Describe a meltdown

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I'm writing a letter to complain about how I was dealt with at college, trying to come up with a brief explanation of a meltdown and can't really describe it very well - looking for something short but sweet to express that it's out of your control.

Anyone able to give a nice clear and brief description?

Please and thank you

I just recently put this in another thread:

Meltdowns are so hard to describe in words. In order to emphasize that they are out of your control, maybe you can explain that they are similar to a physical reflex to physical pain. It just so happens that things that cause pain, mental or physical, for you don't bother most other people at all. This is better than the alternative term that I use for meltdowns, which is "Temporary Insanity".

For me, it is like sliding down a hill, knowing you are out of control and will inevitably crash, dreading it, but totally unable to stop it. I feel as if I'm trapped in a runaway train once one is triggered; I watch what is happening, inside I scream in horror, but I am powerless to apply the brakes and doomed to suffer the catastrophe that follows. As well as the humiliation I feel, I am one of those who suffers a sharp spike in body temperature during a meltdown, so I feel sick for hours or even days after one. I dread them, I do everything I can think of to avoid them, but every now and then, I go over the lip of a precipice before I notice it is there. And fall, all the way to the bottom. A meltdown is its own punishment, as anyone who has ever experienced one will know, immediately and instinctively. It is as involuntary as jerking your hand back in pain if you touch a red-hot object; only in this case, you are doomed to strike your elbow against something when you jerk your hand back, so you will suffer even more.

Feel free to use any of my metaphors that work for you. Sorry I couldn't be more coherent about it; a meltdown is so inherently opposed to coherence that I don't know if it would be possible to write a coherent account of one. An observer might be able to describe what they heard and saw, but how could anyone who lived through it explain it coherently? It is an internal, mental tornado which rips through you, shattering thought and coherence and leaving devastation in its wake.

Wow... I have not had a meltdown in a long time.

Bring my iPod around with me though, just in case something goes wrong...

For me having a meltdown is like being hit by a car. I don't know what's wrong until I'm sobbing and making a big scene and sometimes I don't know even then. As someone else said, everything is instinct. Sometimes you are able to control yourself and sit still instead of giving in to fight/flight but most other times it's entirely out of your control, like a car with no breaks. It's like being in the passenger seat of your own life, in my eyes.

When my stress level reaches a certain level, and I am left without time to myself to deal with it properly, my mood shifts from 'nice, funny, happy daddy/husband' to 'grrrr'. I blow up very quickly at the wife/children/everything, and if it happens to escalate into a minor argument while I am in this state of mind then its all over. It generally ends with me exploding in a massive screaming match, being pissed off at both myself and my wife/children/everything, shaking with rage, and unable to stop even hours later. I hate this, and I guess this would be my 'meltdown' scenario. Other things that can escalate it are public places, unfamiliar people, crowds, pools of water, and extended periods of time that I have to act like a normal person. I've come dangerously close to blowing up at bosses in the past, and have somehow staved off the rage and thus kept my job, but it scares me nonetheless.

like being struck by emotional lighting...and I am powerless to control myself as I am being mentally electicuted

I had one today... I asked my room-mate to get me something I didn't really need but she forgot. I had a meltdown .. It hit me like a sharp piece of ice in the stomach and I started breathing heavily to calm myself and knew I was being silly but I lost control of what was going on around me and kept repeating "I asked for fish sauce" to myself over and over again. It felt like the end of the world until I got back to my senses. I got angry and ran straight into the room shut the door and burst out crying[that's what getting angry does to me].

Same. I spend much of my time feeling apathetic so strong emotions cause me to sob uncontrollably and cause my mind to fog up. Not sure whether or not this is your case but I can relate to the frustration of feeling angry but being unable to stay "stone-faced" so you can have a proper conversation.

Its really hard to hide emotions from showing up on the face during a meltdown.. people say I am being rude because of that... I always thought if they felt the intensity of emotion I feel they'd not being saying that.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDLQg8ZKBS8&feature=related[/youtube]

About 1:08 "One express elevator to hell, going down"