What are meltdowns?

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The title says it all. What are meltdowns? As a child, I very often had episodes where I screamed, shut myself in my room, cried, etc. Could these be considered meltdowns, or just normal behaviour of a child?

i think it depends mostly did you want someting and did not get it like attention or was there no aparent reason for these

Do a search, there are enough previous threads on this subject to keep you reading for weeks and more than answer your question.

Meltdowns are when you have tantrums past the age of...I don't know, I guess maybe age 6?

I only know this expression from english, and I really didn't know there was a question about it.
For my part it revolves around a couple of things. If I have a day where I have to relate to people in a civilised manner a lot, I have a, in my opinion, meltdown when I come home.
I crash and burn.
I sleep.
My usual concentration is gone.
My focus is everywhere else.

I am mentally screwed.

I feel my mind has melted. It's gone. Like I lost a good 100 IQ. There's nothing left. Gone. Meltdown.
Meltdown as in out of control.
Meltdown as in dead.

Any child having that kind of difficulty *could* just be reacting to a difficult environment at times, and I would be cautious while trying to sort all of that out after-the-fact since some therapists just assume some kind of actual abuse had been going on and begin talking about "repressed memory" and such.

In my own experience, a meltdown feels a little like possibly "being 'buried alive'". I am still aware of "me" and at least some of what is going on around me, but there is just "no room to move" or any actual ability to do much of anything but sob.

I had just a little bit of something like that happen just yesterday, and it was set off by some extremely intense grief I just could not handle.

Somewhat like a grand temper tantrum although also different.

See:

http://www.myoutofcontrolteen.com/aspergers-meltdowns

or the same thing on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLZmNZgj3kY

It is not really a temper tantrum or behavior of a child but rather than a release of built up frustration that develops over time when there is no other way of releasing it but sudden rage. I have always had more Aspie shutdowns than meltdowns (search for a poll here on WP a few months back about shutdowns vs meltdowns). However at age 60 I still do have occasional meltdowns, including a good one as recently as last week.

I have seen many different descriptions here of what they are and what triggers them. I am fairly good about being able to handle crowds and noises. I don't particularly enjoy either but I'm able to function. I have some awareness of when I'm getting too nervous or stressed and can turn my mind to other things and avoid the worst of the symptoms. My worst ones are almost always associated with my inability to handle certain kinds of interactions, where there is disagreement, or tension, or emotionally charged conversation, or harsh criticism, or when I get an unexpected reaction that I haven't prepared for. In the worst cases, I cry uncontrollably, have difficulty forming sentences, and revert quickly back and forth between weeping sadness and vicious rage. It probably appears very much like a child's tantrum. I lose all focus on whatever I was doing or planning to do and usually can't do anything until I've had several hours of sleep or quiet time alone to recover my faculties.

Last edited by Zur-Darkstar on 18 May 2011, 12:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hello two weeks ago. I sometimes have this, it can last a few days. No idea why. I scored 0/50 on two tests (chemistry and mathematics) where I usually get really high scores. I couldn't focus enough to recall anything, yet wasn't feeling tired or anything. Very sensitive to sounds and light though.

It is an inability to control your emotions because of a dysfunctional limbic system.

Meltdowns can occur in many different ways. Mine are usually about a build up of frustration over time, though sometimes they can happen suddenly.
My sensory meltdowns are sudden. If I hold them in they turn into shutdowns which result in a muffling of noise, slower or loss of speech, labored movements. It's not very pleasant.

Tantrums vs. meltdowns are a tricky one because people with autism can be very rigid so if things don't go their way they can have an abrupt meltdown before they even realise they are trying to get their own way. That's not being a brat, that's having very little tolerance for change. For example I watch the same show at 5:40pm every week day and when my lovely mother decided to watch a movie and it didn't finish at 5:40 ooh god, I sort of just stopped. In fact I was holding back so much frustration I couldn't breathe and was having tremors. If I did have a meltdown over that it isn't a tantrum. That is a routine being disrupted and my brain not knowing how to cope with it.

hmm well when I was younger i had meltdowns but rarely do have them now. These days I have shutdowns where I get overwhelmed with frustration or anger and just have to leave what I am doing and go somewhere where I cant hear anything or talk to anyone and try to calm down.

I can only really describe meltdowns from personal experience. For me, it's an explosive outburst caused by social, emotional, and/or sensory pressures becoming completely unmanageable and uncontrollable. I just lose the ability to think, and I end up screaming, crying, and hitting myself.

These days, the causes of meltdowns are mainly social or emotional; sensory factors can worsen existing problems or create the stress that allows other problems to build up, but they're not able to cause meltdowns by themselves. However, I have had a few meltdowns in response to sensory stimuli in the past.

The earlier description of 'tantrums beyond the age of 6' is a decent one, I think, but I don't like the association between the word 'tantrum' and 'acting out to get one's own way'. As such, I think that people who deal with autistic individuals should be aware that meltdowns don't stem from a desire to hurt or intimidate people. Personally, I'm greatly frustrated by the fact that my meltdowns are seen as aggressive, bullying behaviour by family members, and that I'm therefore often faced with threats and coercion when I'm least able to handle them.

meltdowns are similar to tantrums from what i understand.
on the other end of the scale are "shutdowns"
i'm more of a "shutdown"person myself.
Although i do have my occasional minor meltdowns too

Sounds more like "burnout" than "meltdown." "Meltdown" can involve breaking things and crying/yelling, and so forth. More like an explosion. Burnout is when the brain starts refusing to be forced to function in ways it doesn't want to function (or refuses to function at all).

(Someone ought to publish a dictionary of these terms someday.)

Ahh me too. I get told I'm overreacting or simply to not have one. Like I have any choice. I've made myself really ill by holding them in. And the more ill you feel the harder it is to hold them back.

I really hate that people still think of them as tantrums. How many people feel embarrassed or depressed after a tantrum? Even if sometimes when things don't go my way and I have them I still feel like a fool afterwards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWgApN3GZwA

Great video, and a very simple way of describing it!
It's like when I was working on my truck the other night. Things weren't exactly going as planned, messed with my routine if you will, and I flipped out. I beat on my truck, as I have with many other inanimate objects, and that blows off the steam.
With age Iv been able to control it much better, but I still end up feeling like a whining brat afterward. The best way I can personally describe it is like a black hole. It isn't like when you see a spoiled teenage girl on MTV's "My sweet sixteen", when they simply don't care about what there doing. This is me getting unintentionally "sucked in when I get too close". Most of the time when things don't go right Im able to control it. It irks me, but I don't respond irrationally.
As for a child's diagnosis? I think it would be harder to tell a temper tantrum from a meltdown. In my eyes, there essentially the same thing, but with different mindsets and causes that lead to them. If you were showing other Autistic traits as a child, then yes, it may very well have been a meltdown.