deadpan vs. meltdown

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The other day, my coworker got unexpectedly stressed out with me because of a mistake that had been made. She was justified in feeling stressed. Instead of reacting, I shut down, got lost in thought, and had to think hard to answer her questions. Does this happen to anyone here ever? Is this like a meltdown? I know that meltdowns involve tears and tantrums...I just withdraw into myself and don't come out for a while.

What usually shuts me down is not having time to catch all the misconceptions included in a lecture. Some of my wife's rants took years to decipher. When the backlog was at its peak, catatonia started to seem like a possible haven. However, you might have just been triggered into a younger emotional state by some resonance with your history.

Definitely happens to me. Dissociation, numbing out.

Definitely. My "best friend" always gets annoyed with me for being 'slow to respond' and "difficult to get info out of"...I don't think I am THAT slow to respond, I just think about what I am going to say before I say it. But regardless, when I sense that she is getting upset or annoyed with me, this is very bothersome to me and it only makes me even slower to organize my ideas and track with what she is asking of me. Catch 22...:.