Do you get physically ill with meltdown/shutdown?

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Niamh
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26 Jun 2011, 5:15 pm

I've been in shutdown pretty much all day after spending most of the week feeling overloaded. When I'm overwhelmed it tends to affect my stomach and my muscles and my emotions too. I get nauseous and I get tense enough to be sore after, and my emotions go all over the place. So basically shutdown makes me ill. Does this happen to you?

I used to work as a waitress in the summer holidays but after the first month I'd keep getting sick at work and my boss kept having to drive me home once to twice a week, and only kept me in the job because he's an old friend of my parents'. The long-term effects on my health had been getting worse after every summer and so I decided his year not to work as a waitress any more. I was spending too much of the money I'd saved on healthcare for months afterwards!!

It's worrying how sick I feel from my autism-related problems... Like, I have trouble with transitioning, even between small things, e.g. moving from one household chore to another, to the extent that as soon as I finish one little task and move on to another I get a nasty swooping feeling in my stomach, like a mixture of nausea and missing a step on the stairs. Similar stuff happens if I try to multitask, which is how I ended up so sick from waitressing. Is it normal to feel so unwell from every little activity that's not autism-friendly?



pree10shun
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26 Jun 2011, 5:28 pm

Anxiety

I get anxiety attacks that turn into fever sometimes...



purchase
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26 Jun 2011, 5:30 pm

I start feeling dizzy and slightly nauseous if I have to stand talking or even just listening to a person talk for a long time or for a short time but intensely. Their presence and focus on me overwhelms me. I've even blacked out and almost fainted a few times in these situations.

Everyone has their particular limits. I would say your reactions sound normal given your autism but if they bother you because they happen often I guess I would ask a doctor or someone else knowledgeable about ways to avoid having these things overwhelm you.



Jory
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26 Jun 2011, 5:31 pm

I feel nauseated and dizzy on a daily basis thanks to my AS.



Niamh
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26 Jun 2011, 5:54 pm

What I don't get is why the psychologist put me down as "high functioning"... I mean, I'm diagnosed Asperger's, but Asperger's isn't always "high-functioning"... I mean, what's so high-functioning about getting nausea from washing the dishes? :roll: then again "high-" or "low-functioning" are not technical terms really, just as shutdown and meltdown aren't. Ya I sent an email to my OT a few days ago explaining how unwell I've felt all week for the stupidest reasons and I have a psychiatrist appointment on Tuesday that she's decided to accompany me to, so I guess it's worth talking about there... except I'm worried I'll have some kinds of pills thrown at me and I'm highly suspicious of psych meds, and I also can't afford to buy any. Really confused as to what to do, I have been unsuccessfully searching for work but as I am I wouldn't be able to keep it anyways :-s confused and worried!! I like having solutions to problems, and I guess being late diagnosed makes me over-eager to not be held back by my condition but I'm probably being an idiot in denial... i think... argh! 8O



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26 Jun 2011, 6:25 pm

I remember the last time I had a panic attack: felt very dizzy, couldn't move and very nauseated. I hate panic attacks :(



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26 Jun 2011, 7:51 pm

I feel very out of sorts for a day or too after a meltdown.Just a wrung out feeling.


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26 Jun 2011, 8:06 pm

Oh yeah, I'm high functioning too despite my seizures, dissociation and the paralysis I get after my seizures. Also, there's some paranoia but since my bedroom is lit up like a concert stage at night that doesn't happen as much.

If I hold in my meltdowns I will start having difficultly breathing, have muscle spasms and eventually just shut down altogether. Shut downs also affect my mental functioing and it will takes hours to days for them to return to normal.


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26 Jun 2011, 10:23 pm

I have litteraly fainted from them on ocassion.


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Verdandi
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26 Jun 2011, 11:18 pm

Meltdowns and shutdowns can both give me severe headaches. And after they pass I end up cognitively "off" in some way that is difficult to describe.



MakaylaTheAspie
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26 Jun 2011, 11:56 pm

I don't remember what happens when I have meltdowns, but I do feel like I have the flu when my shutdowns are over.


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Callista
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26 Jun 2011, 11:57 pm

Other than the inevitable tension headache and loss of appetite, no, not really.


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22 Oct 2017, 9:53 am

Found this topic google searching "is it normal to get sick after meltdown?"
I'm really finding this and it's surprising. With shutdown, what I'm used to, I just generally ease out of it after a while. I might feel a bit numb for a bit but coming around after shutdown is more like a gradual waking up.
With what happened yesterday, which was apparently a meltdown and a very severe reaction for me, I've felt really unwell all today, even after sleeping for more than 8 hours last night afterwards.
I feel half concussed, half hungover, my head is pounding, and I literally feel drugged. Just exhausted even though I slept, agitated but tired at the same time, nonverbal, stomach is playing up and I just feel totally drained to the point of confusion.
I have appointments tomorrow and I don't think I can even make that if I'm still feeling this sick in aftermath. :(


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22 Oct 2017, 10:56 am

I've had multiple panic attacks throughout my life due to sensory overload and anxiety and it's always followed by nausea and profuse sweating and blacking out. One time in 2010 when I woke up on a public transit bus the overload and anxiety was so great I went into a panic attack and woke up and proceeded to have a heart attack.

The last panic attack I had was only a few months ago during a trip to the doctor's office where I had some stitches removed. It didn't go very well because she didn't anesthetize the wound and the pain was insane.

Terrifying.


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22 Oct 2017, 10:59 am

Niamh wrote:
I get nauseous and I get tense enough to be sore after, and my emotions go all over the place. So basically shutdown makes me ill. Does this happen to you?


Sometimes. But I don't associate it with meltdowns (I rarely have full blown meltdowns), but more with not honoring my limits.

Niamh wrote:
I used to work as a waitress in the summer holidays


Waitressing one summer was by far the most stressful job I have ever held. Not only are you dealing with the public, but in my experience you co-workers are big socializers and find it really odd that you aren't.


Niamh wrote:
I get a nasty swooping feeling in my stomach, like a mixture of nausea and missing a step on the stairs.


I get this anytime I try to push myself past my tolerance levels. I'm trying to resume going to church, and I find it easier to go on weeknights than to the big Sunday service, but every time I decide I'm going, the whole day before I'll have that feeling.

And the next day (or more) it'll be one of those two, depending on how things went I suppose:

Radiofixr wrote:
I feel very out of sorts for a day or too after a meltdown.Just a wrung out feeling.


C2V wrote:
I feel half concussed, half hungover, my head is pounding, and I literally feel drugged. Just exhausted even though I slept, agitated but tired at the same time, nonverbal, stomach is playing up and I just feel totally drained to the point of confusion.


I'm not sure about all the symptoms, but certainly the nausea and dizziness and weariness and confusion are associated with anxiety or some other internal stress. As are meltdowns and shutdowns, I should think, although personally I can't always pin down the actual trigger for either. I just know I'm crazy stressed and the world is too much for me and I just can't. And sometimes it isn't anything specific, I've just over run my limits in general I think. Although when that happens I am hyper sensitive to triggers related to my abuse as well.



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22 Oct 2017, 11:07 am

I get sick after a severe one. Once I needed to be hospitalized because it caused me a fever that wouldn't go.