise when im out, or a culmnative walk outwide, looking at the washing up- literally anything. though im inteligent, and stubborn as a mule, i nevertheless am aware that, for want of a better phrase- i seem effectivly feeble minded.. i spend a lot of my life in shutdows ike this... i hit the wall and.. mentally switch off...
anyone else have anything similar??
how do you cope?

One thing that's helped me is diet. I eat nutrient rich foods now that I didn't pay attention to before. I eat foods that are high in potassium and magnesium. I make sure I get enough calcium. This has helped my mind be less foggy and my body less fatigued. I no longer eat fried stuff, either. It took a while to get used to the changes since taste buds need a while to adjust to new flavors without craving old ones. Now, I am to the point I can eat the new foods fairly consistently without wanting the old ones and craving them all the time and I am much better about not feeling tired and lost in a fog.

Yes, I think this is part of autism.

The key is spacing--trying to compartmentalize and separate activities so they don't run into each other.

Easier said than done, as this requires good executive function, a common Aspie issue.

You might start off with a calendar and perhaps a daytimer, to see if you can pencil in good times to do repetitive stuff. We do tend to be great at doing the same stuff over and over, once we figure out how.

thanks... but its not that im havng trouble doing major stuff- i really am beset by tiny things.

im constantly -wham! walking right into this wall... i do tend to do things at set times, but it makes littel difference, as im so stupidly sensative to the outside world.
save living in a cave, i dont see how i could cope... im just constantly feeling like a kettle w steam coming out, the lidd rattling... then- im just totally off... shut down entirely..

is there a name for this? proper titles kind of help, otherwise i just sound like im making stuff up when i talk to them.

Everyone is different, but little things often become problems because you are overloaded, or try to do just a little too much. For instance, I knew a guy who threw out his back because he was almost done after hours of work, but got careless with moving something that was relatively light.

Intellectually, it seems more efficient to just do a little more. But, if you have issues with shutdowns, it is much better to be conservative, and do only what you need to do.

Sounds like Aspie sensory overload. The best remedy is time spent alone in a controlled environment.

During the summer I often spend an hour or two each day in the garden. It is too cold now, so now I'm building model airplanes in the evenings.

I'm very much like that. Not all autistic people hit a wall like that, but I hit them all the time.

It's called shutdown. Here's a website about it:

http://www.shutdownsandstressinautism.c ... utism.html

It basically means that your brain has got too much information in it and it can't function past that point. Since it's not about social skills, lots of professionals who have a "social skills first" model of autism drilled into them have got absolutely no clue what it is about. Such professionals will often tell you all kinds of crap about it. But the reality is it's just you've gotten too much information to process and you can process no more and your cognition grinds to a halt.

How much information is too much depends on the person.

What kind of information depends on the situation. The information can be sensory, but can also be cognitive or emotional.

This is very much a part of autism for a lot of people, and don't let anyone tell you it's because of some kind of inner emotional conflict, that's just BS because they don't understand it. You can tie yourself up in knots if you believe that kind of thing, so I'd strongly suggest not to no matter who tells you it. This is a real phenomenon experienced by autistic people everywhere.

Every time I come face to face with the outside world I feel like a six year old child running around in my pajamas and not wanting to go to bed. That type of cheeky disobedience. Now put that in a shopping centre in the body of a 24 year old who looks more like 12-14 years. Add some hand flapping, vacant stares at clouds and squealing with delight at toys. Not to mention I scream at every sound and jump with fright every time someone passes because I don't know how close/far away they actually are.

That is me.

That is much how I used to look when out in public. Still do to an extent although odd movements have died down a bit due to movement disorder and been replaced by an odd lack of movement when they aren't there.

What I feel like when outside... hard to describe. Lots of swirling colors and sounds and stuff. Attracted magnetically to certain looks and sensations like glittery things etc. (sometimes dangerous if those are in the middle of a road). If thinking is there it is focused on moving my powerchair without tipping over. Sometimes even perception leaves me in the dark, only a chaotic dark not a silent one. Perceptions get narrower and narrower, fade to white in all senses.

Once I am home and alone, all the sensations from when they were faded to white come back in a deluge. I can't find my current location, just a torrent of sensation that washes over me. When I finally "come back" from that, I usually find that I've been drooling. I have no clue how that works neurologically, I just know it happens to me after the perceptual type of shutdown.

There are different kinds and degrees of shutdown. There is sort of what I'd call full shutdown. But there are also shutdowns of certain skills -- thought, movement, speech, perception, emotion, etc. Sometimes people seem to have long-term shutdowns of specific abilities. Like they'll never feel their emotions, or never speak usefully. And there are also ways of functioning where people are always shifting between different kinds of shutdown, or only sometimes experience shutdown.

I have a few kinds of permanent shutdown, and otherwise constantly shift between different kinds of partial shutdown and frequently experience full shutdown. Sometimes my whole life feels like it's somewhere in between overload and shutdown all the time. It's easily one of the more prominent experiences of being autistic for me, right along with existing 'beneath' typical language/movement/thought most of the time.

Not sure if it relates, but today I was at the mall Chistmas shopping, and whenever someone would cross in front of me within about 4 feet, my brain would lock up for a few seconds until I could process what had happened. Sort of like:

my brain: "WTH is that? ...WTF is happening?! Stop everything NOW!"
me : (stop walking and stand there for a few seconds, while staring at the floor)
my brain: "oh ok, that was some guy passing in front of you, current path ahead is clear"
me : (start walking again)

Unfortunately, I've noticed that I get 'discombobulated' a lot more easily that when I was younger. Even seem to get overloaded sometimes just from turning my head too fast.

I'm generally able to sort the world out, though. It's just slow, like sucking a thick milkshake through a small straw.

thanks everyone- this is really interesting.

i thought initially it was partially due to sensory overload, but on reflection i think this plays a minimal role- it really is, as i said, some kind of brain overload- feeble mindedness...

eg- i dont work, and i spend most of my time inside, with black out curtains, and the radio on.
therefore, sensory stimuli are minimised, at least the oscilating, unexpected kind. i notice this hit-the-wall-issue most with housework (im not mad about doing it, plus im chonically messy, but still- its not THAT hard...)

i know i do the washing up for 20 minutes- 30 max. after about 15 minutes i start feeling weird, then... 20.. i have to have a 'break' (generally i dont return).

this is the most obvious example of what i mean. there is very little to cause stress- but my brain just says' ive had enough- like afull stomach or suddenly tired legs. im making no stressful decisions, its familiar, predictable, low risk, physical work- but still- wham! wall.... its like ive been doing triage in a frontline war hospital- ITS MAD!!

yet i can get absorbed in something, and work feverishy for days- 15 hours a day on it, so my brain is obviously having SOME kind of issue with some kind of cognative processing.

i can find no pattern, and the wshing up thing happens each time..

i know As is a spectrum, blah blah blah- but i end up feeling--- SO much more locked up by it than most other people. lots of people i know, friends and family have it- but they all work and cope ok. i have to spend a lot of time literally 'lying down' liek this, because i cant think about even menial things any more. yet i dont DO anything....