Have you had a public meltdown?

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I don't mean so much as a "kid kid", but as a teen / adult.

The only meltdowns I've had since high school, save two, were within my residence - like with room-mates or my family. Thankfully the police were not called, I was not institutionalized either

Seriously though, I show much more restraint than I used to as a "kid kid", due to being ridiculed for episodes back when I was in special ed. If you think about it, NTs are just as prone to having meltdowns in adulthood, albeit maybe for different reasons. Mostly women from what I've seen and heard. Some of us may have seen that video clip of the woman in British Columbia who went berserk after she missed her ferry, or the one obese lady who was escorted off the plane by police & security after she went batshit. One one occasion, I saw a spurned young lady scream and shout at her boyfriend in public in some jealous rage about some other girl, and another time saw a young woman publicly dress down her "friend" who had betrayed her and thrown her under the bus. Like, seriously, get a "conference room" why don't you???

Such meltdowns are more perilous in the "modern era" - say since about the late 2000s - when virtually any bystander can whip out their cell phone and record your let-loose episode. Many NTs, who supposedly have the advantage over us of being aware of how they're regarded in public, are quick to let that fly out the window if the occasion so prompts. I realize that biologically, we with ASDs tend to have an amygdala ("fight or flight instrument") that is about 15% larger than NTs, so we tend to have a more exaggerated "berserk" response than NTs would, so there's more pressure on us (literally and figuratively ) to not "blow up". But back to the point, you just never know who might be recording your episode, which serves as an extra deterrent. For all of NTs lust for social interconnectivity, they can lose sight of this simple fact "in the moment" - how ironic.

I recall back in the summer of 2000, I was having a public argument with a "triple F" (that's former fake friend ) about him reneging on something he agreed to do, at the last second, and how it inconvenienced me. We'd just come out of a grocery store, and I got so mad, I flung a bag full of stuff across the parking lot and yelled at him. He later told me - somewhat manipulatively but with a grain of truth - that "what if your boss or co-workers had seen that?" (let alone recorded it, in the modern interconnected era). I had to conclude he was right, I mean I had a good job in software engineering, and if someone from work saw that episode, I might have been called in a couple weeks later to be told they're "downsizing" my position (out of fear I might go all "Columbine" in there).

The other meltdown in public was at 15, some fake friends were belittling me and I snapped, I started yelling and throwing things, quickly pacing around in circles and cursing loudly, but they were anything but intimidated. One of them just grabbed and shook me and told me to get lost before I "really get it". The rest just laughed. I suppose that my reaction just "weirded them out", rather than intimidate them - I mean, maybe if I was like Clark Kent or Bruce Banner and I uprooted a lamp-post and threw it into a car smashing in the front of it, then they probably would have ran for their lives

Yes, but I got tired of looking stupid in public, and suffering the physical and emotional consequences, and decided that I would rather walk away from a bad situation than contribute to it.

We do not always have any say over what others do or think but we have at least some control over how we respond to a situation.

I had to do a project a while back with someone who I found difficult to work with because they were not very logical and were quite emotionally driven, and I am difficult to anger but this person had succeeded in angering me on a few occasions, but the project was short term and the individual was someone who I would not be seeing again at the conclusion of the project, so it was not imperative that I "had words" with the person, which I am fairly certain would not have gone well no matter how I approached it. So I let a lot of small, yet infuriating things that were inconsequential in the big scheme of things go. Looking back, I think of all of the arguments we could have had and didn't, and am quite happy that they didn't happen, because I feel they would not have been in anyone's best interest, and the outcome that actually came to pass was actually the most optimal outcome that could have occurred.

I have them. But my autism is pretty pronounced. I'm always in a controlled situation even in public with family always with me and in special needs school. I guess it's pretty much the same as those that have seizures. It happens, and someone attends me until it passes.

I often have meltdowns in front of my class or youth group. Once I had a meltdown outside in Toronto on a field trip. I don't know if anyone noticed outside of my school group.

Nope. When I have one, I manage to find a place that's private.

One other thing I should mention. Technically, having a meltdown triggered by a frustrating person/situation, in public, can be considered a form of simple assault against that person (or possibly other spectators). Even if it's not actually your intent to harm the person who "set you off", they don't know that (even with Theory of Mind!!) As long as it generates "reasonable apprehension of a threat to be carried out", that's all it takes. Probably the reason why so many places of business, clinics and ticket kiosks have clearly posted signage that if anybody gets overly aggressive then they'll call police to have them removed from the premises. With these zero tolerance policies being commonplace in public, then it's best to avoid meltdowns!! !

I've been arrested under the Mental Health Act several times for things I've done in public. A few times there were four or five police officers, two paramedics, an ambulance, a police car and a police van to deal with me.

When I am really really overloaded and stressed out, I see red and I don't know what I am doing. Last time I was arrested, I can't actually remember what I did. I was told later that I attacked someone on the street (not severely though), and that when the police were called, I attacked the police and then was waving a cigarette lighter around dangerously (I don't smoke so I'm not sure where I got it from). I ended up with four officers sitting on me, handcuffing me and throwing me into the back of a police van. I was taken to a secure unit in a psych hospital and I was sectioned for a month there. This has happened quite a few times. Some of the doctors that assessed me thought I was catatonic when I was nonverbal, but when I eventually was allowed writing material in the assessment for a Section 2, I wrote down that I'm autistic and that I get periods of nonverbal during stress. They sectioned me anyway, and put me in a secure unit.

When I get lesser meltdowns in public, I start screaming and kicking walls. I sometimes whack my head against the wall or punch the walls.

I was nearly banned from Asda, a large one on the High Street. I was challenged to go there on my own, and I quickly ended up screaming and throwing milk cartons all over the place due to sensory overload. I was told to leave by security, otherwise they'd call the police. I ran all the way home and then went under my blanket and cried for hours, nonverbal again so I couldn't tell anyone.

My meltdowns are pretty catastrophic.

No but I've had plenty meltdowns with my parents as a teen & in my 20s.

The worst public situation I can remember was a few years ago

...it was on a plane. We had gone to Las Vegas for my sister's 30th birthday and, I mean... I was just DONE. I was beyond over stimulated and I was SO. SO. DONE.
It hadn't taken off yet; boarding was some kind of issue and I had to move or something and I got really upset and just flipped out. I had run out of my ability to be a reasonable human being with any kind of ability to communicate before we'd even left the hotel.

Honestly I was really lucky I didn't get forcibly removed from the plane- the flight attendants seemed to understand there was just like, something going on. I screamed at my mother and just flipped out in a little ball in a seat against a window. I mean... it would have been better if I had been taken off the plane, probably- it would have been a little less traumatizing for the other passengers. But, if I had been forcibly removed it would have just been an even worse experience for me. But luckily I ended up exhausting myself and passed out after about ten minutes.

I still feel awful thinking about it.

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ETA:
I actually hadn't really had them all that much for about two or three years until this past year. Now I get them more and more frequently- almost exclusively in private, because I rarely go out. I have close to no frustration tolerance and that's the problem. The reason why I had almost completely stopped having them is i had worked really hard on coping with these extremely intense feelings of not being able to deal with overwhelming frustration and overstimulation. The combination, i think, is what often sets me off.

Now, it's just all gone. So, I end up literally having no idea how to handle these overwhelming intense feelings- I told my therapist that I feel so angry/upset/overwhelmed/frustrated that I am scared I might die because all the cells in my body are going to explode. and that's true. for a part of it, I honestly am scared I'm going to die. But I'm also terrified to yell or act out because then I might not have a home. So i sit there, afraid I'm going to die- if I act out and don't die, I might end up homeless so what's the difference?

I don't actually know how other people experience meltdowns, but this is pretty similar to how I've experienced them internally since I was 5 and 6 years old.

I've had anxiety attacks so bad that I couldn't function but I've never experienced anything to the extreme of needing to be isolated. I've never been known to be violent in any situation thankfully.

I have had public meltdowns and they are pretty embarrassing. Thank goodness I haven't had one since my early twenties. I nearly had one last summer but I held it in and it gave me a panic attack. I was so disappointed it led me to it. Oh wait, I have had several at work due to too much change in my routine but no one was around so it was barely in public even though it was at work and everyone had gone home.

I've had them before, but I don't feel like going into any details about them. =p

I have had public meltdowns but not for several years. The last one was when I was 16. It was at school but I was intentionally provoked by another student who was two years older than me. The upside is he didn't bother me again afterwards. The school was also good about it because I didn't get in trouble for it since he very clearly provoked me.

Yes, several times in various jobs I had many years ago. I haven't worked since. I remember crying uncontrollably and co-workers not understanding at all why I reacted like that. I didn't have a diagnosis at the time.