Catatonia and paralysis

While at school I was getting off the bus, the same way I usually do. Listening to music while walking past rows of busses.
Except I noticed something, my arm didn’t fall like it was suppose to after putting my iPod into my shirt pocket. Its been going on for a while but I never thought of it. My arm tends to just stay suspended wherever it was last when I was using it.
I also used to have the habit of standing in place while holding my leg up, grabbing my ankle with my left hand keeping it there. When I realize what I’m doing I find that I’ve been staring at a brick wall and that my leg had been up so long that it hurt at the knee once I finally put it down. It happens at school as well.
Never thought much of it till today.

Do you think it could possibly be some sort of catatonic thing?, Anyone have any similar experiences?
(I haven’t been sleeping much due to school, my apologies if it seems jumbled)

Worth mentioning to your pdoc as soon as you can. Myself, I always had a great sense of peace after a catatonic attack. Which I;ve always found rather addictive in a way.

It’ll be brought up along with multiple other things. Its not really bad as far as I know but it probably could escalate. I’ve been doing it for a really long time, actually.

I have had catatonic states that last about 9hrs on 3 different occasions. Except mine are a bit different besides one incident hwere I stood in one spot with a heavy coat on in winter for hours.

the most recent ones happen sort of like this: I just get this funny feeling in my body all over. my limbs are the first to get hit. I feel so physically tired, like iv’e just ran a really long run or like I am in a daze. all three times except once I had someonehelp me to my bed and situate my body so that it was in a “comfortable” position. though my limbs, body, feet, hands, eyelids, lips, and even my throat/voicebox were paralyzed.

you could pick up my arm and it would just fall right back down, like it had bricks tied to it. Once a friend was so concerned bc she had never seen me like this called 911 and I was taken to hospital where it took hrs to recover any feeling or ability to move after they administered to me some intra muscular Haldol.

there’s lots more to the story but I will stop to spare the boring details and a longer post.

That sounds kinda scary actually.

I think catatonia or paralysis would refer more to not moving perhaps in a physically lax state as apposed to being frozen in one position.

I’ve heard of people freezing up with their bodies in strange and awkward positions. I can’t remember if it was schizophrenia or another mental illness. It might be some form of dementia. It was long ago that I heard about it and my memory fails me.

Pretty sure that you’re right, people in a catatonic state can still be moved but their muscles won’t drop whatever part they moved.

In my case I don’t fully freeze or anything but my limbs don’t fall on their own for some reason. I have to put a effort into putting them back down.

My youngest brother went through a catatonic episode… he’s bipolar 1 and I had no idea that Catatonic depression is not that rare.

He was frozen, just laying there. My sis said if she moved his arm straight up, he would stick there. So she tried to put him in as comfortable position as possible and had our parents keep an eye on him. After about 10 hours, our parents took him to the docs.

For me… when I freeze… I’m stuck. I’m frozen for a few minutes… I’ll be standing and then I can’t move. I usually can’t be moved. It takes so much effort to take a step. It’s like my brain seized up and I can’t think on how to walk or move beyond that point. I can hear… but I can’t respond. I can feel, but I can’t react.

It hasn’t happened for over a year now, but it’s scary when it hits. It feels like pushing against a wall that I can’t see. It is so hard to get moving. Then when my brain lets go… I’m back up to speed. But for me… it only last like 5 to 10 minutes at it’s worst.

I’m the same way, just probably a little less time and its very rare so it never occurred to me thats what it is.

10 hours sounds like a really long time, I do hope your brother is okay. And I do hope you are okay as well.

Thanks for that… he had this freeze last month or so, they got him to hospital and some how got him out of it… with meds most likely. He’s in therapy and is on injection. He just got diagnosed and out of hospital in June. He’s learning how to deal with this new part of his life.

I’m doing pretty well too… it’s been over a year since my last freeze up.

How are you doing? How often have you been freezing?

Thats good to hear for the both of you.

For me I’m not entirely sure, I get really miniscule freeze ups once or twice a month, they only last for a few moments (around 5 minutes) no one has noticed it seems.
As I said way above my arm tends to act like its always in that state since it never drops on its own unless I actually focus on it and force the muscle to release. Even then it could lock back up on the way down.