Does everyone with Asperger's get meltdowns?

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For me it was when I was younger that I used to have shutdowns, those would usually happen in the last days of school where I would simply would just put my head in my arms and put my jacket around me so that I wouldn't have to deal with it all. Back then I think I was diagnosed as HFA, though now I think that I am diagnosed as an aspie. Even though at 24 years of age I usually will have a small shutdown if the situations are just right, just for a minute or two then I would snap back to realty some days it would happen many times. Now days I do not shutdown like that as much, though I do wonder if depression is replacing it, as for my stressful job I was surprised about that, my mom was the one that told me that I was going through a downward spiral. Whatever though with all the crap that I do put up with I will just say to hell with it and if my parents give me crap I will just say something back, right now It feels like I am vulnerable for some reason.

Something once happened that ended with me screaming in the parking lot at Costco... And I was 10.

To my knowledge I've never had a meltdown. The closest I think I got was in high school when I was stressing over the details and paperwork of graduation, my friend was trying to help me and I just sort of flipped out and ran out of the room into the nearest bathroom stall. Once I was alone I calmed down very quickly, but there were a few seconds when I wasn't sure I was going to be able to contain the frustration.

Meltdowns/Shutdowns seem to be integral to ASD's what differs is the form they take. I havent had too many "grand mal" meltdowns. In public at any rate I am in control - the fear of ridicule (instilled in me by my mum as a kid) is so great that I just internalise it all. This has led to a lot of severe nausea attacks which my therapist thought were panic attacks - jurie's still out on that one though.

Point is it depends on your anxiety levels. If you locked me in a room with one of my sensory triggers i'd fall apart. Headbanging and rocking are the 2 main symptoms though I prefer not to bang my head. I end up just jerking my arms about spasmodically and pacing. However as long as my anxiety stays below the threshhold im fine. The only meltdowns as a kid I remember were the times when my anxiety levels got beyond a fairly high level. Shutdowns were more common where my body slows riiiiiight down, speech deteriorates and I become non responsiive.

So i'd say that it just depends on what your pain threshold is

Yes occasionally. My last big meltdown was last May when I got stressed out and kicked a hole in the wall. I have done that on several occasions and I'm not proud of it.

I've always been rather tantrum-prone. I don't know if they count as meltdowns. I acted like a spoilt brat when I was a child aged between 4 and 13) - even though I wasn't spoilt. I had tantrums if I couldn't get what I wanted, and I would lay on the floor and kick. These temper tantrums did not occur every time I wanted something I couldn't have, though. Just sometimes.

Then since I was a teenager (from about 14) I've always been prone to outbursts and panic attacks, and I still am now. I get myself into a rage or a panic about something, and if it gets too overwhelming I argue, shout, cry, smack myself in the head, swear, slam doors, and scream abusive language about myself and my life, and sometimes about other people too (but I don't ever mean it personally).

I don't know if those count as meltdowns or are something else. One thing is I never EVER go non-verbal during an emotional overload. I don't think I have ever been non-verbal when having an emotional overload, even as a baby.

For meltdowns and anger management it looks like I work exactly the way Attwood writes about in his book: if for most people anger varies from 1 to 10, I can only be on either levels 1-2 or 9-10. During about 15 years of my life between 10 and 25 years old I had a quite simple and easy life (if a bit boring) and I can't remember even one occurence of me getting really angry in all that time. Then I started getting anxious and overwhelmed more and more often and I started occasionally experiencing terrible meltdowns where I was horrible (and sometimes physically dangerous) to myself and everyone around me. They are the worst memories in my life and I have only be able to let some of the guilt go and to efficiently regulate them since I understand that they are probably the manifestation of an autistic syndrome and not just me becoming periodically insane (I sometimes wondered if I had some kind of psychotic disorder.)

I almost never get merely annoyed by something unpleasant, either I don't care or it evocates a feeling of intense rage. Fortunately having such a feeling doesn't automatically trigger a meltdown, in the immense majority of the cases I can just smother it and remain calm (I will just look restless or make a weird face.) But if something repeatedly presses my buttons it can trigger a full scale crisis, which other people find completely unexpected. When I am on the verge of a meltdown, I can feel my emotions swinging wildly between complete apathy and pure anger, it never settles anywhere between. For those familiar with that theory, it is like a dynamical system with only two attractors.

To add a contrarian data point: I regard myself as quite high-functioning, and I get meltdowns. Until my challenges last year, it had been 10 to 12 years since my last meltdown. Prior to that, about one per year after college (excepting the years where my mom and dad passed) and about ... hm... maybe 3-5 per year while in college, and perhaps... a dozen all told during high school. Prior to that all bets are off as to counts, frequency & duration. I can recall five meltdowns in adolescence, but suspect many, many more. The five were just the severe ones.

As you noted, Ichinin, I attribute my long no-meltdown streak as an adult to being able to understand society and therefore stop or reject contradictory thought-loops before they become a problem. However irritation or annoyance with people have made me remove myself from the room countless times. The "experience" part of the equation; I can often see the annoyance-type coming.

I used to refer to these as "my Irish temper" prior to diagnosis. I believe the violent meltdowns are the same as the grief/overload meltdowns. I personally classify the violent outbursts as meltdowns because only the manifestation is different in these types of meltdowns.

Regarding the tantrums, that plays on the hedonism mechanism most of us seem to share. This is the mechanism that gives me the most angst over social situations or other non-interesting activities. For me this hedonism is best described as "I just want to do my own thing, and only my own thing, leave me alone."

I get very ornery and stressed when I have to abandon something I'm immersed in. For me I don't believe this is capable of prompting a meltdown on its own, though. I can imagine that it may have the ability to push me fully into a meltdown if other factors were introduced.

Caveat/disclaimer: I'm not a mental professional. I'm classifying them via commonalities & intuition.

I sometimes get shutdowns when stressed (probably has a lot to do with the fact that stress won't increase cortisol levels significantly in someone with AS), but don't get meltdowns anymore. I used to get them before when people nagged, though.

Meltdowns are not a symptom of Autism or Aspergers, its result of not being able to cope and handle things. if i cant understand what is going on, i meltdown, or if im in a room with too much going on, i meltdown. some people with aspergers, even High functioning autism can handle things very well, and will have less meltdowns than someone who cannot handle things. it all depends on what the person has been exposed too

My meltdowns were more ostentatious when I was a kid than they are now. When I was a kid, I would melt down by dissolving into tears, hiding under objects, covering my ears, and running out of whatever room I was in. I can remember running out of a preschool I was in once, and out the doors and into the parking lot. I felt safe surrounded by all the cars, and imagined my teachers and classmates all saying to one another, "Thank goodness she's gone now! We didn't want her here anyway!" Not that I cared; I was far happier and calmer out there surrounded by all the cars. So I was very surprised when a group of teachers came running out of the building, spotted me, dragged me back inside, and I was told that my parents had been called on top of it all. My plan had been to just sit out there until my parents drove up to get me- I would have been completely calm by then.

I don't really melt down much these days unless I'm really tired, hungry, upset, or if multiple stressors have accumulated throughout the day.

I have a meltdown every now and I've been diagnosed with Aspergers. I have had some doubts about my diagnosis over the past year or so and I feel like I'm still different from the other Aspies that I know.

I have shutdowns more frequently than meltdowns but my meltdowns can be pretty destructive when they strike.

Well, I know that I do, and I hate it...

This. Everyone can have a meltdown, it's more common to auties and aspies (and some other kinds of people) because we don't know how to handle situations or understand/control our emotions, anxiety, frustration etc, plus we have to deal with much more sensory imput, which can be stressful.

I have typical meltdowns like twice a year, when I scream, cry and break things. Some people here said they used to have a lot when they were younger and not anymore, for me it's the opposite: when I was a kid there weren't many things that led me to overwhelm, frustration anxiety etc, now with responsibilities, college and so on my life is tons more stressful. But on the other side I'm more under control now, I know my limits better, when I was a kid meltdowns were rare but I would hit other people etc.
More often than meltdowns (maybe once a month?) I also have a reaction that I don't understand which is curling up on the sofa or somewhere else and crying nonstop and stimming (rubbing my face). I don't know if this is a shutdown, I don't understand what a shutdown is like.

It depends on a number of variables. I can get them but I can also go long periods without one.