Challenging behaviour.

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What kind of techniques are used to prevent challenging behaviour?

I lashed out again yesterday and it was worse than last time.

I try hard not to but it gets to the point where I explode.

I was severely overloaded.

I am committed to solving this problem.

You have my support.

When I'm upset, I use deep breathing.

When you are lashing out, are you aware of what you're doing?

I have both shutdowns and meltdowns. My meltdowns have been called violent now and then. For me it was important to recognize what was setting me off. Then I needed to figure out what to do about it.. was it something I could remove from my existence, was it something I could take steps to lessen or better prepare for/recover from, was it something I could tolerate sometimes (like if I was in a clam place to begin with), and so on. I prefer to take preventative measures when possible because most of the time I cannot stop myself once I hit the explode part. Sometimes I can catch myself starting to spiral out of control (my heart rate gives me away), if I can catch it before I am past the point of no return, breathing does help me as well. Square breathing is my favorite.

Thanks.

When I have a meltdown, I "see red" and lose self control.

I do try deep breathing. It works sometimes.

My support worker suggested I do vigorous exercise if possible to get rid of the extreme negative energy.

Exercise can work wonders for some. At one point in my life I had a space in my basement where I could throw tiles into a wall. I had hundreds of floor tiles just lying around down there and was never going to use them for anything so it helped now and then. Curious, do you like weighted items? I also found it helpful sometimes to wear a weighted vest, put ankle and wrist weights on and walk around to help calm myself down. Exercise of sorts works better for me with the additional weight added... I like the pressure and it tires me out faster as well.

I enjoy vigorous exercise. I wanted to get a punchbag (I have boxing gloves) but my dad said no there is not enough space.

I find weighted things very helpful. I will look online for weighted items I can wear. I have a weighted blanket for home.

You could get one of those punching bags that "come back to you." They might be plastic or rubber. They don't take up too much space. It's not the same as what boxers use. There was a TV show called "Romper Room School" which had these punching bags.

You could also do exercise without equipment--like push-ups, sit-ups, things like that. And, of course, jumping jacks.

I wish you were more "social." Then, you could throw a "medicine ball" around. They weigh about 35 pounds. That would certainly help when you feel like you have too much energy.

Of course, you could always punch your pillow (but not your mattress. I almost wish you could install soft material on your walls so you could punch that as well.

You can make a make shift 'punching bag' on the wall. Not sure if this is applicable here... if you are too strong this would need to be modified to reduce holes in the wall and such. But an option would be to make a 'punch square' with some two by fours as a base. That memory foam padding wrapped in duct tape works well to absorb some shock. Stick that on the punch square. Some other soft material could then be put over that. I have fund old sheets/towels/cotton clothing put in a hand sewn denim casing (thrift stores are great if you do not have this stuff lying around). You could just as easily duct tape all that together as well. It takes a little effort and the padding needs to be replaced now and then, but I found it cheaper than trying to buy old gym mats from schools/gyms/whatevers.

Do your boxing gloves have wrist support straps/tape? MMA gloves do, I think. I would also suggest making sure you have proper wrist support to avoid personal injury. I know I have injured myself before and not noticed until later. No fun.

Curious as well, have you ever tried aggressively slapping things? Punching can sometimes 'close me up', whereas slapping tends to open my posture more, allowing deep breathing to come more naturally for me.

Thanks for the suggestions both.

I will look into making a punching square, my dad has a PhD in Engineering so I will ask him to make something like what you said.

Slapping doesn't really relieve my tension. I have slapped a large pillow with both hands and it didn't really work, and just made me want to slap myself.

My gloves do have wrist support. I have punching pads but nobody to hold them up for me (my dad lives abroad and rarely visits; him being over six foot tall and weighing almost 100kg he would make a good person to hold the punching pads).

I will try the home exercises. I'm thinking of typing a list of all exercises I can do without equipment I don't have, and then I can choose from it when I need it. I have been doing press-ups, can do 50 balancing on one leg now.

I like to weight lift. I am considering to buy a bar weight so that I can develop my strength further.