Catatonia

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Recently in surfing the Net, I came across a concept that was new to me: autistic catatonia.

https://asatonline.org/research-treatme ... catatonia/
https://autismawarenesscentre.com/autis ... catatonia/

Anyone know anything about this?

I don't fit diagnostic criteria, but I do wonder if something similar underlies my inability to start tasks sometimes.

Isn't it just misunderstood autistic shutdown?

Especially the asatonline article worries me: the parent describes shutdowns and likely a demands-excess-abilities stage of life of the child, the response ABA-pathologizes it

Hey Bea . I put this together some years ago now... http://www.aspie-editorial.com/autismas-and-catatonia/

I was contacted by a Mother who’d written a book entitled “It’s Ok, Eli” as her autistic son was effected by Catatonia. I did have a read of it, and my thoughts are that things such as abuse or trauma can result in catatonia for sure. Certainly a very interesting topic, and there is some good research going on. There are some good books on Autism & Catatonia out there.

I go into a catatonic like state when I am in what I call a full shutdown.

The other article linked in the OP seems more useful.

I agree. Don't ABA it, help with general physical and mental health instead.

I get what I call full shutdowns where I lose control of my ability to power my body. My body goes limp and floppy, and then my eyesight goes black. It is not a faint or a blackout as I am concious.

I have been labelled weak, lazy, "You always do this to get out of work" (When suddenly unexpected I am asked to lift something heavy and the unexpectedness of it pushes me into a partial shutdown and then the heavy lifting while in a partial shutdown has pushed me into a full on shutdown).

It has taken me most of my life until I joined this site to find out what they were, as past doctors ended up labelling me as some sort of hypercondriact so they restricted me to one three appointment a year, so I never did get any help for many many years until about five years ago I changed doctors. If they knew me, I do not like visiting doctors as the doctors surgery enviroment can cause me shutdown issues, and also I get mindblank when trying to talk about things so I have to talk about unrelated things to free up my mind so I can talk. The doctors convinced me for many years (Most of my life) that I had "Some sort of allergy" that was the cause. Hence for around 30 years I have been on a hunt trying to track down this "Allergy" and getting no where.
When I changed doctors, the last doctors who had treated me so badly over many years somehow lost my entire medical record when the new doctors asked them for it... But actually this was the best thing that ever happened to me, as I was not labelled (Doctors own private notes which I was not allowed to see) with being some sort of a hypercondriact and I now have access to doctors when I need them and they have been great. It is like coming out of a third world country into the modern world when it comes to healthcare, so my advice is, if one is getting no where, try changing doctors as here in the UK there really is a world of difference between one doctors surgery and another in the way one gets treated. I am really now well blessed with the doctors I now have.

I am not saying the old doctors did not try, but because they could not find anything they could relate to, they then decided it was me who was mentally trying to seek attention. (Why would I be trying to do that always having the same general complaint?)

I have had shutdowns where I can end up in a catatonic like state since around the age of seven years old onwards. I was told things like "Ignore it and it will go away" and "Get up off the floor" and things like that. The reason why was that none of my family knew what it was and they thought that I was being "Mellowdramatic" (Whatever that means)...

Part of the issue is that it must be relatively rare, and the other part is that few doctors know much about it. As when I pull out of it I can feel weak and shaky and I need something sugary to eat and drink or a pastie etc, I have been tested for diabetis many times. (I hate needles and the hospital atmosphere because the smells cause me shutdowns as to the long corridors with flurescent lights. I am ok with flurescent lights normally but if I get a partial shutdown, the corridors become suddenly claustrophobic and the lighting becomes a bit too much. The bleach and other medical smells can start a shutdown for me. I start to go weak and it takes all my strength to stay upright (Partial shutdown). I start to panic as if I can't get outside (Away from the trigger enviroment) I know not only will I get a shutdown, but I will get repeat shutdowns as I can't get out. It is a horrible feeling of eing trapped on top of having to deal with shutdowns. I was once in a hospital for six hours due to this as the nurse thought I was fainting, so she would go through the proceedure to try and make me think and use my brain every time I began to recover, and I kept going straight back in. I had to drive out the car park when I was in no fit state to drive to avoid parking fines as one is only allowed to park for six hours and I had just gone over the time and I only went in to get a blood test! (If something had gone in front of me no way could I have stopped as I was wiped out of energy after all those shutdowns! But there was no choice).

Finding somewhere else to park and half an hour later after lots of chocolate and food and sugary drink I was able to drive the journey back home.

But anyway... Yes. I am yet to be officially assessed so I can't say for sure that I am on the spectrum or that I have shutdowns, but look at the link below of the shutdown experience which is soo similar to mine that I put it on my signature.

Ooh. The first link! I will copy a bit from it.

Most of those I have had. Breathing and swollowing are issues I have had in the last four or five years and I have been to A&E and various visits to doctors over it. Also stomache acid issues with it.
Also, I have a looooong history with digestion problems though it is less so recently. I never knew they had anything to do with this! Oh. Sometimes I have wet myself as I am unable to stop when I start and think I have finished and I go to do up my trousers and walk away and more comes out.
I have had acid come straigt through my rear end on many occasions where I was burning holes in my underpants and trousers with digestion issues. Complete portions of green leaves would come out undigested, and I was actually able to give myself the runs on demand if I decided to thinkmof something which made me anxious, and I once explained this to a past doctor and he told me off for saying this and said it was completely impossible and I don't know what I am talking about, so I kept quiet and never mentioned it again, even though I was having to buy pants and trousers to replace the ones with holes....

Also sudden hot flushes and very sudden itchy rashes with them which go and dissapear as if nothing has happened. I would be boiling hot ripping my shirt off in the middle of an icy cold winter! Yes, temperature issues... The more I read the list, the more I am reading things that make sense!

Blood pressure. Have a past history of it being too low, but since I have had swollowing issues (Throat and sometimes even nose closes so I hardly can breathe at all and artificial sweetners make things much worse so I can't touch them), but since I have had swollowing issues, my blood pressure switched to from being too low to being too high...

Mountain Goat, when you go for your assessment, you could print out that article and bring it in to show the evaluator and ask them about it.

I think one of these articles said autistic catatonia is quite rare on the order of 1-2 percent of autistics, not 1-2 percent of the general population. So it's possible the assessment staff might not know, but at least you can ask.

Excellent web page, Juliette!

It could be an idea.

Is it that rare?