Feel as if my mind shuts down sometimes

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Sometimes (very often), after experiencing too much pressure (every day after 1-2 PM), I feel as if my mind is half-shut down. It isn't just a feeling of tiredness or stress. When I walk past crowds when experiencing this, I will almost completely black out and feel like I'm not conscious. Or when I will go near detailed objects. Sometimes, my mind shuts down so much that everything around me mixes completely, that I can't process any information that I receive, to the point that I can't walk by myself. I will half-consciously see things around myself, but nothing will make sense. Any kind of information I will receive simply won't be processed by my brain in order to make me function. It usually takes me 30-40 minutes after the start of this 'attack' to start walking by myself (although everything will still be mixed up) and at least a day for everything to stop being mixed up. Sometimes it takes several days for everything to stop mixing up, and a day to start being able to walk independently again.

The 'attacks' started when I was around 9 on a crowded and noisy birthday party. The 'half-shut down' feeling was there far before that, but it was more like quarter-shut down.


What could this be? My neurologist thought that it might be epilepsy - I went through the testing, and it wasn't detected.

Sounds like you're getting over-stimulated to me, but it could also be low blood sugar, poor diet, lack of proper sleep, etc. I always have a dip in my energy around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, and sometimes I might feel woozy or have trouble thinking, but I've never had problems walking. Everyone is different though.

How does it compare to the descriptions of disassociating?

Sensory overload. I experience every time I go outside. We with ASD's cannot filter out extraneous stimuli that may or may not be important, so it overloads us. People with typical sensory processing can buffer some of it out and just focus on what needs to be focused on. I aliken it to a manually focusing a lens - actually non-ASD's have something more like auto focus; their focus is controlled on a sub conscious level. For most of us though we still use manual lenses. The way we adjust is to wear ear plugs or sunglasses or even bring along distractions or know that focusing on the smallest part of something can help you get through a stressful situation.

I've been thinking about getting back into photography lately...

Do you have any associated physical symptoms like numbness, blocked ears, headaches, tingling either while you are having one of these "attacks" or afterwards?

A daily occurrence for me but not as severe as yours, I think. A simple trip to the grocery store will make me feel like I've been up for 3 days. I'm lucky that I have a flexible work schedule. I work in the field and sometimes I will go home for a 30-45 minute nap to recharge.

I get something that sounds similar to what was originally posted, not to the point where I can't walk but it is difficult to get from place to place because I can't focus on anything in particular because my mind goes blank. I end up being in a state where I am somewhat aware of what is around me, I know that I can see it, but I am unable to pay attention to or think about anything specific.

I often have some combination of the physical symptoms I described either during or after one of these episode. My mother and sister occasionally experience this as well, though not nearly as frequently. We've seen doctors about it too and have had blood sugar tests and heart tests but have not figured out the cause yet.

I know what low blood sugar feels like and this, although similar, is different. When my blood sugar drops suddenly my hands will shake and I feel panicky. I do get the mental confusion but it's less of a sluggish feeling like with shutdown.

I would probably never suggest something as strong as this, but since you already have a neurologist that is testing you, have you been tested for other neurological issues, like MS?

It does sound more like just sensory overload, but a friend of mine with autism also has MS and will sometimes have bouts when his legs will not work properly, and it usually coincides with times of seriously high stress and general overload from life. It's only because of your mentioning of not being able to walk properly that I would EVER make this kind of connection/suggestion, so please don't think I'm being some kind of over-hypochondriac or something.

Sounds like severe sensory overload to me. It takes a *lot* more for me to reach the state you described, so I'd say you qualify as having a severe case of sensory processing disorder.

Below is an excerpt from someone's blog. She also experiences severe sensory processing stuff, and mentions motor and speech shutdowns. There's probably better entries on the blog about this stuff, but I'm too tired to figure out how to find them right now.

http://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/20 ... -a-hammer/

(Oh and there is some weird stuff floating around the internet about this person. IMO it's all very twisted and wrong, but I guess every person will have to make their own judgement about that.)