Can any one explain what happend to me?

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I was at the mall with my mom, brother and service dog and we were down stairs in the mall. We needed to get to a store up stairs so my mom and brother took the escalator and my mom told me to use the stairs with my service dog and then meet her at the store. When we finally got up stairs I noticed that there were twice the amount of people up stairs as there was down stairs! My service dog and I had no choice but to walk through the crowd to the store. I started to get mad while walking because my service dog was lagging behind me. I jerked her collar so she would know to get closer to me but it didnt help much because she wasnt paying attion to me. She was just watching all the other people, as was I. They were every where! It was loud and there was screaming babies and it felt like the people were coming at me from every direction!! I got really stressed out, I felt like I wanted to cry or even run away from the crowds. It was an awful feeling. I finally got to the store and calmed down so my mom wouldnt know about it. But after we left the store and left the mall I still didnt feel back to normal. Even in the car on the way home I didnt speak much and I still had that stessful feeling. When my mom noticed I wasnt acting myself she asked what was wrong. All I could say was "Theres to many people at the mall."

Was that some kind of a meltdown? What happened to me? Has it ever happened to you?

You probably did ride the edge of a meltdown. I feel like I've been on the verge of what you describe. Good on you for pulling back from the edge of that cliff.

As far as I can remember, nothing like that's ever happened to me. I don't react too badly at all to crowds, especially in shopping centres. I got lost once in a shopping centre while looking for my family, because I'd miscommunicated about where I would meet them once and there wasn't any reception in the building, but that's a little different.

It sounds like you nearly had a meltdown. It must have been very unpleasant.

i freak out in situations like that. I might start scratching my arms and neck or freeze and not even move and it gets hard to breath and sometimes i even throw up because i get so scared of it and i wanna curl onto my mommys or boyfriends lap or run away and hide and sometimes when i was younger i even started to push those people away from me because they were to close. You should avoid those places.. No good..

Seems like you and your service dog may have been going through the same thing. At least you had each other.
And maybe thats why you didn't have a total meltdown.

Sounds like stimulation overload and ALMOST meltdown, but not quite. Possibly a small panic attack, too.

I know with any overload or panic attack, even before I hit meltdown/ shutdown mode, it takes hours to get back to normal for me.

I had a similar situation, and had to explain why I appeared to shut down for the rest of the day.

I just said that I had a lot of sensory overload and had a bit of a meltdown. Fortunately I have an understanding partner.

I know exactly what you mean and I would say you just nearly escaped a meltdown. It always reminds me of the scene in Inception when all the subconcious projections turn and stare. It usually takes me a few hours to recover with a nap included.

*Shudder* Malls, can't stand them.

It sounds like as someone else said you were on the edge of a meltdown, and I'd add it sounds like you had a shutdown as well.

I have similar reactions to being around crowds. I get completely overloaded, and often I just want to get out of the store as fast as possible. I hate having a lot of people around me, especially if they're moving.