Why do I shut down when emotionally overwhelmed?

Part of why this happens is because when we’re faced with this amount of anxiety, we go into fight, flight, or freeze response—and many times, we choose freeze. This “shutdown” is actually a more reasonable response to stress than it may seem.

What happens when someone shuts down emotionally?

It affects your confidence and self-awareness, as well as how you interact and communicate with others. You may feel numb or disembodied at times – unable to connect to your bodily sensations, express your emotions or maintain feelings of intimacy.

What is it called when your emotions overwhelm you?

SIGNS YOU ARE EMOTIONALLY OVERWHELMED Emotional overwhelm occurs when the intensity of your feelings outmatches your ability to manage them. An individual is most likely to be overwhelmed by negative emotions, such as anger, fear, or guilt. However, people experiencing mania can be overwhelmed by euphoria.

What is diffuse physiological arousal?

John Gottman calls it Diffuse Physiological Arousal that state that a person goes into when they have started to emotionally flood and they are starting to shut down emotionally and physically.

Is shutting down a form of dissociation?

Dissociation, particularly the shutting down of sensory, motor and speech systems, has been proposed to emerge in susceptible individuals as a defensive response to traumatic stress. In contrast, other individuals show signs of hyperarousal to acute threat.

What is dissociation shutdown?

Shutdown dissociation includes partial or complete functional sensory deafferentiation, classified as negative dissociative symptoms (see Nijenhuis, 2014; Van Der Hart et al., 2004). The Shut-D focuses exclusively on symptoms according to the evolutionary-based concept of shutdown dissociative responding.

What does it mean when a person stonewalls you?

Stonewalling as Mental Abuse. At other times silence may be a way that a person avoids talking about something that makes them uncomfortable. Refusing to answer may be a way to reject a person or put them down. This may be because the person feels hurt and wants to hurt you back or it may be a form of crazy making.

Is stonewalling a form of emotional abuse?

If stonewalling is used to control, belittle, disrespect, or demean the other person, it may be a form of emotional abuse. In such cases, you should reach out to a mental health professional for help.

How to overcome stonewalling in a relationship?

How to Overcome Stonewalling. If stonewalling occurs within your relationship, it is best to deal with it as a couple. Whether you are the stonewaller or the person being stonewalled, you cannot isolate stonewalling as the problem. Doing so only assigns blame and ends up diminishing the larger issues in the relationship.

What are the consequences of stonewalling in the workplace?

In the Workplace Stonewalling can have the same catastrophic effect on relationships at work, which will eventually affect work performance. Strained relationships can result in loss of personnel, with financial losses for the employer.