What are your shutdowns like?

[OlLiE]

i've never had a real meltdown (other than frequent temper tantrums as a child), i know that as my limit approaches i become visibly irritated and rather unpleasant to people around me. After stressfull periods i do however shut down, i have to go to my dark and quiet room and put on netflix and avoid phone calls and basically feel like a zombie. I can lie in bed for days and still have no problems falling asleep at night. Its weird, i've been home for a while now and i have no appreciation for how long its been, i lay in bed and have no energy, but my days still fly by which is weird for me as i usually get very bored very quickly. I had a 'social weekend' last weekend and have mostly stayed in bed for the last 4 days.

 

[Judge]

Plenty of good discussions in the forum on this subject, if anyone is interested.

Shutdowns - anyone experienced any of these?
Shutdowns.
shutdowns vs meltdowns?
Ask an Autistic - What are Autistic Shutdowns?
Shutdown-proofing?
Autistic Catatonia
Meltdown turned to shutdown today, feeling really depressed.

 

[grommet]

It is the same for me. I really wish it weren't. I want to spend more time with my friends but I almost get sick after a day of socializing. They can spend every day together and I can't. I feel bad about that but I cannot change it. I want to learn to accept who I am. I do not know if I can. I hope I find out.

i've never had a real meltdown (other than frequent temper tantrums as a child), i know that as my limit approaches i become visibly irritated and rather unpleasant to people around me. After stressfull periods i do however shut down, i have to go to my dark and quiet room and put on netflix and avoid phone calls and basically feel like a zombie. I can lie in bed for days and still have no problems falling asleep at night. Its weird, i've been home for a while now and i have no appreciation for how long its been, i lay in bed and have no energy, but my days still fly by which is weird for me as i usually get very bored very quickly. I had a 'social weekend' last weekend and have mostly stayed in bed for the last 4 days.

 

[OlLiE]

It is the same for me. I really wish it weren't. I want to spend more time with my friends but I almost get sick after a day of socializing. They can spend every day together and I can't. I feel bad about that but I cannot change it. I want to learn to accept who I am. I do not know if I can. I hope I find out.

i pretty much know my own limits so that i can limit my downtime, buying sound cancelling headphones is a great way to isolate myself in a pinch. I just get kind of trapped though, i've got it all planned out to minimise the damage, i arrive 15 mins early, of course most everyone else arrives a half an hour late, but my clock is already counting down, then it inevitably overruns and i'm past the duration i'm comfortable with but can't find a polite exit. I realise i can't force people to be like me, if i say anything it would be perceived as being 'unreasonable', so i stay and am eventually wiped out when i get home. I also feel guilty quite a bit, i have a fiancée, she likes to go out to restaurants and enjoy the ambiance of the people there. She is a great person, does her best to understand me and i'm very lucky she puts up with me, so i always feel bad about limiting her, when we go out for dinner i try arriving at opening before most people arrive, sit as far away as possible from tables that look like they were set for larger groups, refuse to sit near a table with a crying baby. For me going out to eat is a 20 minute affair, arrive early, already know what i want, order, eat, pay, get out - but i can't impose that on her, its just not fair. I'm not sure what to do about it though, it's a damned if you do damned if you don't, i do it her way and know it will likely end unpleasantly or do it my way and restrict her life to accommodate my shortcomings. So i feel guilty about restricting her. To makes things worse she blames herself for missing my signals, which makes me feel even more guilty.

 

[Thursday]

Plenty of good discussions in the forum on this subject, if anyone is interested.

Shutdowns - anyone experienced any of these?
Shutdowns.
shutdowns vs meltdowns?
Ask an Autistic - What are Autistic Shutdowns?
Shutdown-proofing?
Autistic Catatonia
Meltdown turned to shutdown today, feeling really depressed.

Thank you Judge. Reading some of these now...

i've never had a real meltdown (other than frequent temper tantrums as a child), i know that as my limit approaches i become visibly irritated and rather unpleasant to people around me. After stressfull periods i do however shut down, i have to go to my dark and quiet room and put on netflix and avoid phone calls and basically feel like a zombie. I can lie in bed for days and still have no problems falling asleep at night. Its weird, i've been home for a while now and i have no appreciation for how long its been, i lay in bed and have no energy, but my days still fly by which is weird for me as i usually get very bored very quickly. I had a 'social weekend' last weekend and have mostly stayed in bed for the last 4 days.

Me too. I usually need a day or two alone just to be back to (my) normal self after a social day. I wish I could do it faster, but my body just feels wrong...lethargic, usually with headaches or, worse, throwing up when the social weekend is particuarly harrowing.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

. I have gotten these jarring moments where my brain gets stuck on two thoughts, I can't talk much because of it and I get severely nauseated.

I just happened to come across something with seizures that mention something called 'forced thinking', something that happens with partial simple seizures. It's apparently quite rare. I wondering if this is it. It could make sense.

 

[Full Steam]

I wrote a thread and blog about my experiences.

I tried to examine them at each stage Anatomy of an autistic shutdown

 

[Keigan]

I wrote a thread and blog about my experiences.

I tried to examine them at each stage Anatomy of an autistic shutdown

Your link is missing an "s" in the description, though it does work.