My wife (F27) regularily goes into "shutdown" periods, where she nearly entirely closes herself off without any real discernable cause/reason, what can I do to help pull her out of these shutdowns?
My wife (F27) is highly suspected to be on the spectrum, although we have no official diagnosis (takes like 5 years where we live), she is diagnosed with ADHD however this particular issue seems to be much more autism related.
Basically without any real cause or trigger either of us can discern she goes into "shutdown-mode" sometimes for a week or two where she closes off to me emotionally. She's recognized she does this (brought it up herself) and can't recall any specific triggers or causes.
I'm unsure if her work collegues have witnessed this or not, and she doesn't really have friends outside of a recent online friend group we both joined. Her parents have definitely seen this however.
I just can't seem to pull her out of these shutdowns, I just try to be positive and not pushy, invite her to do stuff like go on walks or dates with me, and even when she accepts you can tell she isn't really "there". They don't seem to coincide with her cycle at all either.
She can recognize when she's in one but we don't know how to get her out, which causes her to feel guilty about shutting down. I don't think much into it myself unless I suspect I was the cause.