Do you mentally disappear if you're in a bad situation?

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For example if your being hurt or if you want to leave somewhere but there is not a way out; do you stop feeling emotions and stop processing what's happening and go into an imaginary world or something? Or stop talking and moving? I wonder how many other people are like this. When I was a kid I used to be this way.

That's tough... I spent most of my childhood in an imaginary world!

Nowadays, though, I mostly retreat into my own brain when I'm feeling overwhelmed or stressed. This often looks like a shutdown on the outside, but my thoughts are often very rich!

If I'm in a bad situation that is unsafe, I will usually try to escape it as quickly as possible.

I usually watch a lot of TV in a depressed state

i was abused physically and emotionally as a kid (into teen years), and i would go into what i called the Mist when it was happening. My senses would all shut down (especially pain), everything would feel very far away, and my emotions would all shut down, as though a fog was obscuring my feelings and thoughts. i couldn't really think or feel anything, or hardly even move. I still do that sometimes if i'm really scared or upset, although there are times when i've felt threatened (I was grabbed from behind by a guy in college) in which i go the opposite way, going all berserk-o, punching, kicking, and biting. Yep, i bit a guy in college. But he had it coming

I've learned to call it "dissociate" (sp?) - I'm elsewhere and can't be more specific than that. But I definitely "leave", although not physically. My childhood was rough and I guess that's when I learned it. The last time I did it was during an MRI - I just visited some pink mountains for a while. The technicians were very impressed. But when I'm alone and safe again - collapse time!

I would say that I have always tended to trip away to la la land when things were getting rough.

I wish I could do that. But I just shut off externally while being very much aware of things internally. My anxiety issues make disassociation almost impossible.

During mild anxiety or anything that upsets me in a mild form, yes. But if the situation is grave, I panic, start over-thinking and over-analyzing.

I think this happened to me last week.

I remember feeling extremely angry and hurt towards someone and knew that it was going to build up into a huge meltdown if I didn't do anything soon. It was at lunch break in school and I couldn't find a quiet place. I shut down at the beginning of biology class (I laid my head on my desk and closed my eyes). I don't know how to describe it. I could hear the teacher's voice and my classmates calling out to me but they felt far away. It felt like I was between consciousness and sleep, like limbo.