Could meltdowns be related to blood sugar?

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As I’ve been researching Asperger’s I read in Judy Simon’s Aspergirls that hunger could trigger temper meltdowns. This made me wonder if some meltdowns could be related to low blood sugar and if Aspies were prone to having Hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia is when blood sugar levels become low enough that temporary mental and physical impairment occurs. It can be mild or severe and most people will have mild symptoms of hypoglycemia if they don’t eat for a few hours but few people will have severe problems unless they have had an overdose of insulin. I was diagnosed as a Hypoglycemic as a kid, 8 or 9, and while the symptoms of hypoglycemia are very diverse I seem to have most of them and experience them in more or less the same order every time I have an episode, which I have listed here by severity:

Mild:
Hunger, head ache, anxiety, irritability

Moderate:
Mind fog, difficulty thinking, confusion, exhaustion, hard to breath, tremors, shakiness, dizziness, crying, nausea, tiredness, belligerence, weakness

Severe:
Vision and/ or hearing loss, tunnel vision, faintness, trouble standing, walking and talking, feeling hot and cold at the same time, vomiting, combativeness, automatic behavior

Very Severe:
Coma, Seizures (never actually had these, but they’re commonly listed as very rare symptoms)

All of these symptoms will go away very quickly, often within minutes, of eating something sugary.

So, I was wondering if anyone has symptoms like these leading up to or during meltdowns and if meltdowns are either helped or prevented by eating. Thank you for your thoughts/responses

What I can contribute to this topic is that the mother of my ex-girlfriend has diabetes and she avoids ecxiting situations or action-packed computer games because that kind of activity makes her blood sugar level drop significantly. It obviously has to do with the ecxitement she experiences during those activities.

So maybe people on the spectrum get workes up about something which triggers a state of excitement/agitation that makes their blood sugar level drop and that contributes to the meltdowns some of us are experiencing? Maybe for some reason the drop in blood sugar level is either more severe than in NTs (probably because the agitation in the situation concerned is greater than what an NT would experience) or the consequences of it are more pronounced?

I do not really have factual information to answer your question other than this, but I think it is not an unreasonable hypothesis that blood sugar level and meltdowns are connected in some way.

I tend to be more prone to lecturing after eating a meal. I have wondered if the food is to blame. Is it a reaction to whatever is happening with my blood sugar because of the meal? Could be. Blood sugar could have something to do with meltdowns or going into lecturing mode (which I am not always in). It's possibe.

hi.
yes, definitely the blood sugar needs to be kept constant.
I eat every couple of hours, and avoid refined sugar foods because they cause major spikes.
When I get low energy my hands shake, and MAJOR irritability. Sometimes I can't talk clearly, a little like being drunk.

Not sure about the other sensory issues being related because my senses are all over the place all the time anyway.

Late in the afternoon is the worst time for irritability and I make sure that I have a decent snack around 4pm. First thing in the morning is also difficult because I don't feel like eating then, but really need to! Everyone better keep out of the way then! GRRRRR

The worst meltdown I had was on an empty stomach. And I need to eat every couple of hours or I feel weak.

The more I eat the more likely I am to give a monologue one-sided discussion.

You may be onto something OP.

I get in meltdown mode after eating/drinking too much sugar/caffeine, or if I haven't eaten in a while.

I can't say I've ever had a meltdown while on a sugar rush, but I do admit that when I'm low, I'm grumpy and irritable....which is a problem because I'm trying to get off 25-30 excess pounds and using sugar to keep me "up" would not help the matter.

I got real antsy if I'm away from home and I haven't eat. So of course, when in the city, the locals like to eat at 10pm rather than my usual time of 6pm.

I've experienced symptoms up into the Severe category. I'm not really sure if there is anything to be done about it. I've had panic attacks from such symptoms but I don't think it has ever affected a meltdown that I know of.

Possibly

my mom has diabetes and when she has low blood sugar she is sometimes psycho acting i dont know if shes an aspie but its possible some broader autistic phenotype with her

I think so. I lose functioning when I am hungry and my parents noticed this about me as a child and have thought for years that I'm hypoglycemic. It can be a meltdown but usually it's a complete shutdown where I appear catatonic, not moving and unresponsive.

Part of the problem is that I often do not feel hungry when I'm hungry, and don't know that I need food until I am confused and possibly dizzy, shaking and crying.