What is this? Shutdown? Overload? Please help identifying...

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Hello fellow WP-users,

After having denied my diagnosis (made at the age of eight) for years and having crashed badly multiple times, I started face myself and joined WP in search of information and coping strategies that would help me.
Despite my low post count, I have been reading WP on a daily basis, so I know there is a lot of expertise here.

I'm still a university student. Lately, in lectures where other students are chatting all the time I have severe difficulty functioning.
I can't think straight anymore and feel drowsy, almost drunk.

It's hard to explain but the following things happen:
After at a day following lessons, for the rest of the day, when people are talking to me, I hear that they say something, but don't understand it as language. A few seconds later, it's like my brain translates this sounds to language, and I understand what they say. If they say too many things at once, my brain can't buffer anymore, and I have to ask to repeat. In the evening, I can't even watch tv without subtitles.

This delay in understanding of speech gets bigger as the day progresses. After becoming so tired of sensory input, I bump into things, loose my balance, my speech doesn't make sense, and my body becomes so heavy I HAVE to sit down or sleep NOW. The only way to 'reboot' my functioning is to put on earmuffs and sleep for two hours.

I am by no means intellectually impaired. My verbal IQ is extremely high, so it is a mystery why my understanding of speech is suffering. In days I don't have to attend classes or public events involving socialising, I function fine.

Is this shutdown, sensory overload, or something else?
I currently am on two antidepressants escitalpram and mirtazapine. If there are some of you that experience the same, what has helped you cope? I know earmuffs are my best friend, but I don't dare to wear them in public...

Any advice is more than welcome!! !

It sounds like you are experiencing a sensory overload issue.

Some Aspies have audible hypersensitivities; difficulties with loud sharp sounds, high-pitched sounds and very complex sounds. Your sensitivity appears to have the following component. Your sensitivity is:
Confusing, complex or multipe sounds; such as in a shopping center, or noisy crowded places, the sound of the sea, deafening sound of rushing water, the roar of a motorcycle engine, too many converations going at the same time.

Many Aspies are hypersensitive to light, sounds, tastes, smells and touch. In my case I am fairly fortunate that my hypersensitivity mainly occurs due to long exposure from fluorescent lighting. This results in ocular migraine headaches. A migraine episode would begin with seeing stars around my peripheral vision. Over the next half hour, these sparkling stars would work their way towards the center of my vision, after which my eyesight was obscured by fields of flickering stars and I was effectively blind and then a severe 2-hour long headache would soon follow. For me walking out into natural lighting at the start of an ocular migraine episode minimizes the intensity of the migraine headache. So the solution to this problem for me was avoidance.

You are following a similar route by using earmuffs. You are avoiding sounds. In my case after an episode I just go blind for awhile. Your sensitivity is a little more serious. Your body is going into a severe meltdown called "tonic immobility". The brain is composed of many layers, many components. The oversensitivity is causing your outer and middle layers to shut down and then you inner brain finally enters a state of tonic immobility. You core, innermost brain is like the brain of a young child. It is preverbal. It thinks in terms of sensations, in moving images, in strange sounds. It has not learned words. So you can hear words (sounds) but you just can't grasp the meaning. They are just sounds.

One of the things that Bessel van der Kolk showed when he first started to do trauma research with functional MRIs is that when people are in the trauma state, they actually shut down the frontal parts of their brain and particularly the area on the left cortex called Broca's area, which is responsible for speech. When the person is in the traumatic state, those brain regions are literally shut down; they're taken offline. Some Aspies report that during a meltdown, they have difficulty processing speech. It is like hearing white noise. Others indicate they lose their ability to think in words. Rather they revert back to thinking in terms of pictures and video clips and when they try and communicate, their words come out as gibberish. Others indicate they lose their ability to process all sensory inputs. Sometimes during a panic attack, the whole body goes limp and the person will collapse on the floor.

Advice! The cause of your condition is an overload of stress due to sensory overload. How do you manage it? Learn effective ways for relieving stress. You are experiencing symptoms similar to PTSD. I would suggest you obtain a copy of the book by Peter A. Levine called "In an Unspoken Voice". It will help you understand the condition a little better.

Sensory overload not only with noise type but the vestibular type(balance and movement).

As we become more overload we become more sensory sensitive. That would explain the worsening problems with hearing but not being able to control the vestibular issues later in the day which that you control early in the day.

Universities often have disability departments that may provide you with accommodations such as note takers and sitting you in the quiet area of the room.

Thanks for the replies. Jimmy m, thanks for taking the time writing your elaborated response. It is very interesting to read. I have a list of publications I have to read and I will definitely be adding your suggestion!

I don't understand why a lot of common knowledge amongst autistic individuals about recurring autistic issues (burn out, shutdown, meltdown...) hasn't yet found it's way to doctor's, hospitals, psychologists... I've found one very interesting study about shutdown "Shutdowns and Stress in Autism
By Ingrid M. Loos Miller and Hendricus G. Loos", but most academics publications are small scale!

Since joining this forum, I have learned more about myself from this forum then from professionals...

I would take a look at this guide to shutdowns <link> - it was first posted by Knofskia, I believe, and has done the rounds ever since, as so many people seem to find it enlightening. In particular, it discusses "partial shutdowns", where sensory overload etc. lead to slowing down or loss of certain brain functions but not others. When I start to notice my language or task processing is more difficult than usual, I always take this as a warning sign that I'm exposed to something which might cause a total shut-down or melt-down, so that I can take remedial action early.