Does anyone experience sensory overload like this?

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I actually don't remember having a meltdown due to sensory overload, only due to other things. Instead, I experience sensory overload like this:

First, I'll be stimming and fidgeting non-stop. If I don't have to be seated in a desk, then I'll run around, jump, spin in circles, etc. I have Tourettes too, and I'll also start ticcing more than usual.

Then, I'll go completely still and stare intensely at something (or nothing). I often want to move, but I can't. Even if I do manage force myself to move, my movement is slow and sluggish. However, someone or something can startle me out of this trance, but it's not too long before I'm gone again.

I guess that at first I do anything to produce output to counteract the input. Then I get tired and just shut down.

When you can't move, that is Autistic Catatonia. I just read about that. You are not alone this.

Yeah, shutdowns are a pretty common response to sensory overload. How tired and/or irritated I am depends on whether I go into shutdown or meltdown when overloaded. Your experience sounds a lot like mine; I zero my focus in on one tiny aspect of the environment and everything else seems to disappear, and moving becomes very difficult, a lot more effort than it's worth.

That sounds a lot like my reaction to Sensory Overload, too, except the running/jumping/spinning and Tourette syndrome. I don't have Tourette's. Sometimes I say random weird things or make odd noises, but it's not compulsive. I can choose not to speak or make strange sounds, and from my understanding of Tourette syndrome, blurting out words or phrases isn't optional. I'm more likely to rock than to run or jump or spin, or fidget with something in my hands.

I can get catatonic if I have no clear exit route. Luckily I've stopped going catatonic during fire alarms because I memorize the location of exits so that muscle memory can lead me to safety/away from the noise. But if I'm in the middle of a crowd or otherwise lost, my legs will give out and I'll just sit down and cry.

I'm not sure if I've ever had a meltdown, but I often have suffered shutdowns; sensory overload usually causes a kind of progressive set of symptoms for me, depending on how long I am exposed to the stimulus; ranging from worsening fatigue to confusion, dizziness, and slow motor response, despite a sense of lightness and increasing detachment from my present surroundings, probably an internal coping mechanism to reduce incoming stimuli.

Usually I'm cognizant enough to move so long as I have someone to follow, but higher functions are difficult, can't say I have gone fully catatonic before, but I can't remember.

The second part where you can't move is what I get like if I shutdown and I stare also. Sometimes I can't talk even though I hear and see everything around me.

It seems like autistic catatonia is a medical name for a shutdown.

Apparently, seemingly pointless hyperactivity can be a symptom of catatonia too.

I didn't know that Autistic Catatonia is a thing. But, yes, I have had more shutdowns than meltdowns in my life.

I don't really move around a lot, but I usually start to become more quiet and clumsy and I also have more trouble processing things.

The Access Forbidden glitch is happening again. Don't feel like resubmitting my original post over and over.