why do i blank..?

[nats]

thanks so much for responding tweeter. think you've touched on something with 'giving off as few signals as possible.' when we were little we imagined we could turn invisible if we held very still and kept eyes closed. this blanking of needed information happens in any stressful situation or when we're put on the spot - e.g. i lose the ability to calculate 2+3 or to remember from one sentence to the next what we're arguing about. maybe it is someone else blocking for some unclear protective reason. maybe it's about shutting down anything considered unnecessary when we feel threatened. not sure. just know that it's a really frustrating and unhelpful reaction. we're constantly pretending that we know why someone is angry with us or that we can count our change in the shops but don't want to (thank god for credit cards!!).