Today, around 2:30 I had something unsuspected put me into high gear for a few hours. After that I was so exhausted at 8 PM I had to go to bed and slept for two hours. Does this happen to anyone else? It was really annoying because I understood what had happened to me but I couldn't shut down the overreaction. I knew I was overreacting and loud but I couldn't hid it.
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Severe fatigue following Aspie high.
- Thread starter Aspieistj
- Start date
I am am the same. I always "crash" after getting really high/intense. I did wonder whether it was some sort if bipolar thing, but it isn't. I am really glad you posted this thread, because its been puzzling me for a while!
I get exhausted from the intense concentration bursts I can have over something really interesting. I also get totally knackered from busy social occasions ( yup, those times when I have no choice but to join in a big social event always ends up with me burning the candle at both ends just to be hyper vigilant, followed by a brain dead zombie-like state where I'm good for nothing for a while!!)
When I'm really in my zone over my special interests, I can go for days on a wave of concentration. I've just been like this for a couple of days actually. I have not really noticed hunger and forgotten to eat. I'm sure at some point I will burn out again and be zonked!
If the alternative is to never experience the high of intensity that comes with concentration, then what a dull life it must be.
About you knowing you were reacting but unable to help yourself, that's exactly what happens to me too. I am avoiding socialising as much as possible because I don't like external situations governing my responses and energy levels. It's not something I can control. I like to keep my energy focused as much as possible on what I want to be doing with it, not wasted on pointless things other people interfere with my concentration with.
This is a really important topic you've raised here, and it will be interesting to see how many other people can relate to this.
I get exhausted from the intense concentration bursts I can have over something really interesting. I also get totally knackered from busy social occasions ( yup, those times when I have no choice but to join in a big social event always ends up with me burning the candle at both ends just to be hyper vigilant, followed by a brain dead zombie-like state where I'm good for nothing for a while!!)
When I'm really in my zone over my special interests, I can go for days on a wave of concentration. I've just been like this for a couple of days actually. I have not really noticed hunger and forgotten to eat. I'm sure at some point I will burn out again and be zonked!
If the alternative is to never experience the high of intensity that comes with concentration, then what a dull life it must be.
About you knowing you were reacting but unable to help yourself, that's exactly what happens to me too. I am avoiding socialising as much as possible because I don't like external situations governing my responses and energy levels. It's not something I can control. I like to keep my energy focused as much as possible on what I want to be doing with it, not wasted on pointless things other people interfere with my concentration with.
This is a really important topic you've raised here, and it will be interesting to see how many other people can relate to this.
LittleFiddle05
Well-Known Member
Yes, I can definitely relate. I actually went to a psychologist asking about Asperger's - I'd made my first friend in years, he has Asperger's, and recognized it in me. That psychologist dismissed the idea. I was rather depressed during the first appointment, then a couple days before the next one I had a spurt of energy that lasted up through my next appointment, I was talking a mile a minute about the source of the spurt - namely, I changed my major to psychology, which had been a more consistent interest, while my previous major had much less to do with the interest that sparked it than it did with business (I'd been an international affairs major, I LOVE languages but turns out, most people in international affairs just hire a translator). I went in ranting about what classes I wanted to take what semester and how everything was all better and how now I just needed to learn how to cope next time I was down (I'd been sleeping whenever I wasn't in class, I would buy food and be too exhausted to eat it... it was very blah, and I knew I'd need to know what to do next time it happened). By my next appointment, I was in the collapse low that followed. Considering those were my first 3 appointments, needless to say that psychologist wanted to look into bipolar - and I could believe it.
I find that applies to even just regular happiness for me, though I don't know if that's a normal aspie thing. Before the Asperger's diagnosis, I thought of it this way: When I immerse myself in something, I immerse myself completely. I don't really know if I can say I have special interests so much as I get obsessive about ANYTHING I do, it's one thing that's made me worry if maybe I can't really claim the title Aspie. Anyway, that obsessiveness applies to emotions too - for me, I can't just be happy; I have to be ecstatic, so inspired and motivated that nothing in the world can touch me. Sooner or later, that has to end... and not only am I exhausted from all the energy exerted on those good emotions and whatever I was so obsessed with at the time, but I also have to be obsessive about the new emotions, which include a sense of reality and less happiness, which when obsessed over become more and more like a mini depression, which falls into a sort of fatigue. It's actually to a point where I dread good times because the most extreme lows come directly after them, and the contrast makes the low so much more difficult to cope with. I suppose that branches beyond fatigue, but for me those lows tend to manifest in exhaustion and spending every spare minute in bed, so I think it fits here? And I do know a big part of that low is just simply being tired, so I definitely experience what you're specifically focusing on as well as the rest.
I find that applies to even just regular happiness for me, though I don't know if that's a normal aspie thing. Before the Asperger's diagnosis, I thought of it this way: When I immerse myself in something, I immerse myself completely. I don't really know if I can say I have special interests so much as I get obsessive about ANYTHING I do, it's one thing that's made me worry if maybe I can't really claim the title Aspie. Anyway, that obsessiveness applies to emotions too - for me, I can't just be happy; I have to be ecstatic, so inspired and motivated that nothing in the world can touch me. Sooner or later, that has to end... and not only am I exhausted from all the energy exerted on those good emotions and whatever I was so obsessed with at the time, but I also have to be obsessive about the new emotions, which include a sense of reality and less happiness, which when obsessed over become more and more like a mini depression, which falls into a sort of fatigue. It's actually to a point where I dread good times because the most extreme lows come directly after them, and the contrast makes the low so much more difficult to cope with. I suppose that branches beyond fatigue, but for me those lows tend to manifest in exhaustion and spending every spare minute in bed, so I think it fits here? And I do know a big part of that low is just simply being tired, so I definitely experience what you're specifically focusing on as well as the rest.
Yup, sounds fairly familiar for me as well.
Though quite often I'm so exhausted that I don't rest for a short period, but I just go in full on sleep mode for the next 6+ hours. It's one of those things that kinda shifts my circadian cycle around too much and makes it so that 24 hour daycycles don't work for me.
I have some experiences where I just know when and why I will crash, so I tend to avoid that. Usually, any distraction will make it so that I have a hard time getting back into something and said crash seems inevitable (and clearly to avoid distractions I tend to live mostly at night rather than during the day). If I'm focused I'm good to go, but if I'm taken out of the loop and have to readjust to get into something, it's not happening. It's probably comparable to a car shifting gears. Going from neutral to the highest gear needs a build up and that's what my brain can do if I get into something I'm interested in... though it seems it can do it like, once a day or so. If I take a break (for food, toilet break, household chores, or even just because I need to attend to something else) I feel I can't start all over building up to the highest gear, so to speak.
On a related note; In a sense I'm glad that I can disconnect from "regular" life enough to keep on top of my interests, so the crash doesn't affect my functioning and creative processes too much. But that might make my life more isolated and difficult to "fit in" at the same time.
It's interesting LittleFiddle brought up bipolar, since that's one of those things a therapist might suspect with me as well. Though I'm not sure if I have my ups and downs for no reason (which, to my understanding, tends to be a case with bipolar often). I think that the entire issue of ups and downs just has to do with mental fatigue. If I'm crashing, I do tend to get a bit more depressed and moody. It's probably where I just know "Bed! Now!" and going to bed usually that keeps me from actually getting in a really bad depression as such. Probably helps me a lot that I have enough freedom to live such a lifestyle though. I'm quite sure some people can't do this and have all kinds of obligations going on in their daily life.
Though quite often I'm so exhausted that I don't rest for a short period, but I just go in full on sleep mode for the next 6+ hours. It's one of those things that kinda shifts my circadian cycle around too much and makes it so that 24 hour daycycles don't work for me.
I have some experiences where I just know when and why I will crash, so I tend to avoid that. Usually, any distraction will make it so that I have a hard time getting back into something and said crash seems inevitable (and clearly to avoid distractions I tend to live mostly at night rather than during the day). If I'm focused I'm good to go, but if I'm taken out of the loop and have to readjust to get into something, it's not happening. It's probably comparable to a car shifting gears. Going from neutral to the highest gear needs a build up and that's what my brain can do if I get into something I'm interested in... though it seems it can do it like, once a day or so. If I take a break (for food, toilet break, household chores, or even just because I need to attend to something else) I feel I can't start all over building up to the highest gear, so to speak.
On a related note; In a sense I'm glad that I can disconnect from "regular" life enough to keep on top of my interests, so the crash doesn't affect my functioning and creative processes too much. But that might make my life more isolated and difficult to "fit in" at the same time.
It's interesting LittleFiddle brought up bipolar, since that's one of those things a therapist might suspect with me as well. Though I'm not sure if I have my ups and downs for no reason (which, to my understanding, tends to be a case with bipolar often). I think that the entire issue of ups and downs just has to do with mental fatigue. If I'm crashing, I do tend to get a bit more depressed and moody. It's probably where I just know "Bed! Now!" and going to bed usually that keeps me from actually getting in a really bad depression as such. Probably helps me a lot that I have enough freedom to live such a lifestyle though. I'm quite sure some people can't do this and have all kinds of obligations going on in their daily life.
GoofKing
All your bases are belong to us
I experienced more like a Aspie high when socializing because I get lost in my own little world but after extended time spent with people without having any time to my own literally drains me ...
Like for example when I went to work my parents and brother at an amusement park ... I experienced a weird high and some sort of euphoria but by the time three or four o clock came around, I was screaming to be alone. At the end of their all-day shift, I was already asleep on the way home lol
Like for example when I went to work my parents and brother at an amusement park ... I experienced a weird high and some sort of euphoria but by the time three or four o clock came around, I was screaming to be alone. At the end of their all-day shift, I was already asleep on the way home lol
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