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Shutdowns - how many is too many?

Con

I recently self diagnosed as Autistic and have been learning a lot about myself because of it.

One of the parts of it I'm not sure on is the regularity of my shutdowns and if it is normal or too much.

I'll tend to have at a minimum a couple everyday. Usually one when I get in from work and one around bed time. The severity of these can range, most of the time I'll at least want to just be left alone but I can also become non verbal with my sensory sensitivities also heightened, among other things.

I'll have two at a minimum though. Depending on the day I'm having, maybe stress, sensory sensitivities, masking etc. I may also have more.

Is this a normal amount? I'm 30 years old and have only in the last couple of months realised I'm Autistic so I think I've just gotten used to a constant level of stress/dealing with symptoms so not really sure what my normal should feel like!

Any advice or similar stories would be helpful! I'm also still trying to understand a lot of my sensitivities and what I can do to help myself. 

Parents

  • Until 2 years ago I was like you, masking full time, enforcing coping with everything, not knowing my baseline as you described it, until burnout happened...

    As far as I figured it out both meltdowns and shutdowns are a result of a combined outcome of stressors/triggers and resulting from them overloads (momentary inability to cope with reality). There is a possibility that to many overloads in a short period of time will result in a meltdown (I call mine 'erupting volcano', no control over it, someone else is driving the bus) or a shutdown, if conditions are right, e.g. somewhere where you feel safe, or at least secluded, and knowing you'll be left alone (mine happen at home only, it's like a disconnect from everything outside your body, including sensory inputs, sometimes I loop over bad events, sometimes it's a total nothing I can remember when I return). After burnout (you can't do anything basicaly, and lose a lot of memories and some abilities, sometimes permanently) I was having shutdowns everyday for half a year, at least once a day, some memories are lost forever

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  • Until 2 years ago I was like you, masking full time, enforcing coping with everything, not knowing my baseline as you described it, until burnout happened...

    As far as I figured it out both meltdowns and shutdowns are a result of a combined outcome of stressors/triggers and resulting from them overloads (momentary inability to cope with reality). There is a possibility that to many overloads in a short period of time will result in a meltdown (I call mine 'erupting volcano', no control over it, someone else is driving the bus) or a shutdown, if conditions are right, e.g. somewhere where you feel safe, or at least secluded, and knowing you'll be left alone (mine happen at home only, it's like a disconnect from everything outside your body, including sensory inputs, sometimes I loop over bad events, sometimes it's a total nothing I can remember when I return). After burnout (you can't do anything basicaly, and lose a lot of memories and some abilities, sometimes permanently) I was having shutdowns everyday for half a year, at least once a day, some memories are lost forever

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