Ever seen an NT adult have a tantrum/meltdown?

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I have!
I was on a course for 3 weeks, and everyone in my group were NTs except for me. One of them was a young man, (I'll just say J). He was very chatty and popular, and he had a girlfriend who was in the same group. I liked him a lot - he was the life and soul of the group, and he was one of those people everybody got on with, and everyone wanted him to accept them on Facebook - (except me, I don't have Facebook).
But one day on the last week, the tutor wanted everyone to sit in groups of 3 - but J started moaning because he wasn't in the same group as his girlfriend, and he accused her of trying to come between their relationship and splitting them up. The tutor said she wasn't doing that at all - she said this was part of the exercise. But he wouldn't have it - and she took him out of the room to calm him down, but he got worse, and started to smash his head against the wall until there was blood (and a dent in the wall), and he then started slapping himself in the face. The tutor had to ban him from the course because of anti-social behaviour. And he wasn't on drugs or anything.

What the hell got into him to suddenly have a massive outburst like that? Has anyone else experienced an NT meltdown?

I've seen them throw tantrums. Meltdowns are something different entirely.

I think that guy had something wrong with him he just used his charisma to hide it. Perhaps he showed signs but you and everyone else missed them because of your admiration for him seeing only the good in him. People put their heroes on a pedastal and don't see the flaws while they look up to them.

I don't know of any NT adult in my family that hasn't had a temper tantrum at one point or another. Well, I don't remember my aunt ever having one, but everyone else has had horrible temper tantrums, like a little baby in diapers. My father is horrible with this. A good example:

Mom: You need to go to sleep.
Dad: OH YEAH?? I'LL SHOW YOU!! !

My uncle has horrible political tantrums at family gatherings, mainly because we aren't agreeing with everything he says about the (insert scapegoat here) that are ruining America.

My grandmother has one every single time I go up to visit. Is it bad that I don't consider it weird anymore to have my grandmother tell me I'm going to die from things like swine flu?

Grandma: Watch your head when you put the wood in the truck Matty! You might hit your head on the roof of the car and die!
Me: I'm 22 years old. I can manage to not hit my head, and if I do hit my head, I probably won't die.
Grandma: HOW DO YOU KNOW? YOU MIGHT HIT YOUR HEAD AND DIE!
Me: I'm not gonna die putting wood in the back of a truck, OK?! I have good enough hand eye coordination that it ain't gonna happen!
Grandma: I can't tell you anything, can I? You know it all!

Yes, that was an actual conversation we had. I'm dead serious. And much to her dismay, I didn't die while putting the wood in the truck. There is a reason why I don't like adults, and this is a big one.

Yes! I was at a concert once and one of the band members seemed grumpy for the first half of the show. Then at intermission he was VERY grumpy, he had a mini meltdown, he got kind of mad and threw his drumstick down and walked off stage.

And yes, I have seen my NTs parents have meltdowns.

I've seen a lot of married women throw tantrums in public...

Some (most) days I have bigger tantrums than the kids.

Stress/undirected adrenalin does it for me, poor kids.

I see it quite often. To some NT's, severe distress is missing an episode of American Idol, or finding out that McRib is back off the menu. And they think I'M self absorbed...

Yes on the train going to work but it was all staged. The man just wanted money so he faked a meltdown. Then he stopped when he got what he wanted. He was all of a sudden normal again when before he looked mentally unstable. I believe it was staged anyway since he never got off the train to get food nor go in the airport to buy food when we arrived there. He was asking for $1.75 so he get food and he got more and more obnoxious and louder when no one would give it to him so he finally threatened to kill himself if he doesn't eat. That got a reaction out of us and I stopped feeling sorry for him and this young lady across from me chewed him out calling him homeless and saying he wants drugs, not food. This 17 year old girl who was sitting across from me gave him the money and he stopped.

Does this count as a NT meltdown?

They almost sound... human?

Everyone can explode, you seem to talk about extreme emotional reaction (J wanting to be with this girl no matter what - sounds alot like his nuts driving his brains), where tantrums or meltdowns have to do with exasperation rising to it's peak and extreme overload of signals respectively.

Defining if someone falls under the category neurotypical is very hard to do, since it is a theoretical group of people. Unless your definition of neurotypical is different of the general one stated here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotypical

I know that people on the autism spectrum are a small minority. But observing the way people treat each other on a regular basis... I honestly sometimes wonder if most people are sociopaths.

I had severe tantrums as a kid and occasionally today I will get so frustrated I will hit things and scream. I also have shutdowns. But it's debatable if I'm an NT or if I have an ASD.

I've seen them have tantrums but not meltdowns.