Yikes, I am STUCK, need help

So I am trying to work on my lvl 50 rotation and remember that some BLM spells on my hotbar actually fall 2 levels so I was trying to see what they are. So I get the bright (DUMB) idea to go in to a 50 dungeon solo with it being synced. I set unrestricted and min lvl as my choices in DF and zoned in. EXCEPT all UI elements except the minimap and my hot bars were blanked. No way to quit the duty... tried logging out and when I went back in I was still there. No way I can do it solo being synced down... HELP!

Logging out didn't help BUT I exited the game and it put my back at my house. BUT I still want to know how I got into the situation. AND why I could not break out of it when I zoned in... as in why did 90% of my UI disappear.

Well, seems completely exiting the game got me back to my house... BUT I still had most of my UI elements hidden! Fortunately, I had spent LOT of time over many, many months getting the positioning to my liking and that stayed the same. Went through all the elements in the HUD and turned everything back on and now I seem to be somewhat whole.

So WHY? HOW did all my UI elements get turned off? How can going in solo/synced cause this? AND did I set up the DF incorrectly (unrestricted & min lvl)?