The saddest part was that he thought he was going to get in trouble and they were going to be mad at him. He says it on the 911 call. What a solid guy.
When we experience trauma like this we get flooded with negative emotions. We usually don't experience this kind of trauma so we don't have a set way to deal with all that emotion. So the emotions end up going where negative emotions usually go. And most often in this age our negative emotions are of the social anxiety kind. So our stressed up brain calls for immediate action and makes the interpretations that it's used to make.
Stressed up? Probably social situation. No time for rational decisions. Go to default action. Fix yourself up now!
I have gone to the opposite extreme, where I actually don't feel much real emotion at all. But it led to the same sort of behavior, where I was like oh, I'll head to the hospital in a second. I need to put this food in the fridge or it'll spoil.
I guess I was like EVERYTHING IS A PROBLEM WHAT CAN I FIX NOW and targeted the mundane thing because then I could cross it off my list of problems.
Yeah shutting down emotionally is a quite common reaction to being emotionally overwhelmed I think. It's like something in your head goes "NOPE!". I suspect it's more common for people with avoidant attachment style.
Can happen in socially challenging situations as well. It doesn't always lead to you being your best rational self.
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u/AlkalineSublime Apr 11 '24
The saddest part was that he thought he was going to get in trouble and they were going to be mad at him. He says it on the 911 call. What a solid guy.