Shutdowns?:

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What are autistic shutdowns: what do they look like/how do they feel/what happens? I am just trying to figure out if I have/had them. I know I have had countless meltdowns, but not sure about the shutdowns.

Whenever I have one, I'm not really aware of how I look, but based on how I feel I probably look spaced out. I had one at OT the other day (room was full of people and they were loud), and I just feel really tired afterwards. I want to just lie down. It's hard to think straight; the OT (who recognized that I had a shutdown) and her boss (who didn't) were asking me questions while I was in the middle of it (mainly boss b/c she didn't understand), and I found it hard to formulate responses and it was impossible to make eye contact or look in the direction of the person asking the questions. I wouldn't talk if it weren't an important person asking; I tried as hard as I could. It wasn't a nice experience; makes me tired just thinking about it.
Basically, my body/brain/whatever lose the capacity to cope with things--whether it be work, or sensory problems--and I can no longer cope and it is hard to think or communicate and I feel tired and sluggish.
I don't have them all that often; I had them every day at school when I was 9-10 years of age. I hadn't had one in several months before the one on Tuesday in OT.

Thanks for the response! Based on that, I probably have had them many times before and just didn't realize that that was what it is called.

My 6 year old has them. We will be doing reading or something taxing and he will abruptly start playing with his car and be unresponsive to anything I do to bring him back. I tend to blame myself for perhaps continuing too long and missing his queues for needing a break. I can often prevent them if I recognize his signs beforehand.

For my son, it doesn't last very long. Maybe 5-10 minutes.

I get them too, but they are manageable now. I've learned what my body needs to do to overcome them.

Here's an article with a detailed description of shutdowns:

http://everything2.com/title/shutdown?a ... #Zifendorf

And a bit more about shutdowns:

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

I have shutdowns several times a week, sometimes more than one in a single day, usually caused by sensory overload - and that usually noise. This has been going on for a long time, and it seems like the more shutdowns I have the easier it is to trigger a shutdown.

Even so, it seems I've always shut down easily.

Wow. This is really fascinating. Based on that article, it seems as if I spend quite a bit of time in some state of a shutdown. Usually when I'm tired (for various reasons other than and including lack of sleep) I have some sort of "meaning blindness." I don't know how many times I'll be talking to someone, and I'll hear what they say, but I won't understand it until 5 or 10 seconds later. This is true even if it's something simple, like "I'm going to the store, I'll be back in an hour." It's true for visual things too. I have frequently not noticed (and thus reacted to) things that I should have, even though I was staring right at what it was that was happening.

Although I really wouldn't consider this a "shutdown." The word shutdown implies that the mind stops functioning altogether. This is definitely not true. Usually when this sort of stuff happens, it's because I'm in a state of hyperfocus, thinking about something else. Although when this happens, usually what I'm thinking about is something I'm stressed out about, or I'm intentionally trying to block out sensory inputs due to some sort of overload. Although, I suppose that is what is considered a shutdown. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm just thinking in circles right now, it's almost 4:30AM, I'm probably in some sort of half-shutdown right now.

But, while on the same subject, I don't believe I've ever had a full shutdown. I know for a fact that I've never had a motor shutdown, and while sometimes my speech and language can be somewhat impaired, I don't think I've ever totally lost that ability. Usually what happens is that I lose my ability to regulate my tone of voice, so that when I talk not only am I blunt and rude, but I can no longer cover up an irritable tone. A good example of this is when I tell my mom, "I'm tired of listening to you; shut up now." Although this might be considered more meltdown-like behavior. Maybe there are more similarities than I originally thought.

I seem to get shutdown a lot. I have been having them all my life and I am 40 now. When I have them my brain just stops working and I can't talk, look at people, be around anyone and feel a compelling need to go to bed. I think they happen when I have been working too hard, or have tried to socialise in noisy environments. They usually turn into depression for a few days too.

It was good reading the article and I liked that it mentioned that professionals always get it wrong and decide the patient is being problematic. I hope some doctors read this and start taking shutdowns seriously because I think they cause me many problems. I have lost jobs because of them.

Happens to me too. Seems like this has been going on for the last 3 years. I usually don't know what people are saying to me and I usually just read over text and have no ideas what is being said. Timing of shut down has happened to me also. I have had to relearn everything that I learned in the 18 years that I lived over the past 3 years. I use to be into cars, knew a lot about them but I forgot all about them. I was also able to listened to lyrics and put meanings behind them. and other stuff.

Thank you for the first article verdandi

Perhaps next time I experiance a shutdown i will come here and write about what I'm feeling exactly to give a first hand account for NT's to see.

I've never had one longer than an hour, but I have had several before.

Thank you for the articles Verdandi! That certainly clarifies a lot!

So, I think I have had many partial shutdowns. I am not sure about full ones.

I am wondering--are these types of shutdowns unique to autism?

Also, do people who experience full shutdowns usually begin in childhood, or can it happen for the first time in adulthood as well? I have been experiencing a lot more partial shutdowns over the past few weeks than I have before.