Shutdowns?

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Ccould someone please describe what a shutdown can entail?

Do they always happen for a obvious reason?

And can they happen with normal anxietys like going for an interview?

from what i have read could a shutdown be compared to a sudden onset of depression.

Generally it feels like a speeding train you can't get off, a backup on a major express way....to much going on under stress causes this for me all the time. Can't filter anything, I go silent, long pauses between words...

You know when I computer freezes? it is kind of like that...and I have to ctrl alt delete and end the process (Remove myself from situation)

When I shutdown I go numb, too.... too much input I get the speeding train feeling but then I'm overwhelmed and I flip like a backup emergency switch. Then, everything is excruciatingly loud and bright so I need to go somewhere dark and not loud. Less ability to talk, loss of some general self care skills. To me it feels literally like it sounds - shut down.

During shutdown I also lose skills and abilities. The shutdowns I can most reliably identify as such involve not moving or speaking followed by sleep. Sometimes, I lose speech. Sometimes I lose the ability to process various kinds of information. I have by no means identified every way in which I can shut down, but I seem to be rather susceptible to it, and have become moreso over the years.

For me when I would have my one minute or two shutdowns to relieve some stress, it would literally feel like I was asleep just feeling nothing for a minute or two. Though I would hate to have one for an entire day, that would be a nightmare for me. Though at the same time it would be probably good for a day off just to let the steam out and to relieve all the stress I have stored up.

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1707940

Really good, comprehensive information.

Shutdown: I can't do anything... my body and mind are pretty much on autopilot. I can't sit, stand, talk, eat, etc. All that I can do is some simple repetitive motion, like pace or rock (formerly while I chain-smoked, but I don't smoke any longer) Shutdowns are really rough, because since I can't do anything, I can't do anything to get myself out of it. If someone else is around, he or she can provide me with a distraction. If I'm alone, all I can do is hope that I can break away long enough to do something to shock my myself out of it, like put ice on my forehead or scream loudly. Even if I can do these things, it's not long before I'm back in shutdown unless the problem that caused it is resolved.

I think that I just had a shutdown just a little while ago. I was getting stressed so to relieve that stress I decided to put my pacifier in, put on my all in one pajamas and then just went under the covers to sleep. That lasted about thirty minutes or so. Just the same way when I was in elementary school, though this time I was in my bed.

I think the experience is somewhat different for everyone so you will find that the descriptions vary somewhat. The severity can also vary a lot depending on what caused it, so it's not a "one-size-fits-all" thing - it might last for a few minutes or a few days.

I don't really get any "speeding train" sensation but I do feel overwhelmed - like I can no longer keep track of what's going on, and my brain responds by grinding to a halt. I liked the computer crashing analogy. In fact, I've used that before with people. With older computers, if you opened too many programs at once they would slow down and then, if the assault continued, they would freeze or stop. Autistic people's minds often do the same thing.

While in "shutdown mode" I find it very difficult to communicate - it takes me a long time to respond and I have to think really hard to get a response out (and it's usually a really lame response like "I don't know" because I can't think about whatever I'm being asked). I feel bewildered and foggy and need to go somewhere quiet and stare into space for a while to recover - my favourite place to go when I'm in that state is under a blanket where it's dark and quiet. If I can't retreat from the situation which caused it I become steadily more upset and unable to respond to things until I just have to escape or I'd probably break down and cry or something. Fortunately I've never been forced to that point, I just remove myself from whatever it is.

The usual cause of it is things like being stuck in conversation with many people at the same time, noisy environments, particularly when I'm also expected to do something like hold a conversation as well as cope with the environment, being expected to do multiple things at once (such as talk to someone, drive a car and find my way to somewhere) or having a lot of tasks to complete in a short amount of time, which overwhelms me. Shutdown tends to be gradual in my case, and the longer I am exposed to these things, the more shut down I become. As an example, I can manage about twenty minutes in a supermarket before I begin to shut down due to overwhelm from all the noise and people, and if I don't get out of there in time then I'll probably end up wandering around in there for hours, since I've completely gone AWOL and am just wandering around staring blankly at things and having trouble doing what I went in there to do.

I think "shutdown" is well defined as the opposite to or perhaps the introverted version of a "meltdown" - in a meltdown the person expresses outward actions like shouting or hitting in response to overwhelm and in a shutdown the person retreats completely inside themselves and becomes outwardly unresponsive. Some autistic people might experience both at different times or in response to different things.

It's like something has just switched my brain off and I am outside of what is going on around me.

Having a shut down is similar to a meltdown but instead of loosing control and expressing energy, i "shut down" and i don't talk to anyone, lay down, pull my hair, cry, and don't think. it usually comes before or after a meltdown