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Is the root of shutdown and meltdown just anxiety?

Full Steam

Full Steam

The renegade master
V.I.P Member
I've been thinking about this a lot and noticing what causes shutdowns and meltdowns in me.

I'm most prone to shutdowns, but I do get both.

What I've noticed is that anxiety is always present before both happen. If anxiety comes up in a social situation, a shutdown will follow. If I get hit by loads of noise, my brain tries to push it away, and anxiety occurs. Last minute changes cause a spike of anxiety. lots of little annoyances cause slowly building anxiety.

So the question is, do shutdowns and meltdowns occur because of the external stimuli, or because of our anxiety reactions to the stimuli?

I done a test on many occasions which is this;

Go into an environment where there is a stimuli which would normally cause problems. Meditate and "let the stimuli in", don't try to push it away, but accept it completely.

The result for me has been that no anxiety occurs, no overload occurs and I neither get shutdown nor meltdown. It's impractical of course as I also can't do much while meditateting.

The situations I've tried it in and found it worked are;

  • Places with too many people - Busy shopping mall, theme park, events etc.
  • Loud droning noises - my fridge drones as the compression is broken, lawn mowers.

If this is right then, meltdown and shutdown could be anxiety related and therefore controllable by managing anxiety up stream.

When I told my psychiatrist about my shutdowns, he talked about "perceptual changes in anxiety" as being a possible cause, something I've not found any information about. There is also next to no information about what shutdowns and meltdowns actually are, beyond vague "safety valve" ideas.
 
I see. I have had meltdowns and I will withdraw if overwhelmed but usually that feels like escaping . I think it's both due to the external pressure and stress and to internal issues, but maybe it's more confusion than anxiety, for me. I can't understand a situation sometimes, in the moment.
 
Full Steam said:
Yes, for me it's like a withdrawal into my core, loss of some speech, increase in clumsiness, mental fog increases until I can't think beyond the basics.
Click to expand...

Does this link into dissociation?
I was thinking about doing a post in that.
How it could link into selective mutism, but the root cause could rhyme with your post..
 
I think shutdowns for me may be primarily anxiety driven. That when anxiety reaches a particular point, I need, and if not resolved, will inevitably withdraw mentally from the environment. But meltdowns seem far more driven by pure stimulus. That is very much a situation where I feel surrounded and overwhelmed by input. In many circumstances of course that input also generates anxiety, but I have meltdowns - or had, thankfully they are less frequent now - which did not seem to involve any significant element of anxiety. Indeed, occasionally in the past where the overload was so rapid there wasn't time to register anything but the sudden stimulus.
 
AO1501 said:
I think shutdowns for me may be primarily anxiety driven. That when anxiety reaches a particular point, I need, and if not resolved, will inevitably withdraw mentally from the environment. But meltdowns seem far more driven by pure stimulus. That is very much a situation where I feel surrounded and overwhelmed by input. In many circumstances of course that input also generates anxiety, but I have meltdowns - or had, thankfully they are less frequent now - which did not seem to involve any significant element of anxiety. Indeed, occasionally in the past where the overload was so rapid there wasn't time to register anything but the sudden stimulus.
Click to expand...
Interesting.

I get a bit of shutdown every day so I'm very familiar with that.

Meltdowns much less so, and I've only recently realised what I have are actually meltdowns.

People sometimes say that they are the same in nature, but I'm not so sure.
 
Full Steam said:
Interesting.

I get a bit of shutdown every day so I'm very familiar with that.

Meltdowns much less so, and I've only recently realised what I have are actually meltdowns.

People sometimes say that they are the same in nature, but I'm not so sure.
Click to expand...

They really don't seem the same to me, though with a very late diagnosis, although I've had them all my life, I had no idea what they were so I would admit that I have only had a brief time to try and track what happens. But there does seem to be a clear difference to me in the event and how it builds and triggers.

But for me the definitive example is the meltdown which I have when suddenly exposed to overwhelming stimulus. I can't say there is not a parallel onset of anxiety too, because that is possible, but it is the stimuli I directly respond to.

Shutdowns however, are definitely my response to anxiety, and can happen in the absence of any notable degree of stress or stimulus.
 
anxiet and fear is paralising, when i shut down, i become hyperfoccused on the neggativity, ading into the anxiety.

it is almost like this loop. axiety causes overstimulation, overstimulation causes anxiety, then the fear of anxiety causes more anxiety. i have to remove myself from what is causing the anxiety to let the loop disband.


for me, my thoughts start to race when agitated. the more overwhelmed i get, the more intense my thoughts become. if it is an inherently neggative situation, my thoughts follow, and they can lead to a very dark paths

without the anxiety, i think i would be able to hold up to the barage of stumuli, i do it all the time and dont devolve into a shutdown.
 
I've always thought that the inability to process overwhelming stimuli (both sensory and situational/emotional) trigger meltdowns, whereas stress and anxiety and loss of ability to cope create shutdowns in which the person withdraws extremely to avoid having to react to the precipitating factors. But then I don't know whether these are my own constructs or the accepted difference.
 
I have very little social anxiety, I'm not sure that I ever shutdown, but I do meltdown sometimes...

When I think to one recent time, that I posted about here, I got upset over a parking situation that I felt was unfair and wrong, (but who am I to judge), the root of that meltdown had nothing to do with anxiety, but more to do with an expectation I had which was effectively unrealized, perhaps out of the norm, and I got upset because something didn't go quite right...

I wouldn't call that anxiety related, or maybe it really is :rolleyes:
 
Fridgemagnetman said:
Does this link into dissociation?
I was thinking about doing a post in that.
How it could link into selective mutism, but the root cause could rhyme with your post..
Click to expand...

I don't know, I've not studied that.

I get dissociation and confusion, and maybe they do lead to shutdown and selective mutism directly, I'll have to think about that.

Ironically " selective mutism," predictive text thought should be "selective mutiny."

The aspie inside in mutiny; "sod this for a game of football, I'm out. You started talking to these people, now you end the conversation by yourself"

Me: ".. ......"

Still me: how do I get out of this without talking?

Other person: " Ok, see you later"

Me: phewww
 
Sherlock77 said:
I have very little social anxiety, I'm not sure that I ever shutdown, but I do meltdown sometimes...

When I think to one recent time, that I posted about here, I got upset over a parking situation that I felt was unfair and wrong, (but who am I to judge), the root of that meltdown had nothing to do with anxiety, but more to do with an expectation I had which was effectively unrealized, perhaps out of the norm, and I got upset because something didn't go quite right...

I wouldn't call that anxiety related, or maybe it really is :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

All my meltdowns are due to feelings of unfairness, including last minutes changes. My brain turns it into an attack on me and my plans.
 
Sherlock77 said:
I wouldn't call that anxiety related, or maybe it really is :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I certainly recognise that. I see it as a stress issue when exposed to the kind of stimulus which is entailed in unexpected confrontations.

That said, it might be unreasonable to look for precise correlation of our experiences when the nature of the spectrum means we must, in some ways, react inconsistently with each other.
 
Voltaic said:
anxiet and fear is paralising, when i shut down, i become hyperfoccused on the neggativity, ading into the anxiety.

it is almost like this loop. axiety causes overstimulation, overstimulation causes anxiety, then the fear of anxiety causes more anxiety. i have to remove myself from what is causing the anxiety to let the loop disband.


for me, my thoughts start to race when agitated. the more overwhelmed i get, the more intense my thoughts become. if it is an inherently neggative situation, my thoughts follow, and they can lead to a very dark paths

without the anxiety, i think i would be able to hold up to the barage of stumuli, i do it all the time and dont devolve into a shutdown.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's it for me too.

I get anxiety without external stimuli, from chemical imbalance.

I feel it now, but I'm positive, and motivated with nothing external to cause it.
 
For me it’s

Anxiety + overstimulus = shutdown

It’s like a fuse blowing. I find my functioning is less for some time afterward.

I usually go back to researching special interests and in that way usually find my way back to reality.
 
In my case it's anxious reactions to unexpected stimuli that I'm not prepared for. So if I'm prepared and have to go and shop for groceries, I don't have meltdowns or shutdowns.

If during the grocery shopping there's some occurrence that I've not made provision for, like blaring announcements, staff calling staff over intercoms, then I become closer to a state of anxiety/panic and wish to bolt. If it continues endlessly then I might shutdown later when I return home. Once or twice in a large warehouse setting, I've left everything, and wandered away not knowing where I was or what I was doing there.

Meltdowns only occur in those situations, if they are raising funds for charity over a loudspeaker, which happened once at that store. I abandoned my groceries and left. And delayed the meltdown until I returned home.
 
Last edited:
Full Steam said:
I've been thinking about this a lot and noticing what causes shutdowns and meltdowns in me.

I'm most prone to shutdowns, but I do get both.

What I've noticed is that anxiety is always present before both happen. If anxiety comes up in a social situation, a shutdown will follow. If I get hit by loads of noise, my brain tries to push it away, and anxiety occurs. Last minute changes cause a spike of anxiety. lots of little annoyances cause slowly building anxiety.

So the question is, do shutdowns and meltdowns occur because of the external stimuli, or because of our anxiety reactions to the stimuli?

I done a test on many occasions which is this;

Go into an environment where there is a stimuli which would normally cause problems. Meditate and "let the stimuli in", don't try to push it away, but accept it completely.

The result for me has been that no anxiety occurs, no overload occurs and I neither get shutdown nor meltdown. It's impractical of course as I also can't do much while meditateting.

The situations I've tried it in and found it worked are;

  • Places with too many people - Busy shopping mall, theme park, events etc.
  • Loud droning noises - my fridge drones as the compression is broken, lawn mowers.

If this is right then, meltdown and shutdown could be anxiety related and therefore controllable by managing anxiety up stream.

When I told my psychiatrist about my shutdowns, he talked about "perceptual changes in anxiety" as being a possible cause, something I've not found any information about. There is also next to no information about what shutdowns and meltdowns actually are, beyond vague "safety valve" ideas.
Click to expand...
why are we anxious I surmise it's the developmental block being able to judge in shutdowns if it's dangerous and meltdowns is it necessary .
 
I tend to shutdown when I’m stressed or anxious though I do go into full panic sometimes,I notice I withdraw more while out in the grocery store or even at bbqs I go to with my husband,I always thought I’m just off with fairies :)
 
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