Meltdowns- what do you do?

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I'm curious, what do you do during a meltdown? and what can make them better?

I personally have different levels, I start out irritable, then I start crying
and if I can't control myself by then, I end up on the floor rolling around crying and screaming.
for me, animals help, dogs and horses, also a fuzzy soft blanket can help.

how about you?

Either bottle it up, or explode at people who usually don't deserve it.

I myself was just going to make this exact same post when I read this one.

The lawyer called, said the other persons insurance company called.
They would like for me to settle a automotive insurance case - where a 98 year old woman, who suffered from Alzheimer's -= ran into the rear of my vehicle and injured my back.
Unfortunately I was to begin work that following Monday at a machine shop and was not yet hired when this accident happened.

I had my life back in order and would have been paid $12.00 a hour to go to work.
Instead, I laid on the floor for several month's in severe pain from a broken vertebra in my back.
Had I gone to work, even for just 2 months - I would have made the same amount as what the insurance company is willing to pay me right now for my injuries.

How do I explain to these people that my back did not hurt 8 hours a day, but 24 hours a day and it still hurts 4 years later.
I am disabled!

The doctor said that I was previously injured in a different place and that I had a pre existing condition.
There is no dispute this person ran into my vehicle and that I was injured. They are just downplaying the injury.
At the same time - they are not willing to pay for my injuries or pain and suffering - just two months of lost wages.

The lawyer calls and starts a fight with me and says basically that my life is not worth anything, or his time...

I am treated as if I am on trial and that anything that I say to him is as if I am on the witness stand in court.
I get so fustrated with the guy that I just start spouting off about my living conditions and how things are not good and how there has not been any income 0ther then what I earn myself and standing in food lines to get something to eat and fighting with the government - just to get energy assistance.....

If it was not for my brother loaning me his vehicle to drive and the money I had in the bank - I would be homeless right now.

I just dose myself up on anti psychotics and wait for it to go away.

At worst I will likely smash something up if it doesn't work properly first time.

Depends on what causes it.

Sensory overload, I put on my headphones, sit down, close my eyes, and ignore everything for a few hours.

People ticking me off, I black out and get violent.

etc.

I rant, curse and blaspheme, and sometimes kick the furniture*. I've also broken a few things. One time, I punched through the door of my mirror cabinet (I always go to the bathroom during a meltdown so I don't scare the cats). But I usually manage to keep myself from doing any property damage, because, well, it's my own property, it wasn't cheap, I'm not exactly rich, and I'll have to clean up the mess afterwards.

Sometimes I manage to channel my frustration into physical work (accompanied by loud ranting and cursing). Yesterday, I installed two large, old speakers under the bathroom ceiling inside my shower cabin and waterproofed them with saran wrap during a mild meltdown. Or perhaps it was the work that brought on the meltdown, it's hard to tell. Anyway, I now have excellent sound in my shower, which proves that meltdowns are not always a curse and can be rather productive.

*Only in the privacy of my own home. I don't have meltdowns in public. I guess I'm too anxious when I'm around people, and simply shut down when things get too much for me.

Hmm...I've had some epic meltdowns. If I'm angry at someone, my meltdowns usually involve me grumbling to myself; and kicking, throwing, or punching stuff (typically my bed or pillows). If someone intervenes when I'm in the middle of a meltdown, they might find themselves an inadvertent target of my frustration (I don't get violent, but I might exchange some words). Like CrazyCatLord, I can sometimes put my frustration to good use and get something accomplished during a meltdown, though I'll curse and talk to myself the whole time.

If I'm feeling overwhelmed, my meltdowns often take the form of a panic attack, or I just drop everything and flee the room or go for a long walk (this is the sort of meltdown I'm more prone to having in public). If it's sensory overload, I lie down in a dark room and listen to music or something for several hours. Sometimes I sleep it off.

I usually shut down for the remainder of the day after a meltdown, and sometimes into the next day, depending on how upset I am.

I cry for hours until my eyelids are so puffy that they feel like they're gonna fall off, and then I have to stay home the next day so as not to scare people. That level of meltdown has not happened in at least a few months now, though. I hope that doesn't mean I'm due for one...

Scream, yell,throw things, hyperventilate,hit myself,cry pretty much...I've broken a flat screen TV,put my heard through a door, kicked a hole in a door, broke my cell phone, among other expensive things

If I am left alone for 30 minutes or an hour, I am good. Usually I will cover my ears and cover my head with a blanket or something and that helps.

wait I'm confused... did you mean to post this to this thread? it seems off-topic[/quote]

Can't you read?
When people starts calling me on the telephone and fighting with me - and I get upset and start spouting off to them, wouldn't you call it a melt down.
I get so damn mad sometimes at these idiots because they cannot understand disabled people - even though their job is to deal with these types of people - I wonder why they just didn't become a garbageman.

Lawyers are scum in my book, followed by OVR and Mental Health people because they are always asking me to jump though hoops and my life was just fine without them..
People who are well do not go to hospitals and people who are not injured do not go to lawyers to try to sue people to get money.

I didn't call the lawyer the day after the accident, I called him 7 months later when my condition persisted and I was not getting better and I had no money coming in and no way to go to work because I broke a vertebra in my back in a auto accident...

What can't you read?

Kicking, screaming, crying - is all acts - looking for attention.
When you have to pay for the door or the window or the flat screen television - you would think twice before you started destroying stuff.

At my parents house - that would warrant a full beating from my dad.
Maybe that is what you people need - a good beating from my dad.

If you started kicking and hitting and screaming and busting stuff - my parents would have put you away a long time ago...

I have different degrees/styles:

Pseudo-Meltdown - my parents often call this a meltdown, I call it 'teetering on the edge, this is when I have a brief bout of yelling or whatever but it's over with a minute or so. Usually it could have been a meltdown if they'd reacted a little differently. It's a sign that I'm really irritable.

Meltdown - yelling, screaming, crying, self-injury, aggression, etc. This always comes out of a mix of feeling hurt and/or terrified, never anger, even though I seem angry. I find what I can say is limited by a set of mental rules to keep me from seeming too 'vulnerable', so "please give me a hug and tell me you love me" becomes "you don't care about me". (There's also an element of 'testing', if I just say what I need then it doesn't seem real when they do it.)

Shutdown - exact same emotions as a meltdown, but I find myself unable to move apart from specific limited movements, and my speech is limited to a small number of short phrases (typically something like "I can't move"). My vision tends to get fixed on little things and then start graying over because I'm staring at one thing too long, my body feels disconnected, etc.

Crying - just crying. No yelling or anything. This is when I feel really sad but not immediately threatened.

Overload - when I'm not at all upset but I've had too much sensory stimulation and I feel disconnected. Looks similar to shutdown usually, but less extreme.

I scream and cry and pace mostly. I used to get violent as a kid, but I don't any more. People have learned not to touch me when I am upset. People never got that I wasn't trying to hit people, I was just trying to get them away from me.

Once I took a sledgehammer to a pile of rocks until I was utterly exhausted and even that didn't release my rage. That's a pretty scary thing. I haven't had one like that in a long time, thank goodness.