Do aspies have melt downs or is that an autism thing?

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Im an aspie and I havnt had meltdowns since I was a little kid. Some times I feel like I want to but I fight it and control myself.

Yeah anyone can have a meltdown under extreme stress. Human nature and all.

Aspies and Auties though have intense ones over things that aren't as big. Not like "losing a loved one," "losing a job," "losing very important data" and basically things that really matter the most. It's possible to have a meltdown for anyone on things that don't matter quite so much, too, but with Aspies and Auties they are a little more frequent and at things that are not often what NTs would consider as big a deal. Like when I scream at Mario at the top of my lungs or when i sweat, shake, have an outburst over something recoverable with a little money or diy know-how and the pain can last for hours or days. Of course keep in mind I'm Dx with anxiety, too.

my nephew has been diagnosed with asperger's. i've never seen him have a meltdown, either.
so that makes him and me without meltdowns.

i have a mini-stim thing where i wiggle the fingers of my right hand unconsciously. you can even see it in my wedding video as i walk down the aisle. if i get very excited or angry, i rub my hands together as if they were cold. i've never seen my nephew do stereotypical movements.

my asperger's, though undiagnosed, caused me to lose a medical doctor career, and kept me from marrying during my child-bearing years. that makes me biologically unsuccessful, an evolutionary dead end. i'd say that is a significant disability. i learned to be average at small talk in my early 50's. i'd call that socially ret*d. my very high IQ let me partially compensate, which is how i survived as a doc for as long as i did.

there is a brief test based on the DSM at www.iautistic.com/test_AS.php. according to it and other tests that come up if you google "asperger's syndrome test", i have asperger's. there's nothing special for me about getting an official diagnosis other than it gives the doctor an excuse to not recommend me for the jobs i want, so i'm not going to bring it up.

the reason i first thought i might have asperger's was looking at the signs and symptoms on webMD after my nephew was diagnosed. i said that it sounded a lot like me. it just explains a lot of things i've kind of wondered about all my life.

as others have mentioned, meltdowns are not at all part of the diagnostic criteria, and stims aren't a must-have.

They are not specific to autism. kfisherx posted a video a few months ago that showed the differences in processing that can lead to meltdowns - at least an analogy that worked for some of us, but not all of us. A combination of emotional dysregulation, alexithymia, and sensory overstimulation makes it a lot easier for us to hit that limit, and get close sometimes without even realizing until it gets to be too much. I don't have very many meltdowns, but when I do they're hard to mistake.

Other conditions can impact emotions as well, although usually different causes and effects. When my sister hits her "meltdown" point (not autistic, ADHD, probably bipolar, possibly something else), she lashes out. She picks someone she decides must be responsible for her pain and lashes out at them, accusing them of whatever it takes to make them responsible for whatever is setting her off. This includes things she did herself that ended up setting her off. She's not autistic at all. She can also have several of these in a day - especially on days that are either not about her or not just about her. For example, anyone's birthday but her own, Mother's Day, Christmas, etc.



Hand flapping is a lot of things. I've done it my whole life. It was actually mentioned in the report I saw on my diagnosis.

Link

While it's not exactly a scientific source, I do love this quote:

From everything I've read, meltdowns and shutdowns are integral to Aspergers.



I'm not sure if this was a coherent point, but basically yes, Aspies definitely have meltdowns, it's probably an autism thing in general because it's a result of overstimulation due to our hypersensitive nature and inability to release the frustration in a "normal" way. I believe NTs can have them too, but they are MUCH less frequent than Aspies.

Yes aspies do have meltdowns. I used to have them all the time.

Of course everyone has a meltdown every now and then but we are just more prone to it.

I have severe Aspergers and I have a lot meltdowns. I also have severe emotional breakdowns.

location: location: location - lol

asperger's runs in my family. the only one of us who has meltdowns has borderline personality disorder and not asperger's. folks who have borderline p d have severe emotional dysregulation.

Meltdowns can happen to anyone; and that includes NTs. With that said, it's mainly the kinds of things involved in a meltdown that would be different from mild Asperger's to full-blown nonverbal and nonfunctioning autism. Most Aspies have said that they can somewhat control meltdowns to a point where they can see one coming, and go in private, or perhaps hide it well enough that it just looks like an allergy attack, etc. Something usually sets it off, such as flashing lights, or certain noises, or social pressure. In my case, it's social pressure such as a party (a.k.a. Hell on Earth to me).

Again; an NT can have a meltdown too, so it's all relative.

Charles

I also get into trouble regularly for inferring meanings in words that people didn't intend, you see. It's not uncommon for people to comment that my interpretations tend to be overly negative and paranoid (Well, online anyways. In real life, it doesn't seem to happen often because I can judge the way people intonate and stress certain words in a sentence to intend a given meaning, to a certain extent. I still seem to occasionally miss real life sarcasm, though.).

But, heck, even if it's an overly negative and inaccurate interpretation, if it's an interpretation at all that goes beyond the literal meaning, then that makes me NT, right? I HOPE SO!

I have mild Asperger's, but I do have meltdowns. Not very often, but I do have them. Snow mostly triggers them off, because I HATE snow with a passion.

I think it's just a spectrum thing. Some Aspies do, some Autistics don't, and vice versa.

Reading this thread has made me think more about meltdowns, which has made me realize that I sometimes have meltdowns without even knowing that I am having meltdowns. I just remembered this one time when I had a meltdown when the cashier at the convenience store wouldn't give me four quarters change for a dollar. Up until now, I had not even considered that incident to be a meltdown, but now I realize that it definitely was.

Anyone else have meltdowns displaying uncontrollable angry behaviors without even feeling the internal cue that you are having a meltdown, and the ill-advised...no...no-advised...stuff coming out of your mouth and body don't even match what is going on inside your mind? Most of the time, I know about my meltdowns, because I feel them intensely, but sometimes, it seems like even the feeling gets cut off, so these unfeeling but behaving meltdowns are the most uncontrollable of all.

I don't know if this is a "behaving" meltdown or if it's even a meltdown at all but when I'm under pressure and heavily stressed out, it can happen that my body reacts differently to outer influences than I want it to in my mind.
E.g. in this kind of state if someone asks me a simple question or just tells me anything I'll yell the answer and sound very angry or if I have to do something, for example opening a package, I'll tear it open, or I slam doors, use all my force without intenting to...etc. I can't control what I do, usually I end up staring into nowhere and doing nothing afterwards.

I guess there are some rather undefined bounds of nomenclature in autism..
But yeah regarding meltdowns; for me "in an Aspergian Autisic Mind" they are rather common.

They usually stem from misunderstanding though, or a opposing opinion to my moral beliefs.

swbluto - have i been helpful at all? cuz i'm trying like mad to be helpful.