Have you ever been catatonic?

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I've never been catatonic before, but I've almost become catatonic before. I don't know if anyone would believe me if I told them, though. I don't know if any of you will believe me. But I did read about an autistic boy who felt the catatonia coming back, and told his mother, and started to deteriorate again and by the time his mother went to pick him upo at work he was just standing there catatonic with tears running down his face because he was becoming catatonic but didn't want it to happen.


I could feel it coming on too. There were black objects (containers) in my head waiting to trap me inside them. And since I would no longer have access to my eyes or my hands or legs or anything, I would have become catatonic. The black objects were the substance that is sadness/anger/boredom/fear all in one. I could feel it happening, and I didn't like it at all. I felt bored, depressed, outraged, and terrified that this was happening. And I tried to stimulate myself as much as I could outside of my head going on shopping sprees and starting 100 threads on WrongPlanet at a time, to make up for the damage already dne and to prevent further damage, but parts of me still got trapped in the containers never to be seen again. So part of me is catatonic.


However, since I think catatonia is only behaviorally defined, I think I know that there are happy catatonics and sad catatnics and so on.

Catatonia is not a symptom of autism. Dissociation yes, catatonia no. Catatonia is more related to brain damage and schizophrenia, or very, very severe depression.

I would definitely seek help if you really believe you are becoming catatonic.

They called that guy's catatonia "autistic catatonia". But then, he was also diagnosed with something else and put on antipsychotics... his mother said the antipsychotics made him crazy and eventually catatonic, but from other stuff she said I think he did have something else going on that came suddenly and made them put him on the antipsychotics and the antipsychotics just didn't work. So maybe you're right.

7.5 MG Zyprexa Intramuscular Injection and maybe a little Ativan takes care of catatonia just like that. I've seen it work. For those who do not know, catatonic state is an unresponsive, paralyzed state that you should call an ambulance for. If you can type, you are not catatonic. People get catatonia as a side effect of antipsychotic medications or if they are not taking the medications exactly as prescribed. Catatonia is associated with PTSD for example from childhood abuse.

I could very well have catatonia, but often times it is more shutdown or disassociation.

Yes, it's closer to shutdown for me. I don't know if it counts as catatonic, but I've been stuck, mentally, to the point where I couldn't move or figure out how to move. It never lasted for long. In the past year... maybe a half a dozen times. Minutes, at most. Mental block is what it feels like; almost like I feel like I ought to be able to start walking away, I know exactly how to, I just don't initiate it. This is actually a new thing for me; it didn't happen when I was a kid. When I stopped having the tantrums, this new sort of shutdown started happening. Well, at least it's quieter.

Anyway, you have to remember catatonia is kind of a broad category for several sorts of movement disorder; and "freezing" is only one of them. Sometimes you see aimless, constant movement, too, that doesn't feel controllable to the person who's doing it. Lots of people think it isn't related so closely to schizophrenia as we used to think it might be, since catatonic schizophrenia is rather uncommon and often comes without hallucinations and delusions, only disorganzed speech.

Yep.

Well, I had my first fully observed catatonic state by doctors yesterday. Man, Atavin is weird stuff.

No, I don't think so.

I wish.

I doubt this counts as catatonic, but when I was younger and someone came round to my house to visit, I would completely freeze up in a corner somewhere, unable to move at all until they left. My throat still tightens in social situations and I often find it very hard to swallow. When I was in playgroup as a young child I used to freeze in the corner and dribble a lot because I couldn't swallow, and I remember getting sent home from playgroup because they thought I was ill, but I'd be completely fine once I got home. Then when I started school at break-times I used to stand with my back against the wall, not moving, whilst the teachers unsuccessfully tried to coax me out into the playground.

I also used to clench my thumbs into the palm of my hands and clasp my fingers around them into a fist in any social situation, partly because I hated not having something in my hands at all times and partly due to anxiety. I did this to such an extent that my left thumb was left completely paralyzed for many months until I had an operation on it at about the age of 3/4. I still have quite restricted mobility and a small lump in my thumb.

That sounds like phobia, not catatonia.

For me what is catatonia? I'll go with what happened yesterday.

I was doing neuropsychological tests and was at the computer doing the "press space bar when you see a letter except X". All right, so I was doing that and I would continually hit the space bar on X's when I shouldn't, hitting them everytime. All right, fair enough and my body was getting in on this, missing the whole point of the exercise. I continued until there was a long pause and then three letters came up with in a span of 3 seconds. My finger didn't move. Letters were still flashing up but my finger was not moving. Suddenly I realised that none of my body is moving, not even my face, not my legs, not my other hand. I was stiff and unresponsive. The tester asked me what was wrong and I could not respond. I was static. She asked me if I could hear her and I still couldn't respond, not even blink. She raced towards my file and started dgging through it and in it stated that it was catatonia. She went to get other psychologists and therapists. After an hour, I was carted off to the emergency room and had a little suite in the psychiatric emergency rooms. There they gave me Atavin which brought me out in 5-10 minutes. Now thanks to Atavin I've slept 12-16 hours since it was administered. Ugh.

I don't think I have ever experienced this. By reading what Wiki ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatonic ) have said about it I don't think so.

I don't know if mine is catatonia or dissociation. But whatever it is, it is minor compared to some people. When I walk in a store I suddenly freeze and not respond to anything. I am not really aware of my surroundings. I have a blank look on my face. And these are the not so big deal ones. When I am in the car, sometimes I freeze for the entire trip which could be an hour or more. I could get poked by my brother and it won't get me out of the frozen state. And this is WITH meds. So, does this sound like dissociation or catatonia because sometimes they can be very similar? But I have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder as well as the autism. If it is catatonia, it is extremely mild compared to the ones that freeze for days on end.