It is like hand holding. Cats and dogs don’t have hands to interact with the world, they primarily use their paws and mouths but their mouth is the more delicate option than the paw. My cat will grab my finger with his mouth and just hand on to it for a few seconds, no bite, just hold. So it may just be your dog is holding you for some reason. Is there any pull at all? No directionality to it? If not, it mah just be an affectionate holding.
It would be if conscious… I mean, ultimately it has only happened in the fairly significant past for me. None of this gas been as much of an issue since getting started on Ritalin.
Personally I don’t use it, but I would have a few options. Wearing it like a belt anywhere along the central mass of the body would give some pressure, as well and around any limb. Because the belt is much wider than other belts it should reduce the constriction of blood flow. Alternative uses could include going over the shoulders in a loop to allow pressing out with the hands like a push up, allowing a varying pressure.
Elasticated luggage belt
I can’t give you how they look in general terms but I can give you my experiences. I have had shutdowns in overwhelming situations many times and generally it results in a few behaviours. I become mostly silent, certainly not able to articulate complex thoughts, and my remaining speech is often limited to a few phrases, most commonly “I don’t know”. I would have more trouble looking at a person than usual, sometimes staring off into the void and occasionally I would start to fall asleep or actually pass out. I have been in the middle of an argument with my parents and when they started yelling I just passed out in my chair lent over the kitchen table.
In other situations where it more sensory I have had different experience. On a loud train I found myself having trouble moving and missed my stop trying to get up. On a loud coach (long distance bus) I slept the entire trip and woke up desperate to urinate.
Yes, there is more.
You sound like you are experiencing burnout and as a result anhedonia and depression.
Burnout is a very real clinical condition caused by the demands you are operating under being dysfunctional in some way. It is very real and can lead to a dangerous depression.
Anhedonia is the loss of enjoyment in things you previously enjoyed. For example, when I had anhedonia video games because uninteresting, boring even, and the effort required to play was too much and there was no reward to playing.
You need to deal with this before it escalates into full blown depression and burnout. It can take much longer to fix than it will take to stop now, so get started ASAP. Starting an antidepressant may be helpful, it may not, but it is just one tool and I personally would avoid it having done it before.
The other steps for managing burnout are largely about changing the demands on you, the level of connection to other people, and what you do to relax. Exercise is a really helpful tool and honestly is what makes me resilient against another bout of burnout now.
Good luck
The below video is a great exploration of the topic. I personally feel that if it is going to help you validate your need for support and especially if it will help you get support then it has value. I can also see how one could decide it does not have sufficient value to go through the process and be diagnosed.
If you go to the far right lower tab you will see your user listed at the top. Click on that and you will see a list of accounts you have added. You can switch accounts here and then go back to the lower left tab to see the instance at the top with similar behaviour.
That is my understanding as a user, it seems sane if a little clunky.
When I am entering a space I have 360° visibility. I see all, I know all. I can therefore make a calm and practiced motion while being fully aware of my surroundings as I park.
When I am leaving the space my view is inherently restricted. If I am pointing out I can see to both sides, see oncoming and same side traffic, see pedestrians, and see even more as I pull out of the spot.
If I am pulling out in reverse I can see far less. I have a very twisty neck so I can see behind me (180°) plus another maybe 40°, leaving me with an 80° view, but it is from the opposite end of the car space so it is narrowed. As I pull out I see more, but the whole time it is more narrow. I can’t see the rear of vehicle and I certainly can’t see far to either side of the vehicle at the road level.
So I think the key is thinking about your worst visibility. I think the overall visibility is better when I reverse in to the space and drive straight out when compared with driving directly in and reversing out. I think I can see small people and kids better over the bonnet of the car rather than out the rear window and I think I can react better to the situation when I am reversing in than when I am reversing out.
Making a memory requires intention and attention. Most people don’t remember the drive to work, going to the toilet, or showering, but their way of interpreting the world includes a little summary step, a sort of “Yep, done that” for each task. They remember that they showered, but they don’t remember showering. When they then try to recall showering they confabulate something reasonable, a sort of stand in for having a shower, but it isn’t recorded that morning, it is just a kind of simulation of what showering is usually like when they have a shower at home, in the morning, on a workday etc.
Because you have fewer executive function slots you are using all of them to do your tasks, so you don’t have spare slots to also make summaries. This is actually not a bad thing, I mean who really wants to have full video memory of every shower they have ever had, but it can look like memory issues if you have incorrect expectations. Most people don’t remember most of what they say they remember, they remember a summary which compresses it and makes it much easier to store but not a full recollection of the event itself.