Shutdowns/Meltdowns---What are they? Do all adults with ASD have them?

[Mr Allen]

For me it would going on long swear word filled rants about everything that's wrong with my life, both current and past.

 

[Progster]

For me, it's the uncontrolled release of a build-up of emotion, I start crying, often while doing some sort of stimming, or shouting, swearing, throwing or hitting things if it is a frustration meltdown.

 

[AO1501]

For me, meltdowns are often fairly predictable, following consciously escalating stress and pressure, often as attempted to get things under control are failing. Sometimes they come from being so jammed in a problem that I can't back out of it and get away from it.

The meltdown itself is internally like an explosion. There's always an intense headache, and while I can tell some of what's around me, I can't process anything. It feels like I am intensely angry, and screaming, though I'm told I rarely make any noise. It always feels incredibly tense though.

If there is anyone else present, and they make any attempt to help, I try and push them away because it feels very threatening, and if anyone tries to communicate with me, I might be able to tell what they said, but likely not, and I can't respond because it's like I'm inside an enclosed space.

They can last anything from a few seconds, to several minutes, and sometimes hours. Usually a few minutes, I think, though it isn't easy to tell. When I come out of it, I feel very confused and usually find I am breathing very heavily, and I think mostly due to the short-term memory problems I have anyway, I may have no idea what happened - in which case when long-term memory of it kicks in, it's sometimes been a shock to find out!

They are awful experiences, and thankfully much less frequent than they used to be, but if I can feel one approaching, I usually try and stim myself back down from it, or to try and manage where it might happen. It's worst to have one at work.

 

[WereBear]

I lose my words. Once, at the end of a long bad day, I squirted soap in my eyes and all I could do was cry and say "soap!"

Or I get an overwhelming feeling of fatigue and being unable to think. I also get a voice in my head (probably mine) saying things like "Shut up!" or "Leave me alone!"

Most of the time I can "see it coming" because I get visual distortions and I can get away to a quiet place and regroup my thoughts. Hopefully I can escape the overwhelming stimuli.

If it goes on too long without being averted I get what looks like extreme low blood sugar. I do wonder if I should wear a medic alert bracelet in case of emergency

Then again, I can be unpredictably good in an emergency; once a trooper car hit me, and when I figured out me and my passenger was unhurt, I called an appointment to cancel

 

[Mary Anne]

For me, I go silent. I feel tremendous pressure on my chest. I have to flee and leave the premises. I disassociate and lose awareness. Rage comes much later...sometimes several hours or the next day.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

For me, it's the uncontrolled release of a build-up of emotion, I start crying, often while doing some sort of stimming, or shouting, swearing, throwing or hitting things if it is a frustration meltdown.

How any night out in Newcastle ends up

 

[WereBear]

I do not see any difference between NT and ND in this instance. Wouldn’t any overwhelmed person respond in this way?

The difference being we are routinely overwhelmed?

 

[Iamnotarabot]

I do not see any difference between NT and ND in this instance. Wouldn’t any overwhelmed person respond in this way?

The difference being we are routinely overwhelmed?

Yeah the difference isnt about how you get mad, because everyone can , but what triggers it and how mad you are...

For instance what I talked about I was the only one reacting this way and I wasnt the one directly involved in the first place but my friends who stayed calm and didnt realy care it seems.

Or getting mad because someone moved a furniture , some things that doesnt realy matter etc...

 

[SplendidSnail]

I do not see any difference between NT and ND in this instance. Wouldn’t any overwhelmed person respond in this way?

Actually, it is, in fact, possible for an NT to have a meltdown. Just much, much less common. Here's a good article about it:
http://snagglebox.com/article/what-are-meltdowns/

According to the article, a meltdown is an involuntary reaction to an overwhelming situation that one can't escape. Because of things like sensory issues, resistance to change, etc., it's much more common for someone with ASD to encounter the type of situation that leads to a meltdown and be unable to escape it than it is for an NT.

EDIT: Woops, just noticed that Tree already posted a link to this same article a bit further up. Oh well, it seems an appropriate reply to WereBear's post anyway.

 

[Tom]

 

[ksheehan88]

I mostly drop to the floor, scream, make guttural noises, pull my hair out, scratch my arms/legs/face, bang my head. After a while I will sob uncontrollably and eventually I'll tired myself out so much I will stop and either sleep, or will sit in silence.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

I mostly drop to the floor, scream, make guttural noises, pull my hair out, scratch my arms/legs/face, bang my head. After a while I will sob uncontrollably and eventually I'll tired myself out so much I will stop and either sleep, or will sit in silence.

How was the maths exam?

 

[ksheehan88]

How was the maths exam?

Pretty good I think, not as terrible as I thought! I had a panic attack part way through one of the English exams, but that more because I'd had a stressful morning and bad nights sleep.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Pretty good I think, not as terrible as I thought! I had a panic attack part way through one of the English exams, but that more because I'd had a stressful morning and bad nights sleep.

Permission to feel good about yourself granted

End Aug results probably...

 

[ksheehan88]

Permission to feel good about yourself granted

End Aug results probably...

23rd! Already anxious lol.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

23rd! Already anxious lol.

Regardless of result.
The mountain has been climbed.
I'm sure there are higher mountains in your future.

 

[sisselcakes]

I do not see any difference between NT and ND in this instance. Wouldn’t any overwhelmed person respond in this way?

The difference being we are routinely overwhelmed?

I was reading this post and relating to it, even though I'm not on the spectrum. I can relate to how some people describe a meltdown, so I believe it is possible for NT's to have them as well; but there are probably multiple reasons why we get to that point less often.

What's ironic (is that the right word here?), is one thing that can take me from calm to a "meltdown" is an unintentional insult from my bf, especially if I'm already not in a sensitive mood. I have had what I consider temper tantrums that include screaming and cursing that is completely out of character for me and I can't control, and it's all I can do to not destroy property. My plan for the future is to go beat a pillow instead until my mind gets to some point of equilibrium.

I was originally under the impression that a meltdown for someone on the spectrum is triggered by sensory overload, but it sounds like people can also get this from emotional overload too?

 

[pjcnet]

"A meltdown is an involuntary physiological reaction to being in a situation
which is overwhelming, without a means for escape.

During a meltdown, the pent up internal pressure builds to the point where
it can cause an internal shutdown of thinking processes and language, or
is released externally as an explosive reaction like anger, crying, yelling or running away."
Autism & Meltdowns | Snagglebox


"...a meltdown is a processing failure, like when a computer becomes
overloaded with too many instructions, and goes haywire.

A meltdown is a loss of cognitive control...

If we use the analogy of an epileptic fit as a hardware problem, a meltdown is the software equivalent."
Life on the Spectrum: UK autism charity

An excellent definition, just about everything is covered, next time I have one and people tell me that I'm just using autism as an excuse for my actions I will refer them to this, not that they will probably listen anyway.

Meltdowns are obviously horrid experiences and I honestly can't explain my actions during one, logical thought it turned off, my memory of a meltdown is also extremely clouded and I can usually only remember flashes of it, it just happens and as the definition describes you're not in control, with myself it's caused by a build up of negativity in some way and/or being overwhelmed, sometimes it can be caused by a shock too like when a total stranger walked into my flat a couple of weeks ago. Afterwards it's normal to feel embarrassed and even guilty for your behaviour which is really unfair, it wears off, but I can feel awful for ages about it, especially if there was lots of people around and even more so if they criticise my actions during the meltdown. I wish more people would understand including in some situations the police too, there's been numerous situations where autistic people are treated badly or even arrested by the police during or after a meltdown because of what happened during the meltdown, it's totally wrong. There needs to be a lot more education and public awareness, unfortunately there will always be some people who don't want to understand no matter how much awareness there is, but at the moment the number of people who understand are in the minority, not the majority, this needs to be turned around.


Edit:
When I was much younger I was more prone to meltdowns, often when I was bullied at senior school, it became so bad that the bullies would torment me even more because they actually wanted me to have a meltdown which they called an "epy" which was short for epileptic fit which of course is completely unrelated to meltdowns and are completely different. I would shout, scream and sometimes I could even attack the people who bullied me or even the teacher if they tried to restrain me, I've even been known to throw desks, then I'd run somewhere to hide, often completely off site where I'd curl up and start to calm down, it got me suspended a few times. My parents insisted that I would attend a "normal" school against all expert advice, the school head said, "it's not Paul's fault, it's just that we're not qualified to cater for Paul's needs here", but my parents still kept getting me reinstated and I had a truly awful time.

As an adult my meltdowns reduced and I have not been physically violent any more, often I can stop them by leaving the scene and walking away just before I break which I've done on various occasions, but problems occur if I cannot leave or a person who is causing the issue follows and won't leave me alone, I also can't stop meltdowns caused by sudden unexpected shocks. When I have a meltdown now it mainly involves very loud shouting, screaming and apparently I appear threatening as I throw myself about, but I never actually hit or hurt anyone. I still need to be left alone to calm down.

My descriptions of meltdowns are vague because as I mentioned earlier my memories of them are very cloudy, some of the details are reports from other people.

 

[ksheehan88]

I would say (at least for me) that emotional overload very quickly BECOMES sensory. Tightening of the muscles, swirly stomach, swirly thoughts, headache, increased sensitivity to noise/light etc. Emotional responses are physical for me, I literally FEEL emotion.

 

[pjcnet]

I do not see any difference between NT and ND in this instance. Wouldn’t any overwhelmed person respond in this way?

The difference being we are routinely overwhelmed?

That's an extremely good point and people's responses to this are also very interesting, especially the reply to yourself which is copied below from @sisselcakes who is an NT member, but this comparison is debatable and also extremely difficult to understand. Please read on as my reply below is also relevant to yourself.

Thanks for bringing this up.

I was reading this post and relating to it, even though I'm not on the spectrum. I can relate to how some people describe a meltdown, so I believe it is possible for NT's to have them as well; but there are probably multiple reasons why we get to that point less often.

What's ironic (is that the right word here?), is one thing that can take me from calm to a "meltdown" is an unintentional insult from my bf, especially if I'm already not in a sensitive mood. I have had what I consider temper tantrums that include screaming and cursing that is completely out of character for me and I can't control, and it's all I can do to not destroy property. My plan for the future is to go beat a pillow instead until my mind gets to some point of equilibrium.

I was originally under the impression that a meltdown for someone on the spectrum is triggered by sensory overload, but it sounds like people can also get this from emotional overload too?

Thanks for a very interesting response to an excellent point that @WereBear brought up (see above). Here is my opinion:

Autistic meltdowns can be confused or compared to an NT person just losing one's temper and some NTs could also claim they have similar meltdowns, but since I'm not an NT it's impossible for me to know what it's like when an NT loses their temper or has what they might call a meltdown, or whether it is actually truly similar and it's also impossible for an NT to truly know what it's like for an autistic person. Even though your description sounds somewhat similar, what's actually truly going on deep within our minds could be totally different, but it's incredibly difficult to be certain either way.

As I said I can't be certain, but I strongly suspect there are some big differences and the way an autistic person acts during a meltdown can also often give away that they're autistic because various traits that they might have been trying to hide are often suddenly exposed. Some of the things that trigger an autistic meltdown can also be very different, although some things can also be similar and it's not totally impossible that an autistic person can sometimes lose their temper too when they're not actually having a meltdown. This confusion can make it worse for autistic people who are prone to meltdowns however because it reduces understanding and if people believe it's no different to someone losing their temper they're even less likely to be sympathetic.

I definitely agree with @WereBear that it can happen more routinely to autistic people however and that's probably because autistic people are often more prone to being overwhelmed while being less able to control it.