What is a meltdown?

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I've heard that a lot of people with Asperger Syndrome have these things called meltdowns.
I have looked this thing up on YouTube and such, but it still isn't very clear to me what is meant when we talk about a meltdown.
And so I can't say whether I have them or not, and is this thing specific for people with autism?

search the board for 'meltdown' - there are lots and lots of threads here discussing it.

Meltdown:

The overwhelming flood of emotions felt when your ice cream falls off the cone onto blistering hot pavement.

It can mean different things to different people, but basically its like a mini-nervous breakdown, a state of being utterly overwhelmed by sensory or emotional overload to the point that one loses control of one's emotions and explodes in anger or collapses in tears, or often, a combination of the two.

It is usually brought on by frustration at not being able to communicate to the neurotypical types around you that you cannot do something that seems simple and easy to them. They will patronize you, pepper you with platitudes, insist that you can do it 'if you'll just try harder', then they get angry with you because they think you're being intentionally uncooperative, and at some point, the madness of trying to get across to them something that they cannot comprehend because they've never experienced it makes your head explode and you temporarily lose your mind.

Other times, it may be brought on by physical exhaustion, the pressure to socialize beyond one's current capacity, emotional stresses, or combinations of all of these.

One thing a meltdown is NOT, is a tantrum. Kids throw tantrums in order to take control of a situation and get their way. A meltdown is a total LOSS of control. To an onlooker they may appear very similar, but they're not the same.

It when you get frustrated and overwhelmed all at once and you just erupt like a volcano-with me its like a storm in my head and it just has to run its course.

It's like this:

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgfjftuuhjkjnkluioijledswedgvgjjlkqrwjhikujaswwdzagheegtfhrdtsnh!! !! !! !! !!!1111

If that helps any.

Sorry.

That seems like me.
How long will something like this usually go on? Or does that vary a lot?
Sometimes I just have this pain, but it's not physical, but it hurts my brain.
Is it also normal that you get pretty rude towards other people? For example if they want to give you something and you just tell them to go away.
I also have that problem with friends sometimes, but they just call it a "NERD RAGE". Like for example if I have to make a drawing but someone tells me that I'm doing something wrong, and then I just throw the drawing away.
I also have that I sometimes get home, and I do not know why but suddenly everything around me gets very irritating.
I don't know why that is, but I guess it could be because of a sudden change of environment or something like that.
I don't know if these things are describable as meltdowns but it certainly isn't pleasant to have these moments.

A sudden outburst of anger caused by small annoyances building over a long time. Thats what they were like for me, haven't experienced once since leaving school.

What kind of annoyances? Like sounds and other sensory information?

For me, mostly the physical pain I experience whenever I try to write by hand. Being forced to copy out pages and pages of text did not end well.

That is exactly my 8 year old son. No amount of calming techniques, reasoning, threatening etc. is going to make a difference once that ball starts to roll. I've come to the conclusion it's exactly that, something that just has to run its course. Once I figured that out, I just let him be as much as I can and afterwards it almost seems like a huge relief/release and he can function much better and seems even more relaxed and happier. For him things slowly build up and then one day he'll snap and need to let it all out. Now I just have to figure out how to stop it from building in the first place!!

It's almost like an emotional seizure.

Okay, imagine that you are being led around wonderland by a mad hatter. The environment around you keeps changing from one situation to another that you are not equipped to handle. You are put into a situation where you just can't "breathe" mentally or compose yourself. You can't slow your thought processes down enough to think about them logically.

And then suddenly you are being yelled at by the Queen of Hearts, and she's angry at you for some reason you honestly can't understand. You sure tried your best to make something positive come of the situation, but because you are in a situation where you don't know the traditions or protocols you have simply made one gaffe after another.

The card soldiers are marching toward you, the world is whirling around you, the queen is shouting, "off with your head! Off with your head!"

And then the cards are whirling around you and being sprayed in your face as if by some psychotic card dealer.

And everyone is being mean to you for no reason that you can grasp.

And you don't know what to do.

And your emotions run over like a boiling pot.

Finally, imagine this feeling, if you can imagine it, being magnified manifold. It's like your emotions are burning you like a hot poker.

The only way you can really deal with it is to treat the autist as if he or she is speaking and behaving rationally. I swear to you on my grandmother's grave that the emotions the autist is feeling during a mild-to-moderate meltdown are essentially "a sandstorm of mental noise," and the person you actually want to talk to is still on the inside of it. He or she might be scared during this experience, so you really need to speak in a calm, rational tone of voice during this. Don't panic. Don't get upset. Take it for granted that the autist is trying to voice his or her thoughts in the most rational, intelligible manner possible under the circumstances.

SCENARIO:

Your autistic friend is having a meltdown

You: Hey, calm down!

Friend: CALM DOWN??? HOW!! !? DANG IT! DANG IT! Can't breathe!

Your friend bangs his or her fists against the table angrily

You: Well, I don't think banging the table is going to help matters. How about we take you outside to where you can breathe better, then?

Friend: OUTSIDE. DANG FREAKING OUTSIDE, FINE. THE PEOPLE HERE...THEY'RE IMBECILES! THEY WON'T STOP TALKING! TALK! TALK! YAMMER! MORONS!! !

You translate this in your head to, "Yes, it might be a good idea. There are too many people talking at once, and it's getting to me badly."

You look around at the people in the room, and you make a gesture of agreement.

You: Yeah, you're right. I wish these people would learn to take turns or something. (You point toward the nearest exit) The door is this way. Let's get you to where you can breathe.

You calmly lead your autistic friend outside. After the raging has passed, his or her face will become flushed, and there will be some shaking. Your friend might even look a little sick, and sometimes it might help matters to offer a drink of water at this point. After a little while, there might be a short period of crying, and then your friend's head will clear up again.

And that's the usual sort of scenario where a responsible, knowledgeable friend deals with an autist who is in the midst of a meltdown. It might be challenging to hold your cool, but it makes matters a lot easier for everyone involved if you can.

When you tip over the edge. Slip from just being angry or sad and into the yawning abyss of rage or despair.

I tend to bottle things up and so when I do meltdown I usually end up crying and disabled. Difficult to move. Its like I can talk but like I have to make the words go through a wall of tar, so hard to get them out. Mind is just chaos. I just want to close my eyes, block out all noise and sit with my arms wrapped around me head.

Nothing to do once my mind gets to that state. Just have to wait it out.

I made this analogy in another thread.

Draw a few circles on top of each other (about 10?). The circles are fairly neat. This would represent a "normal" state of mind.

Now draw another bunch of circles on top of each other, however this time draw them as fast as you can. The shape is still like a circle but it is wobbly and rough. This would represent an "excited" state, like being really happy, angry, sad, etc.

Now draw another bunch of circles, however this time draw them as fast as you can but also keep your eyes closed. In this one the circles are all over the place, The picture is wild. This would represent a meltdown.

A meltdown for me usually happens in one of two ways:

The Arogant Idiot Meltdown - when some one refuses to think about how their action/inaction is affecting myself or others.
In this situation I usually get a slow build of pressure in the back of my skull. This is my warning sign, that if I don't find a quiet place to sit and relax in the next 30sec. I'm likely to explode in anger - very out of character for me - This type of anger is the uncontrolled rage type, often called a red haze, which is literally what happens - I see everything through a haze of red.
I usually regret my actions after one of these.

The Constant Annoyance Meltdown - when there are too many little things going on that interupt my train of thought.
This situation is a slow burn cold calulating type of anger, and one that I've learned to 'use' to devastatingly humiliate someone who may be the source of an annoyance. My friends recognise this one coming by the fact that I grow very, very quiet and unresponsive. When they see this happening they try to move me to a different location or attempt to remove the annoyance. Unless, of course, they want to see someone get humiliated, then they taunt the annoyer, in effect setting them up for a fall.
I usually don't regret my actions after one of these, because my action is usually thoroughly reasoned through.