Do You "Check Out" When You Are Overwhelmed Emotionally

[This Ends Now]

Yeah... there are different levels of checking out. For me it happens when my mind has opened up to something new or I get overwhelmed by processing emotions. If it is just the drugged dazed floaty feeling it can be useful in getting me through a bad situation. If I loose speech or movement then it gets really frightening. The past two days I have also noticed the furniture or my body did not seem the right size... still trying to figure that out. Maybe its my mind going into child mode? Don't know but its creepy. I always feel the crash after... absurd exhaustion.

None of this is "fun" but at least it is safer than "crazy eyes" type episodes.

::big hugs:: to everybody who is going through this. I know it is rough.

Liz H.

 

[midi]

I used to have flashbacks (from LSD) and I'd sit there in a cloud, unable to speak or move, while people tried talking to me. I'm glad I don't anymore.

But... I do zone out - especially if I'm in a very uncomfortable situation. A couple months ago, I was in my friend's apartment and her ex-bf walked in. Within a few minutes, because of their disturbing relationship, I'd zoned out. He left and she was all, "Midi? Midi? Hello? Anybody home?" Nope. I'd checked out, but my body stayed!

 

[Nicky31]

Thanks HS for helping me make the link with Dissociation and being safe. I know that I do this a lot when with my boyfriend or at my boyfriends home. How do I know? Because he oftens tells me I've been "away" and also because I feel odd afterwards too. It makes me think that it's another way of just trying to recharge when I have a safe opportunity to do so. For those moments I can let down my hypervigilance shield.

I dissociate in other places too and will think more about where I have been. I am aware that people dissociate during abuse, as it's a way of shutting off and going elsewhere. This also makes perfect sense.

 

[Grama-Herc]

I seriously check out. I go to bed. I just check out of life. Sleep is my way of dealing with overload, stress, panic and all the other things that set us back!

Lots and lots of sleep. The amazing thing is I can literally sleep for days. No problem. Just the TV, the remote, the bed and me.

I highly recommend a long deep sleep session for overload. Even if it has to be done with the aid of an extra pill or 2. Well worth the effort, IMHO

 

[Paloma]

God, I love this forum! Every time I think it's just me...or trying to explain to a 'normie' gets a blank look or a "everybody does that! Ha....ha!" (Nooo...everybody DOESN'T do what we do) I come here and person after person describes what I feel to a "T". Very reassuring!:occasion:

I get that weird, stoned, million miles away, "thousand yard stare", hearing and sensing but unable to process stuff a lot when in a flare...and to a lesser extent when better. It feel like someone turned off the power in my brain..."Paloma: Unplugged"

I believe the physical movement/ sensation stuff comes from a chemical storm in the medial cortex.:rolleyes: Ok ok...I was reading up on the new meds and it explained some of these experiences we have viz a viz the neurotransmitters and brain parts!

 

[BrownEyes]

It feels so good to know that I'm not alone in this. I tried explaining it to my husband, but it's so hard to explain what it's like to someone who has never experienced it. I hate that anyone has to go through it, but it's nice that other people here "get" what each of us go through.

I had read up on dissociation, but I didn't know if that's what I was experiencing or not. The clinical description and the subjective experience of a person can be very different sometimes.

 

[Onefineday]

I don't know if I 'check out', I do know that my entire attitude changes though. Especially around alcohol, one minute I'll be happy, then someone comes along with a drink and I'll go completely quiet, or moody or depressed and everyone will keep asking me what's wrong and think they've done something to upset me. I can't exactly sit there and tell my whole life story and explain that I'm having an emotional flashback, so I just avoid the whole situation and not go out with friends at all. I need to find someone who actually gets it.

 

[ebell83]

Check out? Check!

Sleep is my way of dealing with overload, stress, panic and all the other things that set us back!

Yep, me too. If I'm at home and I'm about to just flip out over something, I head upstairs, slam the door really hard so no one (human or pet) wants to follow and I go to right to sleep. A few hours and I wake up like nothing happened. Too bad I can only get away with this on weekends...

As for the "zoning out", yeah that happens too, although less frequently now. It freaked me out at first, but when I stopped trying to control it and went with it, it was more bearable. Giving up control was the hardest thing I had to learn, though.

 

[Spacechic]

Disassosiation- Blanking out. Yep been there and still go there. My psych told me its our coping mechanism. I find it wreaks havoc with my concnetration. My husband now knows its a sign of me being elsewhere. It is an odd feeling. To me I feel the emotion assosaited with the plae I am lost too but not in here and now. I tend to lose time. That is I will get lost in this space and when I ma bak I am like well what was that?

 

[No-Twitch-Tabitha]

I've been doing it more and more lately. Sometimes the only way I can get through the day (at work - ugh) is to dissociate. Otherwise, I'd get violent or just run out of the building. As for emotions...sometimes I wish I hadn't opened the lid when I started therapy.

 

[reallynow]

SunnyBrookFarms--I read this on the first day I saw this site, and it made me join the site immediately. I went on a depersonalization/derealization forum before, and I could relate a bit, because that is definitely what is going on. But what you described like being inside a tunnel! WOW, thats EXACTLY the same thing I tried explaining to the Therapist and Psychiatrist. I just couldn't put it right and I didn't want to use tunnel. I'm also just aware of things around me (one at a time) and the person speaking, but Its like I almost feel deaf. Then I hear myself responding to what was asked to me, and I feel like I'm not doing the talking. Yet I continue talking from memory like a script, and answer questions, but forget what I said right after or in the middle of the sentence. Its horrible I'm very scared of this feeling and it happens in therapy. After these episodes I also feel tired and can hardly recall what was said back to me.

I am amazed that I can actually speak when I'm in that episode whatever it is, because I highly doubt I would be able to move or walk. HORRIBLE feeling. The tunnel description is completely down to the tee exactly what I would describe it as. Its exactly like a tunnel. WEIRD!

To pull myself out of it, well.... there is no way, except changing the topic to something else, like school, or whatever, that doesn't trigger anything from past. Thats the only time the feeling starts to fade and while its still there its really much more faded. I hope it doesn't get worse

Has anyone ever not been able to speak at all? Because thats almost what it feels like when it happens to me.

 

[dhawkins78412]

Checking out

Doesnt' seem anyone's posted here for a while. I can use this as a place I can get things off my chest and tell you my experience. I check out a lot. People talk to me and I don't remember what they are saying. I do a lot of sympathy responses. Like saying ahah. If it's bad news I try to empathize when I could really care less.

I find it difficult to follow what people are saying. I start out listening well then a few seconds later I check out. I feel like I want to be alone. I have that 1000 mile stare that they talk about. I'm thinking and I'm in my own little world. Not really wanting to communicate with others.

Then there are times when I want to connect with others so I try to be nice. I know its office politics at work. You help me and I help you, etc, etc.

I do it also with family visits. I start at good then I check out, wanting to leave. My husband and I don't stay long. We need to escape b/c of how uncomfortable we feel.

I check out probably the majority of my day.