Guidance for: I've gone quiet and I can't make myself do anything

Take things away, don't add them

This is the other kind of stuck, and it wants the opposite of the usual advice. A shutdown is what happens after too much has gone in for too long: speech gets expensive or disappears, and instructions stop being possible to act on. Standing up and doing two things is asking for exactly what has run out.

Then, if you have room for it

• Subtract. Every light, sound, screen and person you can remove is the treatment here.
• Let speech go. Typing, pointing or nodding are all fine, and forcing words makes the whole thing last longer.
• Cancel the next thing. A shutdown you push through becomes a longer one, usually the same evening.
• Afterwards, look at what filled the tank rather than what tipped it over. It's rarely the last thing that did it.

Watch

• Meltdowns, shutdowns and burnout: what's the difference?Mom on the Spectrum · 14 minThree states that get called the same thing and need different responses. Longer than most here.(opens in a new tab)

Read

• All about autistic shutdownsReframing AutismWhat a shutdown is, what it looks like from outside, and why pushing through makes it longer.(opens in a new tab)
• Meltdowns: a guide for all audiencesNational Autistic SocietySeparates meltdown from shutdown, and says plainly that neither is chosen.(opens in a new tab)
• When everything becomes too muchNational Autistic SocietyDistress as a signal rather than behaviour, and what helps while it's happening.(opens in a new tab)
• Autistic Self Advocacy NetworkASANAutistic-led. Worth knowing about if most of what you've read was written about you, not by people like you.(opens in a new tab)