#Autistic Meltdowns

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Autistic Meltdown: How to Help

Lil Penguin Studios/Autism Happy Place

[doctor-mccoys-sanity]

autism and strong emotion just be like… SHAKE! SHAKE SO HARD! BUT FEEL TRAPPED BY THE PRISON OF YOUR BONES *screams*

[therapy-gems]

[crazycatsiren]

Stop calling autistic meltdowns "tantrums". Just stop.

[artistic-ace-raven]

The Reality of Meltdowns in Medium Support Needs Autistics

Disclaimer: This is simply MY experiences of having meltdowns. This is not the same for those with Medium Support Needs.

When i was a child, i had very frequent and violent meltdowns. They were triggered by the most smallest things, and that i was making a mountain out of a molehill.

Those meltdowns included me often being sent home, suspended, or just being told to stay at home for the next day because they could see that i needed a break. This happened a lot during elementary school.

Because those meltdowns involved me screaming, throwing things, hitting, slapping, kicking and sometimes getting into fights with teachers and other kids (These were rare though). And because of how violent i was, i had to be secluded most of the day when i was younger.

And i also had an 1;1 EA to try and help me to regulate myself, or by helping me learn an alternate behaviour to get what i wanted. That caused me to have to go to a occupational therapist to figure out what my sensory preferences and dislikes are because not even me could figure it out and could even attempt to help myself out of a sensory meltdown.

Once, i slapped another kid during my rumble stage of my meltdown and i of course got sent home for that. They also could see that i was distressed because i was with another EA whom i barely knew and that was change that i really hated. After that day, i was bullied by her and her friends and others during daycare hours after school. Sometimes even during recesses as well.

I remember one time during a meltdown, i got locked inside the principal's office while another EA spoke to the janitor, calling me a monster. Because i was pretty much "seeing red", as cliche as that sounds, but that's how it went when i was a child. It might even be the same nowadays, i "see red" and am unable to control myself at all anymore during the peak period.

I have gotten better since then, but i still have somewhat violent and somewhat still frequent meltdowns that get me sent home. I sometimes slap and hit, but mostly it's just noncompliance that gets me sent home. And i'm glad because that means i don't have any challenging behaviour anymore that bars me from co operative education sooner or later if i continue to manage good self regulation skills this year.

However, sometimes it's like i "slip" and i still have a pretty aggressive meltdown. Sometimes, i still slap, hit, kick and now even punch people. Sometimes, i also hit and self harm myself by hitting myself in the head and almost actually biting my arm.

Since i'm almost an adult, in the real world, no one will try to de escalate me, they would immediately call the police because i would probably try to hurt them. And knowing that, my teachers are trying to help me not have these meltdowns anymore, but try to make me have safe hands during them to avoid police incidents and the police being called.

And i understand why because Black and Brown autistic people are more likely to get hurt by police. (I haven't researched by the recent shooting reminds me) And even neurotypical BIPOC people are also in harm of getting hurt by police as well.

[clowningcrows]

bro i punched my bedroom walls when i was 16 how didn’t i know i was transmasc years ago

[whalesarescary]

Something that makes me absolutely crazy is that when you look up anything about autistic meltdowns it's always "what should you do if your child has an autistic meltdown", "what should you do if a stranger has a meltdown", "how to help someone having a meltdown" and it's never directed to the person themselves. Not only is it clearly implying that autistic people aren't independent people like with minds of our own but also like just tell me what I got to do to stop a meltdown because I can't deal with it anymore

[child-of-peace]

The Bad Tension™️

I saw a post on autistic meltdowns and it didn’t address something, so I wanted to ask a question to the autistic community. Do you get The Bad Tension™️ when you have a meltdown?

Bc I get it when I feel both overstimulated and understimulated, but when I feel understimulated, stimming helps. When I’m overstimulated, I end up having a full-on meltdown.

The Bad Tension™️ sits under my skin and the best way I can describe it is like when you have a buildup of lactic acid, except it feels nothing like that. If I don’t stim, it makes me feel so uncomfortable, and so I pace or flap or stretch my arms out to get rid of it. When I have a meltdown, I end up aggressively stimming or hitting myself in an attempt to get rid of it and I’m not entirely in control anymore.

I have an autistic friend who says that she also experiences this so I was wondering if it was a universal experience or not? Is there an actual name for this sensation?

[rileylastname]

extreme sensitivity and difficulty adapting to change is one of the most challenging parts of being autistic (to me, i am only speaking my for myself here, every single autistic person is different). small changes, even positive changes are liable to cause a meltdown. the world is such a scary place when you know that things changing, as all things do, could send you into a spiral. and it’s so difficult to explain to allistics why we’re reacting the way that we do, especially when you know it seems like an overreaction... but this is how i describe it:

you know that feeling when you got a haircut that you hated and were doing everything you could to hold back the tears? that “oh no oh no oh no” moment when you look in the mirror and realize you hate how it looks, and now there’s a sob bubbling up in your throat and you’re trying so hard to choke it back down so that you don’t cry in public but the more you look the harder it feels to bottle it all in?

i feel and often react that way to everyday situations and changes. i cut my nails a little bit shorter than I’m used to? meltdown. or we got a new toaster to replace the old one? meltdown. or my phone updated and everything is different? meltdown and now i can’t stop crying! (these are all real examples of real things from my real life that caused me to have real meltdowns btw.) and in the midst of my stress i can’t help but berate myself for losing it over something like that, and of course shame and self-loathing only exacerbate the meltdown.

i am constantly trying to work through my internalized ableism about this. I spent years being called dramatic and immature, confused about why i was unable to grapple with things my peers found entirely inconsequential. i wish that i didn’t feel guilty or embarrassed about the way that i naturally react to stressful situations (especially situations that are probably not nearly all that stressful to allistics) because I know that if I could hate myself into becoming someone I liked better, it would have worked by now.

[sweatsnervously47]

Me to me these days: Okay you are steadily working through your tasks, applying to jobs, organizing, etc and thats good I just think that staying up until 3am makes me tired and cranky the next day and-

The autism inside me: SOY MILK SOY MILK SOY MILK SOY MILK ZOOMIES AT 11PM NYOOM SOY MILK SOY MILK SOY MILK READ UNTIL 3AM AGAIN

Me to me: But sleep?

……

The autism inside me the next day at 11am: I hate you and the sky is evil and everything is bad

AND REPEAT

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Autistic Meltdown Iceberg

Neurodivergent_lou

[therapy-gems]

[crazycatsiren]

An autistic meltdown will really drain every last bit of strength out of you.

[artistic-ace-raven]

After what happened today i'm really thinking of getting anti-depressent or pills so they can help me more with my meltdowns and my self regulation struggles. It's a really saddening and frustrating situation to be in because i have zero control and it seems like i don't understand nothing at all. I hate having meltdowns in general and i really wish my meltdowns were me just crying and sometimes verbally lashing out at others instead of self harming and acting like i'm posessed. I wanted this off my chest so here it is as a post.

[willtheweirdrat]

hi! I had a question abt meltdowns if u could help? i don’t understand how to tell the difference between meltdown(internal or external doesn’t matter) and overstimulation. or like idk bpd or cptsd anger/upset moment. basically I constantly all day feel overstim like I’m worn out from all the people even one single interaction is too much bc of my environment and I snap at people and cannot have patience for them at all. I feel so overwhelmed and angry inside. and then sometimes I feel even worse and it’s like I describe it like wanting to scream inside and “go get away I need to get away” and “I need to die and I need others to die I want to kms I feel so extremely enraged I need to take it out somehow but I can’t do much”

A meltdown is typically when an autistic person loses their patience with something (often starts with overstimulation). It looks like crying, yelling, self harm, lashing out at others, elopement, etc. Basically, a meltdown is the last thing that happens after a lot of overstimulation. For example. you're at a loud party, at some point you can't last so you run away and cry. That's a meltdown. I relate to you. What you describe sounds more like autistic burnout, like, one step away from a meltdown. Stuck in the "loud party" if that makes sense. Take my advice with a grain of salt though, I'm not an expert.

[pigeon-cave]

Spectrum of overwhelm, now in triangle form due to popular demand

[Image description: A triangle chart titled, ‘Spectrum of Overwhelm.’ The three points are ‘404 Error,’ showing a person with an empty thought bubble; ‘wet beast,’ showing a person sweating and sobbing; and ‘rage beast’ showing a person clenching their fists in an outline of orange fire. The peak is the ‘404 error’ vertex, and the inside of the triangle here is coloured beige and labelled, ‘shutdown.’ The lower half is labelled ‘meltdown’ and is red on the rage beast side and blue on the wet beast side. \End description]