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Autistic Catatonia v shutdown: I need some help

Dawn

Dear Lovely Peeps,

Has anyone ever experienced autistic catatonia or sever shut down? If so, if you are prepared to talk about it, I'd like to hear. What brought it on? What did that look and feel like? How did you get out of it?

I'm a bit worried about me just now.

My mind is busy, oh so busy, on just one thing the up coming assessment and coping with the sensory and medical stuff in the meantime with a functioning alcoholic husband, who loves me to bits but is oblivious to what I need by way of support. I tell him but it's in one ear and out the other. It's the booze, not a lack of love, I know.

I am working from home and normally love my job, but concentration on that is very, very difficult just now. I long for some annual leave to sort out the mess my husband makes of the place (he is chaos personified, I have a typical autistic need for absolute cleanliness and order to function) and then engage with some of my interests to make me feel better.

But when I take leave, I struggle to get out of bed. I start to make a move but then feel completely overwhelmed by the size of the tasks in front of me and have to sit down again. My body has barely moved from the house in 18 months. In my head I tell my self I'll do this and do that and try to have a life, but then find myself just sitting and rocking in the corner or playing a bubble pop game on my phone over and over - I'm not even trying to win, just watch the bubbles pop. There are days when I'm barely able to get out of my dressing gown and into the bath. I put the TV on and can't follow the plot of whatever's on.

I have been through a couple of deeply traumatic experiences over the past couple of years. But I just seem to pick myself up from one thing, to be hit by another. 

I don't want to be like this. And it isn't normal for me. I'm usually an active person. I want to be giving work what work deserves and doing the things I like in a perfectly ordered house. But I can't get going with the most basic things. I can bearly be bothered to eat. This has been really bad for the past 6 months.

I might just be torturing myself for no good reason, but this doesn't feel like depression. I'm concerned I'm going into some sort of state of involuntary inertia.

Parents

  • Although I can't directly answer about autistic catatonia / shutdown as I'm not really sure, what you describe sounds like some signs of depression.

    I WAS going to say it sounds like the chronic burnout that I had a decade or so ago, but actually, now I re-read what you posted, it reminds me more of when I had depression about a decade before that.

    Depression and burnout have a load of overlaps, so it could be both. But the key difference for me was when I was burned out (the doctor thought it was depression again) is that I always woke up feeling cheerful and positive, eager to look out the window to see what the weather was like. I lost this when I got depression and instead couldn't get out of bed for other reasons. But both had fatigue, difficulties doing regular tasks and so on. When depressed I lost my motivation to eat, but when burned out I knew the importance of eating and wanted to feed myself but I physically couldn't.

    Since you said you've been through some traumatic things one after another without much of a break, it may be that the processing for these things is catching up with you now or your internal processing resources, emotional battery etc. have hit their max.

    It's probably going to be a bit obvious to say that getting support for this would be really worthwhile. CBT helped me hugely, for e.g.

    Less obvious though is I'd recommend to go easy on yourself and let yourself sit and rock, playing the bubble pop game if that's what you need. One thing I've learned is that stimming can take many forms and be a great stress reliever or at least buy some time while you process things subconsciously. I love that blissful feeling of a repetitive task which has no pressure - I loved Bejewelled or Solitaire.

    The hardest part of both my depression and burnout was letting the 'optional' things around me drop and be messy, untidy, etc. to save on resources. The first and biggest positive step for me was in the form of a silly challenge I made up: to leave my bed unmade for the entire day. It was SO hard. But I found reasons why it could be good to leave it unmade (faster to get into bed later, airs the mattress and duvet...!!), learned how to challenge my need for order. My perfectionist tendencies were sky high but also exhausting me. I was on a sure-fire heading to be OCD like my dad, but I may have avoided that, fingers crossed, time will tell.

    Can't offer much wisdom about your hubby. What moon said is what I have heard and experienced first hand too. It was really hard to learn about what 'enabling' meant and codependency. I'm aware of someone in my life in a relationship that's living like that - we crossed paths in a way that impacted me a lot. I wouldn't know if that is you and your hubby just from your one post, but one thing is sure, when you're in that position as the codependent one, enabling, you truly have no idea. It helps to get outside (professional, experienced) opinions. I sought help from someone who went through and now mentors in the 12 step program. He told me some hard truths just like moon has posted here and I was forever grateful. I couldn't have seen or understood it alone.

  • in reply to Mantra

    Omg, a massively long message. Sorry... I felt it was all important, though. Maybe one day I'll be able to be more succinct... :/

  • in reply to Mantra

    It read well and was easy to read. FWIW, I don't think you could have been more succinct.

  • in reply to Mantra

    Lol, well I'm not shouting. It was just what I needed to hear on burn out.

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