How long do your shutdowns typically last?

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5 days and counting at the moment...... the 40 remote acres is exactly what I feel like I need. I'm so desperate to be alone.

I always made the mistake of thinking my shutdowns were depression. I can have them for half an hour or up to a month or so. I can go for a whole year without sex/socialising/talking on the phone/watching tv/ or whatever normal people are supposed to do. And it usually doesn't bother me.

I think long term shutdowns and long term meltdowns do exist.

Uhhhhm, a good 48-72 hours every six months. Weirdly, if I go longer than that, it doesn't seem to build up; the inevitable shattering is still only a couple days. But during that time I'm fetal in a corner.

I don't have shutdowns. I have never had a shutdown. I only have meltdowns. They typically last 10-30 minutes depending on if anyone tells me to "calm down" during the meltdown.

I don't know the exact definition, or how one distinguishes a shutdown from a period of situational depression.

I may have been situationally depressed, or in a shutdown, a few times before, sometimes lasting weeks or months.

One I recall, was after I quit my day job to go into freelance programming. After two months of trying to enter the field, I was very melancholic. I refused to go out, ate little, displayed little or no emotion, and generally stagnated for a bit before getting another day job. I call it going into hermit mode.

I'm not sure about either, though, because I find it impossible to stay that way continuously. I recall many times when I would be immersed in something interesting, excitedly working on something, and then tell myself "hey, I'm supposed to be in a funk."

I have to remind myself that I'm supposed to be depressed or apathetic. This realization, in a "shutdown/situational depression" usually makes me retreat further. Outside of one, I find it amusing. "This too shall pass," and all that.