I’ve been thinking about asking the psychiatrist tomorrow about what an autistic shutdown looks like. It’s because when I’ve been reading about mental breaks they’ve been talking about immense emotional symptoms whereas I just went to bed and dissociated wildly.
However that’s me not recognising my own emotions really, there was a break within my thoughts where they wouldn’t complete or even properly happen but what floored me was the strength of feeling and emotion. I just didn’t take any of the actions that I’m reading about so I’m struggling to recognise what they’re describing.
Earlier this year when I received another emotional knock it similarly floored me, not quite as bad but it absolutely was an emotional response that I was constantly having to talk myself through. But because they’re quiet and internally painful I keep thinking they’re not these wild emotions that I’m reading about.
Autistic shutdown is all about external things getting too much rather than internal feelings getting too much. No one is talking about traumatic information processing or the lack there of though and that’s what I really want some help understanding. That did feel close to autistic overwhelm but I’m not convinced it was. Misidentifying my own emotional state however, yeah pretty sure that’s the ASD.