LilyJo
Active Member
I apologise if there is a similar thread elsewhere. I came across this article which describes various shutdown phenomenon: shutdown (thing) by Zifendorf - Everything2.com I was particularly fascinated by the bit on partial shutdowns to do with being able to write but then not read what you'd just written. I wondered if anyone had actually experienced any of these? I know I've had the misfortune to encounter many of them! LJ
Below is the descriptions of partial shutdowns in case the link doesn't work. There is much more info on the link though.
Partial Shutdowns
Sensory shutdowns involve total or partial loss of the ability to understand sensory information. The information is still received, but the person doesn't understand it. Visual shutdown is known by many autistic people as meaning-blindness, and auditory shutdown is called meaning-deafness. In visual shutdown, information is taken in through the eyes, but some part of understanding that information doesn't happen. The person may be able to understand shape, color, and distance enough to navigate, but unable to understand what objects he is looking at. He might be unable to consciously perceive anything visually at all. He may be able to take in less visual information than usual, seeing only small parts of things at a time. And he may see some distortions in his vision. Other perceptual shutdowns resemble this, but in the other senses. In these shutdowns, the senses remain technically intact, but the ability to interpret them is lost. They can resemble theagnosias or pure sight.
Receptive language shutdowns happen when a person loses previous ability to understand some amount of receptive language. Sometimes it only happens in one sense, so that someone can read but not understand speech, or vice versa. Sometimes a person may be able to understand speech with a regular rhythm, such as music, but unable to understand ordinary speech. Sometimes it involves all language coming in from outside, regardless of the sense or the way the language is happening. Text looks like meaningless garble, or the person may be able to read aloud the words but find no meaning in them. Speech sounds like noise or what Donna Williams calls blah-blah, or the person may be able to understand a few individual words but not put them together. Words in general come in, but they feel like they hover around in your brain finding nothing to connect with. Receptive language shutdown doesn't necessarily imply expressive language shutdown, which can lead to interesting situations like writing complicated articles on shutdown while being unable to read them. These kind of shutdowns can resemble the receptive aphasias.
Expressive language shutdowns involve losing the ability to come up with or use speech and writing. This may involve increased difficulty with word-finding, syntax, grammar, or the ability to use words -- or at times any symbols -- in any way at all. It may result in telegraphic speech or writing: "Words gone. Need time think." These kinds of shutdowns can resemble the expressive aphasias.
Speech shutdown occurs when a person becomes unable to use some or all functional speech. She may or may not be capable of vocalizing, singing, echolalia, or even seemingly normal speech on a few narrow topics. Speech shutdown does not always entail the loss of expressive language, and a person experiencing it may be able to type or write. Someone may have immense word-finding difficulties when using speech but none at all when writing, or may be able to discuss a broader range of topics in writing than they can in speech. Despite Tony Attwood's unfortunate wording, speech shutdown is not the same as selective mutism because it need not be due to fear or any other emotion.
Motor shutdowns involve losing the ability to deal with some aspect of voluntary movement. A person experiencing this kind of shutdown may or may not have trouble with automatic, triggered movements in response to a familiar form of stimulation, but be unable to form his own very easily. He may become clumsier when trying his own movements, he may get the wrong movement altogether when he tries to do something, or he may simply be slowed down, sometimes to the point of immobility. He may be able to move if physically assisted, or move one small part of his body but have trouble with others. While this is happening, he may or may not still be moving in repetitive or automatic ways. Motor shutdowns can resemble dyspraxia or apraxia.
Other partial shutdowns can involve loss of memory, sense of time, emotional perception, sense of self or other, or various specific aspects of thinking. What they have in common is that they only involve a partial loss in functioning. Often they will bear at least a superficial resemblance to a number of cognitive difficulties that tend to have Greek names starting in dys- or a-: aphasia, dysphasia, apraxia, dyspraxia, anomia, agraphia, dysgraphia, alexia, dyslexia, hyperlexia,alexithymia, agnosia, and so forth.
Below is the descriptions of partial shutdowns in case the link doesn't work. There is much more info on the link though.
Partial Shutdowns
Sensory shutdowns involve total or partial loss of the ability to understand sensory information. The information is still received, but the person doesn't understand it. Visual shutdown is known by many autistic people as meaning-blindness, and auditory shutdown is called meaning-deafness. In visual shutdown, information is taken in through the eyes, but some part of understanding that information doesn't happen. The person may be able to understand shape, color, and distance enough to navigate, but unable to understand what objects he is looking at. He might be unable to consciously perceive anything visually at all. He may be able to take in less visual information than usual, seeing only small parts of things at a time. And he may see some distortions in his vision. Other perceptual shutdowns resemble this, but in the other senses. In these shutdowns, the senses remain technically intact, but the ability to interpret them is lost. They can resemble theagnosias or pure sight.
Receptive language shutdowns happen when a person loses previous ability to understand some amount of receptive language. Sometimes it only happens in one sense, so that someone can read but not understand speech, or vice versa. Sometimes a person may be able to understand speech with a regular rhythm, such as music, but unable to understand ordinary speech. Sometimes it involves all language coming in from outside, regardless of the sense or the way the language is happening. Text looks like meaningless garble, or the person may be able to read aloud the words but find no meaning in them. Speech sounds like noise or what Donna Williams calls blah-blah, or the person may be able to understand a few individual words but not put them together. Words in general come in, but they feel like they hover around in your brain finding nothing to connect with. Receptive language shutdown doesn't necessarily imply expressive language shutdown, which can lead to interesting situations like writing complicated articles on shutdown while being unable to read them. These kind of shutdowns can resemble the receptive aphasias.
Expressive language shutdowns involve losing the ability to come up with or use speech and writing. This may involve increased difficulty with word-finding, syntax, grammar, or the ability to use words -- or at times any symbols -- in any way at all. It may result in telegraphic speech or writing: "Words gone. Need time think." These kinds of shutdowns can resemble the expressive aphasias.
Speech shutdown occurs when a person becomes unable to use some or all functional speech. She may or may not be capable of vocalizing, singing, echolalia, or even seemingly normal speech on a few narrow topics. Speech shutdown does not always entail the loss of expressive language, and a person experiencing it may be able to type or write. Someone may have immense word-finding difficulties when using speech but none at all when writing, or may be able to discuss a broader range of topics in writing than they can in speech. Despite Tony Attwood's unfortunate wording, speech shutdown is not the same as selective mutism because it need not be due to fear or any other emotion.
Motor shutdowns involve losing the ability to deal with some aspect of voluntary movement. A person experiencing this kind of shutdown may or may not have trouble with automatic, triggered movements in response to a familiar form of stimulation, but be unable to form his own very easily. He may become clumsier when trying his own movements, he may get the wrong movement altogether when he tries to do something, or he may simply be slowed down, sometimes to the point of immobility. He may be able to move if physically assisted, or move one small part of his body but have trouble with others. While this is happening, he may or may not still be moving in repetitive or automatic ways. Motor shutdowns can resemble dyspraxia or apraxia.
Other partial shutdowns can involve loss of memory, sense of time, emotional perception, sense of self or other, or various specific aspects of thinking. What they have in common is that they only involve a partial loss in functioning. Often they will bear at least a superficial resemblance to a number of cognitive difficulties that tend to have Greek names starting in dys- or a-: aphasia, dysphasia, apraxia, dyspraxia, anomia, agraphia, dysgraphia, alexia, dyslexia, hyperlexia,alexithymia, agnosia, and so forth.
And for those of us who are perpetually alone...it's just that much harder. 
