How do you feel before you have a meltdown/shutdown?

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Before I have a meltdown or shutdown I can become easily frustrated, and I feel very physically tense. If I am around other people I have an intense urge to get away from them and may feel "cornered" if I'm not able to. Sounds become very grating, especially human speech, and I don't like people touching me. I also find it harder to talk and think clearly the closer I get to having a meltdown.

I am wondering how other people feel before they have a meltdown/shutdown?

Personally, in overwhelm and losing of control.

Overwhelm is simply in form of heavy encumbrance, overstretched of certain mental reach, or out of sheer overload of intensity, quantity and speed.

The loss of control can manifest in a form of internal failure or something that feels falling apart and possibly into incoherence.
The tense part can happen -- it happens in attempt to salvage control.

Either end up in violent frustration or confusing exhaustion respectively.
Which would happens entirely depends on current tolerance over the situation.

More tolerance means leaning to eventual shutdown than falling into a meltdown -- even if it means losing my thresholds.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
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Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

I start thinking the same thing over and over and over. Usually it's "I have to get out of here!" (sensory), "I can't believe this is happening again!" (trauma trigger), or "Oh My Freaking-God!" (some sort of injustice or hypocrisy).

I hear it faster and faster in my head.

I get tense and feel my arms get very heavy. It's like they fill with too much blood or muscle, ready for fight / flight.

I see in tunnel vision, literally and metaphorically.

I become extremely impatient.

My heart starts pounding and my tinnitus gets louder.

I tune out everyone around me except for the offending thing / person.

I feel absolutely overwhelmed and my hearing starts to sound like I'm under water.

I start swearing in my head or out loud.

When the meltdown happens, I end up on the floor in a ball, even in public. I have to go small.

I'll usually cover my ears and close my eyes.

I can feel violent toward myself or other things (e.g., throwing things).

The physical feelings I get beyond just generally feeling "tense" are like there is some sort of growing pressure in my head/face, and I can feel the muscles specifically in my shoulders and arms tighten. I can't really feel my heartbeat because I am so overwhelmed.

I think a feeling of "losing control" is a good way to explain certain aspects of it. I kind of feel like I have less and less control over myself and my surroundings.

I have also noticed that my vocal tics get really bad, and I'll often make involuntary noises due to it.

When I do have a meltdown I feel a total loss of emotional and physical control, and my ability to think just entirely blanks out. I scream or make other really loud noises. I also can end up hitting myself in the head/chest or hitting other things (just objects, not people).

With shutdowns I can't talk at all or make noise, and my mind still blanks out. I can't make myself move and I sometimes dissociate heavily. If I am continuously bothered by other people I can go from a shutdown to a meltdown.

The feeling I get before a meltdown/shutdown and during one certainly seems sort of "primitive". It's like my basic instincts are trying to desperately get me out of whatever situation(s) I am in, and when I can't I go into full fight-or-flight mode.

I can't usually talk during meltdowns, and can only scream or make noise. Talking requires me to be able to think and to properly process my responses, which is impossible at that point.

https://www.starsdorset.org/blog/how-th ... lop-friend

Here they refer to Fawn as "Friend", meaning "befriend the enemy".

They also discuss Flop which is like a prolonged burnout or shutdown, similar to playing dead. It can be accompanied by dissociation like you've described.

Tight and warm/hot face muscles. Body tense and coiled like a spring. Fading in and out of comprehension of conversation. Struggle to find words.

(Part 1. I will add to this or ammend it in a bit as I need to take a break. Sorry!).

For me, I will start with meltdowns because I rarely get them (Full on meltdowns) or I commonly get them in a minor way if they switch to shutdowns (And it took me a lot of thinking after joining this site to realize I also have meltdowns and some can be minor and seen as "Grumpiness" or "Mood swings" (Which is quite out of character for me if you knew me). My youngest brother is very tuned in to notice character traits in others and does impressions of them. If he wasn't so shy to be up on stage he could easily be a really tallented and great impressionist as he picks up on finer details that I did not know that I had. It was when he once did an impression of me, I realized something about myself that I had not known which is why I am able to write this, and it is when I get grumpy and have mood swings.
I am naturally level headed. Yes, my mood does naturally fluctuate a little, but I am not one who naturally has sudden mood swings unless I go into a mild meltdown which flips into a shutdown.
But for me the rare event of a full on meltdown would happen after a prolonged and gradual build up of stress during the day and then at night when all is calm and I feel claustrophobic the experience begins.
Because it takes time to develop (Unlike shutdowns which don't take that long though I can delay them... But I try not to delay a shutdown because if I delay them I have them much deeper and much worse if I have delayed them as it is a case where I could have had a more minor partial shutdown, but because I have delayed it, I end up in a full on shutdown when it happens)... But because full on meltdowns for me are very stretched out and very rare.. Maybe once every other year? Or once every few years? But when I have them I can feel them slowly progressing...
I have to stop as I can feel myself getting stressed... I will write again. Sorry.

I don't get meltdowns any more but when I did it started off with me feeling triggered by something like somebody saying the wrong words to me, or if I was already feeling depressed and isolated it would turn into anger and I'd go into meltdown mode. It was hard to control, because I'd be shaking and my heart would be beating fast, and I had to let people know I was feeling this way and I felt that being calm and cool would not be taken seriously by people.

I'm so glad I don't have those any more. They really turn people off you.

My brain stops working, I get ringing in my eras, my lips tingle. I can't speak properly, I swear and sometimes throw things

I generally feel a loss of control, often combined with rage. if I’m able to sense that I’m pre-meltdown I try to go to a dark room, usually the bathroom, and sit in the dark on the floor. Those moments just prior to a meltdown are tough, because I don’t always know what’s happening until I’m already experiencing a meltdown.