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. Perhaps also accompanied by a hypnopompic hallucination.

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

Hypnopompic Hallucinations

 

[Jumpinbare]

Could be narcolepsy with cataplexy. Ordinarily cataplexy is triggered by intense emotion. Could be the overstimulation is having that effect. Narcolepsy includes frequent sleep paralysis.

 

[JamesM]

Cheers for replies!

@Judge I have experienced both of those from time to time for many years. But this is something else.

@Jumpinbare Neither of those, but have experienced similar symptoms during really bad burnout.

I'm leaning more towards ASD shutdowns made worse by chronic stress, burnout and trauma. Cognitive shutdowns brought on by cognitive overload. Polyvagal shutdowns. Dissociative shutdowns. Somewhere in that area.

From what I gather CPTSD integrates with ASD dialing the whole thing up to 11.

The hardest part is verbalising what I experience.

More exploration needed.

 

[Jonn]

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

I have them still, even now.
I lose the capacity to think on my feet, particularly when other ppl are around.
I don't take pressure well.

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.

My dissociative disorder was instilled through psychological ritual abuse when I was around 5.
Autism and my ADHD don't help.

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.

Interesting.

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.

It takes time to "collect one's thoughts again".
This can be exacerbated when I venture into society, possibly due to having some degree of "social shock" as a result of having a reclusive lifestyle.
I see it as a possible information overload.

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.

Precisely.

Does anyone here experience anything like this at all?

Not in the least, as you can see above. <joke>

 

[Jonn]

Sounds like you may be experiencing a particularly intense kind of sleep paralysis.

This is me in certain social situations:

Spoiler

 

[Jonn]

From what I gather CPTSD integrates with ASD dialing the whole thing up to 11.

Ritual abuse has the conscious intent to instil a dissociative disorder.
This psychological effect would have been observed over millennia.

I don't know if that is what has happened to you.
It did to me.

 

[Judge]

Cheers for replies!

@Judge I have experienced both of those from time to time for many years. But this is something else.

If within the realm of an actual shutdown, I understand.

I probably should have added that I too have had them, though very infrequently over the years. Often the result of being overwhelmed in some way, particularly if it involves crowds of people. Yet I'm not claustrophobic in the classic sense. Go figure.

Reminding me of the last one I had where I went to a shopping mall at Christmas and the number of people darting in and around me simply got to me. When I became agitated and began hyperventilating, and suddenly had the urge to leave the premises.

When it's like I am in a fog and somehow I left the building and seemed to regain my consciousness sitting in my car sometime later. Where I could not physically recall exactly when or how I got there. Sort of a "blackout" for me where time has to pass for me to mentally recover from such an experience.

Sound familiar now?

 

[Jonn]

If within the realm of an actual shutdown, I understand.

I probably should have added that I too have had them, though very infrequently over the years. Often the result of being overwhelmed in some way, particularly if it involves crowds of people. Yet I'm not claustrophobic in the classic sense. Go figure.

Reminding me of the last one I had where I went to a shopping mall at Christmas and the number of people darting in and around me simply got to me. When I became agitated and began hyperventilating, and suddenly had the urge to leave the premises.

When it's like I am in a fog and somehow I left the building and seemed to regain my consciousness sitting in my car sometime later. Where I could not physically recall exactly when or how I got there. Sort of a "blackout" for me where time has to pass for me to mentally recover from such an experience.

Sound familiar now?

I have been in a number of intimidating situations in RL recently, with possible devastating consequences, but have maintained my emotional stability and have actually laughed at the manipulative nonsense.

Entrapment happens all the time.
It is healthy to recognise when it is attempted, and not to take ownership.

 

[Judge]

I have been in a number of intimidating situations in RL recently, with possible devastating consequences, but have maintained my emotional stability and have actually laughed at the manipulative nonsense.

Entrapment happens all the time.
It is healthy to recognise when it is attempted, and not to take ownership.

While such experiences are quite rare for me, they have also been of such a unique nature that frankly I seemed unable at the time to mentally rationalize my predicament under such circumstances.

Stranger in fact when I have no sense of claustrophobia which might explain how I can become so momentarily detached from reality itself. It's a very disturbing feeling, yet I cannot deny that it has happened before.

I suppose the word "entrapment" is a good definition though. Better than elaborating about a sense of "lost time" a term I hijacked from those allegedly experiencing alien abduction- not autistic shutdowns.

 

[Jonn]

While such experiences are quite rare for me, they have also been of such a unique nature that frankly I seemed unable at the time to mentally rationalize my predicament under such circumstances.

Stranger in fact when I have no sense of claustrophobia which might explain how I can become so momentarily detached from reality itself. It's a very disturbing feeling, yet I cannot deny that it has happened before.

A dissociative experience?

I suppose the word "entrapment" is a good definition though. Better than elaborating about a sense of "lost time" a term I hijacked from those allegedly experiencing alien abduction- not autistic shutdowns.

Sounds like a form of dissociation.
Any memory lapses?