God I hate #AutisticShutdown. Feels like I'm locked in my own body. Any #ActuallyAutistic friends have any advice on breaking the spell?

Is it weird or common to have #autisticShutdown just after waking up? I haven't connected the dots earlier, but "this thing I do almost every morning" kind of fits into the shutdown category... And I'm not sure how I should feel about it... :blobfox0_0:

#actuallyAutistic #autism

Now here’s a CLASSIC example of PDA, which captures what ‘demand avoidant’ is supposed to mean:

When friends/family suggest doing something, even if it’s something I would DEFINITELY like, I go full-on rabbit-in-the-headlights. You want to see #autisticShutdown? Just try committing me to go for a walk in the woods on the May bank holiday. 😱

Now, this one I can kind of explain…

Every Saturday night my partner and I watch comedy TV shows together and inevitably I slowly dissociate and autistically shut down until I feel like just a soap bubble of melancholy bobbing along a foggy current, reality and thought reduced to a dull hum as I watch someone else's stories and find myself mourning the stories I fear I will never write, but in a deep down way I could never put in to words, unable to act, unable to speak, sitting next to someone but feeling half a universe away, and wholly and completely alone.

Every. freaking. week. The Owl House and Rick and Morty shouldn't have this effect on someone. Does anyone else get this mix of #dissociation and #AutisticShutdown (and possibly also emotional flashback?)

#ActuallyAutistic @actuallyautistic

I really struggle with dealing with dark lighting. I get under-simulated. It makes me angry, physically uncomfortable, and generally wrecks my day. My roommate, on the other hand, is over-stimulated by too much lighting. We typically exist in a middle ground with some lights on, and others off. Today, she turned all the lights but one off, which led to me going into an #AutisticShutdown. I ended up sitting on the floor of my kitchen, under the light like a lizard