#itasd

As we get a lot of questions that follow similar themes, we’ve created a list of acronyms to use when tagging posts. The new (and a couple old) acronyms are as follows:

AIA - am I autistic

IIAAT- is it an autism thing

ITAAT- is this an autism thing

ITAMD - is that a meltdown

ITASD - is that a shutdown

ITSO - is that sensory overload

ITASPIN - is that a SpIn (special interest)

ITASTIM - is that a stim

For a full list of acronyms used on this blog, please check out our acronym page. 

We received this similar ask a while ago about someone getting stuck in a loop. Our answer there includes a link to this post about different ways a meltdown can look.  So, this may have been a less-widely-recognized type of meltdown, and at the very least is something other autistic people do experience.

I was trying to stop myself and nothing happened. I would try to take a different path, go into my room, sit down, just stop and stand where I was, nothing happened. Finally I decided to make a list of what I needed to do. I decided that if I somehow got a cookie and ate that while I paced, the crumbs along my path would irritate me enough to make me want to stop and sweep. So I wrote down that I would do that, and then I was able to force myself to detour, grab a cookie, and continue pacing.2/3

I was right, as soon as I finished it I was really ready to stop and sweep it all up, and I did, and I was able to continue getting ready to shower, instead dog going back to pacing. I’m theorizing that this may have been a shutdown? I’m not too familiar with them though. Iaatt? 3/3

As it doesn’t sound like you were feeling overwhelmed or distressed, we are not sure if your experience would typically be considered a shutdown.

From our definitions page:

Like a meltdown, a shutdown is a response extreme distress. A shutdown is an internal reaction to this distress. During a shutdown, a person may become unresponsive, lock in place, be unable to talk, and/or appear frozen.

There is usually a passive or vulnerable quality to a shutdown - you become slowed down or immobile, you may be unable to speak, many people seem to feel a need to curl up or hide and so on. While you do describe becoming “locked in place” (being unable to stop pacing), it sounds like this was from a Too Much (stuck in an action), whereas a shutdown is usually accompanied by a Too Little (being unable to initiate an action due to being stuck).

As the ability to start or see through a task as well as task-switching are  linked to executive functioning, we think you may have experienced a kind of “executive dysfunction loop”, which may have been brought on or exacerbated by the hunger.

That said, this post talks about a lack of representation of the various ways autistic people may experience meltdowns and may be of interest to you as well.

The first to me sounds like there was a change in the plan for the day (your mother taking longer than expected to unlock the door) and the second sounds like a sensory issue. 

Both of these can cause a melt or shutdown, which it sounds like you experience in the form of being overwhelmed, angry and/or upset.

That could be a shutdown. Shutdowns can vary in intensity.Personally, I’ll have shutdowns where I can’t move no matter how hard I try andcan’t really do anything at all, but I’ll also have shutdowns that are verysimilar to what you described.

Sounds like a shutdown to me, yep!

That sounds like a meltdown to me. Meltdowns don’t have to be screaming and hitting. They can be crying uncontrollably. This is how my meltdowns usually are. I cry uncontrollably and lose the ability to speak or have a lot of difficulty speaking.