A few years ago I was under a lot of stress assisting my father who was my mother's caregiver. She was in the final stages of Alzheimer's at the time and it was a 2 hour drive from my home to theirs. I made the trip every Friday to help my father with paying bills and mail-order prescriptions. I was driving back home on the Turnpike. A trip I had made hundreds of times. It was evening and I was stressed and tired. I did not fall asleep but somehow drove right past my exit and did not realize it until I came to the next exit 10 miles down the road. This would not be unusual except I had no recollection of having passed my exit. It was like a Twilight Zone experience. I know I was "awake" because I was aware of the traffic around me. I just had no memory of having passed my exit even after I realized that I had gone 10 miles past it to the next exit. This did happen one other time under similiar stress circumstances. Am wondering if this could have been a mild instance of autistic Catatonia.This is making me trying to revisit my shutdowns..to make sure that I really did maintain control. Hmmmm. But I've seen this in other people like the little girl I mentioned....where her control seemed to come and go without any queues. Very strange. Just not sure if there's really a connection with sleepwalking and autistic traits.
The human brain never fails to amaze me.