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Silver_Meteor
Asperger Accountant
Joined: Jul 11, 2007
Posts: 1159
Location: North Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA
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 Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:16 am Post subject: Meltdown |
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| When someone mentions that he/she has a "meltdown", what exactly are they referring to? |
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Stellian
Sea Gull
Joined: Mar 11, 2007
Posts: 207
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:33 am Post subject: |
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It happens when sensory stimuli become unbearable. Usually, when someone has a meltdown, he/she can't think properly or focus his/her attention, and he/she feels really stressed. Meltdowns are different for everyone. Some aspies don't have meltdowns at all, others have mild meltdowns or don't recognize them as such, etc.
There are many possible reactions for a meltdown, but in autistic children, it is usually a tantrum (the child stims and cries uncontrollably). In verbal autistics, speech usually becomes blurred (it happens to me, it feels like the words are mixing themselves in my mouth) or nonsensical (I end up saying dumb things even though I wanted to say something else).
Many of us can recover from meltdowns by resting and creating our own pleasurable sensory stimuli. This includes listening to music, humming, and stimming, of course. Hitting pillows works for me too. |
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MysteryFan3
Ex-COBOL dinosaur. roar.
Joined: Jun 09, 2007
Age: 51
Posts: 1358
Location: Indiana
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:16 am Post subject: |
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It won't be the same for everyone. In my case, if I'm doing some things that are important to me and I hit brick walls too many times in a short time (i.e. too little recovery time between) I get totally pissed off. I'll curse loudly, slam my fist on a desk, name-call the people getting in my way, and walk off until I cool down. I can't stop the rage - it will run its course until my brain gets too tired to sustain it. I don't physically attack anyone. I just want the people who are in my way to cooperate or move over NOW! I can feel my brain, as though it's activated all over at once until the rage subsides. Afterward, I feel embarrassed, remorseful and exhausted. I don't recover until I sleep for a few hours. Meltdowns burn too much of my brain fuel up for me to think straight, so I won't make any major decisions until at least a day later.
The last thing I want to hear is "Calm down". My answer is usually "SHUT UP!". If a boss tells me I can't walk off and calm down, I will most likely pack up and quit the job right then.
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To eliminate poverty, you have to eliminate at least three things: time, the bell curve and the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Have fun. |
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cowboyjay
Butterfly
Joined: Jul 15, 2007
Posts: 12
Location: Colorado, USA
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:49 am Post subject: Re: Meltdown |
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| Silver_Meteor wrote: | | When someone mentions that he/she has a "meltdown", what exactly are they referring to? |
For me, they start off as feeling 'stressed-out-to-the-max' for awhile, and then mushroom into a combination of severe anxiety attacks and cognitive/language problems. Simple tasks become very difficult.
I won't go into too many gory details, but I did find myself at one time unable to even comprehend written english for a few hours. Verbal communication is difficult to impossible.
Social difficulties, financial problems, and losing important things like keys or cell phones have triggered them in the past.
They were terrifying, as I was not properly diagnosed most of my life, and not understanding what was going on made them worse. I've only had one minor one in the last year. Gross motor excercises seem to help keep them at bay and/or help me snap out.
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I just keep getting back up... |
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richardbenson
slaughter mountain
Joined: Oct 31, 2006
Age: 28
Posts: 9050
Location: plastic makes it possible
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:37 pm Post subject: |
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| its when they go crazy and talk to themselves in an abusive manner, or they take it out on the internet |
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EatingPoetry
Velociraptor
Joined: Jun 29, 2007
Posts: 499
Location: Inside me 'ead, all alone.
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:39 pm Post subject: Re: Meltdown |
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| cowboyjay wrote: | | Silver_Meteor wrote: | | When someone mentions that he/she has a "meltdown", what exactly are they referring to? |
I won't go into too many gory details, but I did find myself at one time unable to even comprehend written english for a few hours. Verbal communication is difficult to impossible. |
I can't read at all when I'm having a meltdown or overstimulated. Or follow a conversation. I have trouble driving because I get acute tunnel vision.
Then I need to be alone in the quiet dark. A nap usually is the best thing for me.
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alexbeetle
Knight of the blackest black beetle
Joined: Mar 17, 2007
Posts: 1386
Location: beetle hole
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:18 pm Post subject: |
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I thought I had petit mal epilepsy before I heard about meltdowns!
I go blank and catatonic if under too much stress.
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Asparval
The Big Chicken
Joined: Jul 03, 2004
Posts: 1175
Location: UK
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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A meltdown for me is when I get so overloaded that my brain suddenly forgets how to find its processes.
Commonly I lose the ability to access any decision making processes so can't even make the simplest of decisions (like whether to walk or to stand still).
I don't think my meltdowns are particularly externally visible but they feel as though they are at the time.
I just get extremely flustered and seem to lose any ability to filter out external stimulae. |
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Doc_Daneeka
Toucan
Joined: Jul 04, 2007
Posts: 284
Location: Toronto. But we call it Tarana.
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:30 pm Post subject: |
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For me, it's almost like my system just decides to reboot. I get incredibly frustrated, my vision goes a bit..um...not exactly blurry, but sort of 'shiny' and fuzzed, and it's hard to understand what people are saying. Though I suddenly notice all sorts of other noises around me, which are usually annoying ones. Then I get away for a while, go to my room or somewhere quiet.
After swearing, stimming, and being generally scared about what is happening, it goes back to normal. |
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nobodyzdream
Whistling in the dark...
Joined: Apr 24, 2007
Age: 28
Posts: 1935
Location: St. Charles, MO-USA
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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When I have them, and it happens a lot, the only way I can think to describe them to friends is this: (yes, I know it's a bit cheesy, but it seems to help them visualize it or try to relate)
Imagine you are in the center of a tornado, watching all of your most cherished belongings swirling around you. You are reaching out, trying to grab them, but every time you get a good grip on something, it breaks, and you only manage to get a piece. You are debating whether or not to jump in after the things, thinking to yourself "if I could only get a little bit closer" and you are sucked right into the chaos. It is like that for me, except I don't start in the middle, I start right in the chaos. My mind is swirling around and around, too many thoughts, sights, smells, noises to try to keep up with, and I'm grabbing for anything and everything that makes just a little bit of sense to try to regain focus and make it stop.
Of course after the mind gets sucked in, my body reacts and follows. Emotions are stirred up, usually confusion and frustration, and I'm trying to spit out everything that makes sense, I'm trying to tell someone what I'm feeling, but it comes out sounding belligerent because I cannot keep up with the thoughts, and only parts of what I want to say are coming out.
They usually end with uncontrollable sobbing, lots of rocking, and if someone just grabs onto me and squeezes the hell out of me, that helps too. They take a heck of a long time to come back out of for me as well-takes a good hour to try to regain focus.
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angelene
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: Jul 18, 2007
Posts: 60
Location: behind you
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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meltdown for me, in a worst-case scenario, involves injuring myself (usually biting my hands or handbanging). i'm usually not able to speak until i've come back down.
i've noticed that the older i get, the less frequent these types of meltdowns occur. i've only had one real incident this year, where i banged my head and put a dent in a wall.
more frequently, i'm easily overcome by too many people trying to talk at once, or when the kids are asking TOO MANY QUESTIONS  i blow my top and yell something like "OK!! STOP!! EVERYBODY JUST STOP!!!"
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gwenevyn
asdf forever
Joined: May 07, 2007
Posts: 6179
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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For me, a meltdown is what happens when there's too much going on (noises, tasks, people talking at me) and I need some quiet time, but I don't/can't take that time away. I will probably raise my voice and be somewhat irrational over relatively small issues. Head full of despair out of proportion with the situation. Unpleasant noises upset me further. If it's really bad, I might stomp around doing some kind of physical labor, or else cry.
Generally I can keep myself from having the outward signs of a meltdown if I'm out of the house. If I'm with family, I don't tend to control myself as well. But even then, it happens infrequently. |
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richardbenson
slaughter mountain
Joined: Oct 31, 2006
Age: 28
Posts: 9050
Location: plastic makes it possible
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| Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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btw i like yer screename, i have a meteorite myself a nickle iron from canyon diablo 
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As twilight fills the sky
Eventual supremacy
Daylight waits to die
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Crazy_Ben
Deinonychus
Joined: Jun 28, 2007
Posts: 316
Location: St. Petersburg, FL USA
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| Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:27 am Post subject: |
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I tend to listen to really loud classical music. Or play chess when I have a meltdown, usually caused by being somewhere I haven't the slightest interest in but "have" to be.
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We are Taiyozoku, the Sun Tribe! |
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gwenevyn
asdf forever
Joined: May 07, 2007
Posts: 6179
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| Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:30 am Post subject: |
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| Crazy_Ben wrote: | | I tend to listen to really loud classical music. Or play chess when I have a meltdown, usually caused by being somewhere I haven't the slightest interest in but "have" to be. |
Are you serious? You carry around a chess set with you and whip it out in uncomfortable social situations?
That's cool! |
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