Your weird reactions to severe stress?

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Now I want to know if anybody here does something similar weird;
when I start to have a meltdown, I usually just can't help but start to hum, make some other ongoing sound and clasp my hands over my ears, close my eyes. Really odd now that I think about it.

Don't ask why I do that... reducing sensory input perhaps. Must look silly.

Does anybody else does something really weird when they're in a stressful situation that's putting them on the edge?

Or when they have a meltdown or shutdown?

Make noises? Start with a strange stim? Start to tic? Anything?

I used to vanish to have a tantrum that ended with a satisfying amount of blood. Blood soothes and I won't deny it

Sit by myself, escape to a 'restroom'. Sometimes my brain physically can't take stimuli so I have a kind of narcolepsy. My brain gets tired easily. I HATE THIS REALITY about myself!! !! !

I have the exact same response. Usually I repeat "Hmm Hmm Hmm" in a monotone sound. Just humming. And I close my eyes, hands over my ears, and I rock back and forth rhythmically. Honestly, most people see this as classic autism style behavior to over stimulation. Sometimes I repeat a word over and over really low, I can remember I was 15 when I found out my grandmother had cancer, I rocked back and forth chanting "no" for a long time. And when I finally stopped, I started writing it on paper. I filled an entire notebook with the word "no." There was something soothing about the repetitiveness. And there still is to this day. Sometimes I still scribble and write words over and over on paper.

I have noticed though that if the high stress situation is something that I NEED to do something about, the reaction is different. Like, yesterday the bathroom door got locked by one of my kids. My 1 year old son was in there alone and the door was locked. Normally I'd take the coat hanger and pop the lock, no big deal. But for some reason it wasn't hanging where it was supposed to be. Suddenly I started to panic. My baby is in there, with a toilet full of water he could drown in. And I just couldn't focus my brain to think "Now whats next?" I did end up finding the coat hanger, but what I did was different. I still made the humming noises, but they were not quiet. They were louder. And while pacing and searching and trying to locate in my brain where the coat hanger could be, I was also flapping both hands frantically.

Most likely I looked pretty silly. My 10 year old refers to it as me "flipping out" or "having a spaz attack."

The humming, hands over ears and rocking thing? My family knows the first thing they should do is stop talking to me, and shut off anything that might be making any noise. Especially odd background noises like computers, the fan over the stove (oh that one drives me crazy!), the baby monitor left on, etc.. even if what triggered the overload wasn't auditory especially it can always help to minimize noise. (sometimes too many requests of, "honey what do you want me to get at the grocery store?" when I'm already absorbed in something else can trigger an overload meltdown)

Incidentally, our neighbors in a connected apartment had a fire a few months ago. I was able to get all four kids and myself out of the house in the middle of the night, in the freezing New England weather.. in wonderful time with ZERO meltdowns. It was an emergency situation and I didn't have time to stress over it. I just did what I had to do, and my autism did not impact my decisions in the least. (fire alarms going off and all) Later that night I found that I was pretty stressed out about it, and cried quite a bit though. Still, in the moment all was well. So I think for me, there are times when stress doesn't sink in. Adrenaline takes over maybe?

yeah i pace around, like alot and really fast

I once started laughing histerically in class at college

I did not understand the work, my brain wasn't working properly, I had a deadline to meet at the end of the hour and had far too much to do before it and suddenly everything seemed hilarious

I pace, curl up in a ball or go into a complete remission were I say no more than 7 words at a time(or for the entire day and want left alone). If I get the chance I'll blast my music so I don't hear anything or anyone.

i feel faint and go wobbly and feel unwell

I was on meds to reduce stress. I decided the side effects weren't worth the benefits.

But the tradeoff was since I didn't want to take meds, I decided to cut off all attempts at a social life. To reduce natural uncontrollable stress and anxiety....

So how I handle stress is to never let it begin.

Every last small thing gets in my way, and if on my own I'll just babble of repeat "f**k" or "s**t" over and over again. Haha. It's not nice.

I went to the doctor with stress/anxiety problems and I got the feeling some of my symptoms were a bit weird. I used to fall asleep all the time! Nearly everday during a lesson I'd fall asleep in my chair halfway through the lesson. And then when I got home I used to sleep for ages. My motor co-ordination goes bad when I'm nervous still. You can see on the school book thing where you sign out to leave which days I've gone home ill(anxious) because my writing is illegible. I also twitch and make squeaking noises when stuff is getting stressful.

Greyhound - I get nervous laughter sometimes. I kept laughing when I had my psychiatrist appointment, although I'd explained I got nervous laugher and so hopefully he knew I wasn't laughing at him.

If I have a meltdown I may try to cover my ears to block out the noise, if I'm on my own my hands might flap like crazy. I also shake my leg like crazy in meltdowns.

When there is severe stress I "lose" the ability to speak properly and start speaking gibberish. Then I have this delusion that I am a bird and can fly. I start flapping my arms as if they are wings and sing in this non existent language. Now I don't think anyone could beat that in weirdness!

Once I was very nervous and my leg started bouncing uncontrollably. I would try to hold it down and would succeed in stopping it for half a second, but then it would bounce up again more violently. It was funny, but I was thinking that Tourettes must be very annoying. Ever since then leg bouncing has been a minor stim of mine, but I've never had a tic like that again. Other weird stuff I do when stressed includes excess nervous laughter, talking to myself without regard to the situation, crying spells and such.

When I'm in severe stress I just shutdown and escape from reality into my own world. I aldo tap my foot repeatedly and sometimes I start humming. There is something soothing about this.

If I am at college I usually close my eyes, put my hands over my ears and put my head near the desk. If I am not left alone then I will pace about. By this time I am usually unable to communicate effectively.

These are the first stages of my meltdowns.