ASD Shutdowns or Disassociation?

[JamesM]

I frequently have these weird kinda shutdowns. For the past few years I thought them to be related to a Disassociative Disorder/Shutdown response.

However as I learn more about ASD, I see people speak in videos on Youtube about similar experiences, so it may be just part of ASD.

The experience is hard to explain but here goes. Imagine you are in one of those mechanical suits (like Ironman), and the suit gets shutdown, you are stuck inside of it and can't move. It's like that, by body shuts down, eyes closed, basically frozen like a lump of concrete, but inside I have full awareness, it's like I'm just the conscience part with no body. Sometimes I'll have a microsleep, sometimes not.

It lasts for a bit then I come out of it, eyes open, I come back in my body, it's like my Ironman suit went offline for a but then powered up again.

I can experience it often after waking in the morning from a vivid dream to quickly and I'm still half in the dream. But it can happen anytime from overstimulation, overwhelm and sensory overload, or often when nothing external at all is happening, rather it is inside my head that is on overdrive.

Does anyone here experience anything like this at all?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Judge]

Sounds like you may be experiencing a particularly intense kind of sleep paralysis. Something on occasion I have experienced while coming out of REM sleep in the morning. Though I can't connect it to any kind of autism shutdown. Something I rarely experience, but under entirely conscious circumstances and from any sleep state.

Sleep Paralysis