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Has anyone experienced this?

ParentingAutism

Hi, my 14 y.o daughter keeps experiencing this. I'm not sure how to describe it and I have no clue what is happening. 

Basically, the other day her senses were overloaded in school and she sat at her desk and no-one could get a conversation or word out of her. She had her hood up with her head on the desk. She wasn't sleeping since she kept lifting her head up. She wasn't looking at anyone and only looked at the door and floor. Teachers believed she wanted to leave the room but couldn't. 10/15 minutes later, she managed to leave the room and was in tears and started kicking chairs about in the hall. She was overwhelmed and in a state. 

I have seen this happen before, for example, after a bad day in school she would isolate herself in her bedroom, she used to leave the house when it's too noisy and laid on the floor in the forest. Similar things happened in school where no reply or 'yes or no' answer was made. My daughter once described it as 'can't move (or it's impossible), can't talk, everything become brighter and louder'. She also told me that she is always scared when it happens and she has no control over herself. It just happens and she doesn't know why and what is happening to her. She is emotional and upset after and when she calms down she is just exhausted. 

Does anyone know what is happening and why? It usually happens when she's very stressed/overwhelmed. How can we help her when it does happen?

Thanks x

Parents

  • Maybe a shutdown? I experience these sometimes and feels like my brain is too overwhelmed and can't process anything and moving/speaking is very difficult or impossible. In the moment only thing I can do is to wait it out.

    In terms of helping your daughter, identifying anything that might trigger it (any particular stressors or sensory triggers), might help avoid them. I can sometimes tell when I'm heading towards a shutdown or meltdown and get myself to a quiet space.

    In the moment getting to a quiet, dark space might help. Though that might not be possible. I generally need space during a shutdown/meltdown and being touched makes it worse. It's rare that I'm completely unable to communicate - even if I can't speak I can usually give thumbs up/down to yes/no questions.  

    And reassuring your daughter it's fine. I tend to be really embarrassed afterwards if it happens in public. But yeah shutdowns and meltdowns happen and they aren't things we can control.

Reply

  • Maybe a shutdown? I experience these sometimes and feels like my brain is too overwhelmed and can't process anything and moving/speaking is very difficult or impossible. In the moment only thing I can do is to wait it out.

    In terms of helping your daughter, identifying anything that might trigger it (any particular stressors or sensory triggers), might help avoid them. I can sometimes tell when I'm heading towards a shutdown or meltdown and get myself to a quiet space.

    In the moment getting to a quiet, dark space might help. Though that might not be possible. I generally need space during a shutdown/meltdown and being touched makes it worse. It's rare that I'm completely unable to communicate - even if I can't speak I can usually give thumbs up/down to yes/no questions.  

    And reassuring your daughter it's fine. I tend to be really embarrassed afterwards if it happens in public. But yeah shutdowns and meltdowns happen and they aren't things we can control.

Children