Can you have a shutdown/meltdown on a forum?

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Ok this might sound silly, but is it possible to be overwhelmed in a virtual setting? A few years back I got into a few really heavy arguments on a forum/community I was really into. After it was over I felt freaked out and overwhelmed and basically I coped by deleting all my forum details, changing my username to ???? and not posting for about a week. It was a completely spontaneous reaction and I was wondering if it's considered normal.

Of course it's possible.
It's happened to me many times.
The social gymnastics on a forum are no different to real life - often, socialisation is more intense in a virtual world.

I've had very strong emotional and physical reactions in this kind of situation.

I think insensitive people would not consider it normal because they don't understand how Internet discussions can impact some people. Compared to all the online insensitivity, it may not be normal in the sense of being usual; however, a better way to judge the situation involves your own mental state at the time and the severity of the situation. If a bunch of people called you horrible slurs or threatened you, for example, your response would certainly be normal. As another example, if you misjudged the situation because of anxiety, then maybe your response was not "normal."

It was an online argument about auto playing YouTube videos. I was glad they were gone. A couple of jabs we're made at me, but I was mostly frustrated at the fact that it seemed nobody was even trying to see it from my point of view (something I feel alot) and that I was being seen as a villain and being ganged up on.

There were other threads but here's one. Probably easier to just link to the argument.
www.vocaloidotaku.net/index.php?/topic/ ... ge__st__15

I was Mantis/Ringworm128.

Forum arguments can be very frustrating and a build up of frustration can cause a meltdown, although generally, I tend to get very calm and logical in forum arguments rather than angry. On a forum, I have time to think, word my reply exactly how I want and delete it if it doesn't add to the conversation, whereas in real life, I'd have a meltdown as I can't do any of that

Regarding the cause of this particular spat, I'm on your side, I hate autoplay videos and music as well. Multiple auto-play videos on a single page could very well cause me to explode as well. On this site, I've had to use a gif blocker to stop member's animated avatars as they were doing my head in!

I had a meltdown at least once while operating as the moderator of a sub-forum. It was over chaos and loss of control over the situation.

I had one on WP just the other day.

Meltdowns are often the result of a combination of stressors that have built up. The most innocuous thing can set them off.

Sounds like a normal reaction to me. I'll shutdown whenever I feel overwhelmed in any way, regardless of the type of situation or environment.

Good to know I'm not alone.

I have got all wound up when on a WP thread trying to put a point across and posters kept arguing against me, and I couldn't think of the right words to "win" the argument. Then when I did think up an intelligent way to explain myself using big words I don't often use and it seemed like nobody read it or the thread died off, I got fed up. Not sure if that counts as a "cyber meltdown" or not.

I have had a "cyber outburst" online before (WP and Facebook), not at anyone, just more like an extreme rant, involving swear words and empty suicide threats.