Published on 12, July, 2020
Shutdowns are part of life. There are multiple root causes for a shutdown, including the result of sensory overload, physical and mental exhaustion, unexpected news, anxiety about an upcoming event, and upheaval in our schedule. Sometimes it comes in combination; other times it comes down to simply being “on” for so long, that we have no choice but to turn “off.”
Are you always aware that you are about to go into "shutdown"?
What strategies to you use to help recover from them?
How do you "resurface"
How do you describe what they are to others and try to manage their occurrence?
I'm shutting down for the day now. Been writing about my childhood through conversations I had with mum while I was with her. Stirs up stuff to think what she had to go through. I can only do so much at a time with it. So... shut down and watch a film.
High tide's at nine tonight... but it may be high enough for a dip. Think I'll go look first. Cleanse it away.
Take care, all x
I love having a bath too , I do have a bath it's just this particular one I can't get in and out of. My showers not bad but I miss having a soak I love the moors too( Yorkshire Northumberland and Cumbria) Elephant That's really good. It's that kind of moment which makes teaching special. Hope the meet up is fine. I've had some really crappy things happen today and still carry on on here upsetting. Not sure I'm staying I have to validate myself everywhere else I didn't realise I had to here too think I'm booted off.
My 3 things
Deepthought, Tom and you and I helped someone I think Thank you very very much
The sun shone in the end
I helped my Dad tidy up pruning and took it to the skip.
Had a dear aunt in Cromer....she had two boys but unfortunately her daughter was still-birth. As a result she made a big fuss of me and my sister. A lively women, but not given the remit to truly "be"...
i used to live in Uffculme.. google Uffculme mill...that is where I used to live..,,think kingfishers and otters! I used to call it spinsters alley as in our row of workshop cottages we were all single women in recovery ...
It's depth. Need something to come up to my chin, and my tub just about half-fills. We lived in Devon for four years when I was a teen, and Dartmoor wasn't far away. I worked near Ashburton. I was mad on Sherlock Holmes as a kid. 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' was my favourite book. Still is, in some ways. I'd go back to Totnes to live, but it's not the same place now. Gentrified out of existence. Too expensive. More like a suburb of London now. Another favourite spot is the long, empty Norfolk coast from Gt Yarmouth up to Cromer.
Is that you trying to find the perfect bubble to subsist?
God I miss Dartmoor and Exmoor...packed up from Devon two years ago...I love the wildness of it... I take it you didn't fancy the 10 tor challenge?
always loved the burger van at hound tor called - "hound of the basketmeals"
happy days!
how big is a puddle? Riddle me that, batman!
The shower doesn't really cut it. I have a bathtub, and do love a bath. But my water tank only holds enough to heat a puddle.
Wide open spaces, yes. Dartmoor usually does it for me. Wild-camped on there once. Just hiked in about 2 miles north of Two Bridges, past the ancient oaks of Wistman's Wood. Pitched tent on the side of a hill. Miles from any other living thing except sheep. Woke in the morning to a mist so thick I couldn't see anything beyond 5 yards. Totally alone and quiet. Perfect. The moor is a place that always calls me back.
P.s I can't count, can i
p.p.s is Spotty still alive?
That you Misfit
three things today
3 big "things" in my day just shook me a bit have calmed down now thanks. Did a practical task.
Now.. new lingo! " switching up" mm what can that mean? Catching up for a coffee type of thing?
I hope you enjoy meeting up and don't become too tearful. Sometimes it works out just fine and sometimes it's hard to look at what's gone by or changed.
keep hold of that utopia dream..
I'd love a dog....but still working so not practical at the moment...
waiting for Autopia....1 x learcher/ Irish wolf hound, a couple of cats, a land rover defender, a quiet home near hills and water and a bottle of single malt.....! 26 years til retirement....and counting.....what are the odds!!!???
you ok Misfit btw....let's hope Daisy says yes....Dreamies are very good, so I've heard, so your chances are fair to middling in securing Tom, I reckon......
had an email from an old work colleague today (known them for 15 years+)... we are catching up tomorrow for the first time in two years....looking forward to it...but know already I'm gonna have to fight off any tears....it is all down to reconnecting again with someone who I have worked closely with...alternatively, things may have changed.
Pity about that! I too don't like public baths for the same reason but open air ones are ok if you are near one. The sea swims sound cathartic, I've read that before. I am more or less tee total for the same reasons you drink really. I don't like the feeling of alcohol and fear of it being another addiction but the occasional half or glass is fine. Space yes that does it for me , space at the coast or on the hills.. or woodland or by rivers. Or engrossed in a film or two or book if I can concentrate. I'm a dog girl rather than cats but my guinea pig has to surfice and is very cute.
BTW the statement "I don't have a bath" is a concern......I hope that the local marine wildlife have a handle on this! Lol
We'll have to kidnap Daisy as well! She'd like my Bengal! I also have Dreamies! So talk it through with her.
Chances of expansive space are key whether it is an open sea, or an open landscape. For me, spending a week either behind a computer screen or in a classroom .... liberating space is crucial..but I don't get a chance to get out as much as I'd like!
I to self medicate/ soothe with alcohol...namely to try to enforce relaxation and turn the volume knob of the brain down! With no one at home to de-stress after the day...a glass or two of wine, some headphones music to bring on positive vibes or to chill is a daily routine....
like you, I am aware that this has (a) negative effects and (b) is not sustainable
I wish I could always have a healthy approach to them. I don't have a bath, unfortunately - but a swim or a run often helps. Especially a swim. Can only really do that in summer, though. I'm lucky enough to live just 200 yards from the sea, and it's a gentle enough coastline with no deep troughs or rip-tides. At the moment, with high tides being about the right times each day, I'm managing morning and evening swims. The water's generally quite warm, too - though most people would probably say it's 'freeeeezing!' To me, it's the most wonderful thing to be in the water swimming along, then to just stop and turn over to float, looking up at the sky. This morning it was raining, too - lovely, gentle, warm rain. Passers-by must've thought I was nuts. Well... so I am! The water's usually fine from May until September. In the winter - just when I need it most, really - I have to leave it. I can't handle public baths. Chemicals. Noise. And people, of course.
Other times, I try to manage it with writing in some way - if I have the mental capacity for it. Other than that... it's, I'm afraid, alcohol. And then sleep. I have a complicated relationship with alcohol. I know it's a depressant. I know it isn't good for me physically. But actually, sometimes, I can drink myself to a stupor... and then awake feeling 'fixed' in some way. It's like it's fused my circuit board, and the switches have all been reset. I've never tried other drugs (okay, dope once... but it just made me laugh too much!), but I often wonder about some of the hallucinogenics. Knowing my luck, I'd be a bad trip personality. But I have friends who say it's been like mentally wiping the slate clean and refreshing it. That would be nice. I don't know so much about 'expansion of consciousness' - but then, I've never tried, so I wouldn't.
Recovery? I don't know. It's just like a mood swing. It eventually moves on. Until the next one.
You can't kidnap me, by the way. The cat would starve!
Such frustrating and sad news about your support person.....could you arrange for Former Member to be kidnapped....?
it gets tiresome being the one why has to step up to the plate everytime, doesn't it.
I feel even more so today the one person who came in intermittently to help me has resigned from the company she worked for. And no one to come to the pip apt that's just been landed on me this morning. So am down to my elderly dad plus nil. Mm think something is telling me it's time for a change or someone like Tom miraculously appearing in my area a rare commodity round here. Hey ho. Better roll those sleeves up
...I'm trying the pink Himalayan rock-salt!!!
My shutdowns also seem to be more frequent....but more passive...My SO hates it (he finds the silence or monosyllabic responses ignorant).
I feel that my life has just worn me out and down...so I feel much more vulnerable and exposed.
I like this thread. It is a very useful one. I get shutdowns/but outs and have done since I was a teenager way way before I came to understand why. They have increased rather than decreased in adulthood. I didn't know what they were or why. But from reading and learning about various conditions chronic fatigue, pain and overload I have been able to put them more into perspective. This is where pacing comes in and being able to say no and giving yourself timeout and stopping before completely exhausted comes in to play. But I find it hard to recognise it's happening in time. Sometimes I know it's almost inevitable because most of my family lives away. They don't just come for an hour or so and go home , they come for days or a weeks at a time. So it is intensive and I can't do anything about it but try to have some time out (which they don't understand). Sometimes if I really want to do something and it includes physical and sensory overload I just do it anyway then have to rest. If I have too many small burnouts in a row then it lasts longer each time and then in danger of deeper depression. The best idea is to have strategies if you can but I'm not much good at putting them in practice. Deepthought has some very good ideas I love the sound of the bath and mandarin oil but unfortunately I just have to make do with a shower.
Deepthought .. I confess I followed you to here so that I could thank you so very much for what you wrote on closed threads. I am overwhelmed by your deep thought and kindness in taking the time to do that not just for me but for everyone affected by it. I didn't know if I had said stupid or terrible things and it's good to know that you could see what I was trying to do . Thank you very much. I'm sorry I didn't feel up to posting on the actual post.