Describe what a meltdown is like for you.

Post Reply New Topic

Gradually I get this overwhelmed feeling, then I feel like screaming crying all at the same time and want to be away from everything.

Before I went on meds:-

Shouting louder than my lungs can take
Swearing
Abusing myself
Hitting myself in the head angrily
Kicking and slamming doors
Unintentionally spitting
Throwing myself on to the ground
Crying excessively
Shaking

Being on meds (they don't happen so much any more):-

Crying
Arguing

Although I do get panic attacks and get anxious and stressed, it's still better for myself, and for my loved ones, to take meds. The meltdowns I had before made me like a crazy person and it was embarrassing to the neighbours.

My panic attacks involve:-

Crying
Chest spasms/breathing difficulties
Chest and stomach pain
Drowsiness
Nausea

Putting a DVD on to watch usually helps with panic attacks if I'm on my own.
Talking to people and being reassured helps an awful lot.

Last edited by Joe90 on 30 May 2018, 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

https://www.autistichelpsyou.com/single ... A-Meltdown

I wrote a blog post on it.

I am also on 50mg sertraline, I was put on it for depression but I didnt feel depressed, that was when I was diagnosed.

I have had meltdowns which seemingly are not a response to anything and ones that are a response to external stuff overwhelming me. I haven't had one in years.... actually in over a decade at least....

The ones that just come over me are like a sudden and extreme change in emotional state. They can lead me to feel extremely sad, overwhelmed, panicky and at risk for self harm. I might cry very hard or just need to get out and away and make irrational choices.

The ones which are a response will generally come about in a situation where I feel I am out of options or cornered or people are not getting me or not paying attention to my needs or my state of stress and I will become increasingly frustrated at the person / people and get angry and throw things, shout or punch myself, hit myself in the head in frustration.

Omg you guys who are on sertraline, how come it didn't affect you badly? I took it for 2 days and got the worst side effects, I honestly think if i took it for 3 days it would have killed me. I got mild serotonin syndrome, tho it didnt feel mild. I was off sick for 3 weeks. I also took 50mg but it was the nastiest thing ever to me but I know others take it and it helps them

Last edited by Starfoxx on 30 May 2018, 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I never thought about medication for meltdowns.

I have a lot of regrets and shame about my parenting, because my meltdowns were most often a reaction to being overwhelmed with raising four children.

I'm just sooo black and white in my thinking, and my expectations for little people were unrealistic and unreasonable.

But what it was like for me was similar to a volcano exploding. I'd just blow up, and every single thing that entered my mind when I was in that state came out of my mouth.

I was angry so much of the time when I was married, and at the end of the meltdown, my chest would just hurt for a long time after.

I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack.

I scream and yell, cry, and/or hit myself on the head or hurt myself in other ways.

I tend to shutdown rather than meltdown. If I'm not comfortable (i.e. noisy environment) or something goes unexpected, I'll just find a safe corner and go semi-catatonic, or, I'll just stop what I'm doing mid-action and leave. I do this far less often than during my younger years, though.

I knew some non-Aspie people who went on Sertraline and it didn't agree with them. I don't know why it agrees with some and not others.

The doctor put me on 25mg to start off with, and she said it's for anxiety. Literally 2 day after taking the first one, I began to feel happier in myself. But it didn't help my anxiety, so a few weeks later the doctor upped it to 50mg. I was still riddled with anxiety. But I noticed I had more control over meltdowns. Now it's been 4 years since I've been on 50mg Sertraline and I haven't had a bad meltdown since, only mild meltdowns (but doesn't everybody have mild ones?)

So, despite being anxious and panicky, I am still happy to stay on Sertraline.

^^^^Starfoxx; I am also taking 100mg of sertraline, and it probably saved my life tbh. My side effects are mainly paradoxical or involve increased anxiety. It just works for some people and not really for others. What did you take sertraline for? It seems like low serotonin levels may not have been your root issue, or you took too much too fast.

For me sertraline doesn't seem to make me feel better just been more aware of things.
And got over everything quicker than feeling upset and distresses for hours.
I feel more numb to feelings and don't seem as open to emotion as I was, when I do have a moment they are more intense but don't last as long.

I start to feel really overheated and like I'm filling up like a balloon.
Then there's someone asking me if I'm okay now.
In between that, which I never remember, I can be crying, screaming, hitting myself, smashing things.
If I start getting out of control I'm restrained in a safe harmless manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQJ8WrKnLUs

I started out on 50MG for a couple of years, and over the past six or seven months, my doctor increased my dose to 100, then 150MG, which is what I'm on now. I started taking it for anxiety right after I got my autism diagnosis, and I had some unpleasant side effects too; no appetite, dizziness, nausea, constant fatigue, it took two or three weeks for it to go away, but after my body adjusted, I found it helped a lot with the anxiety. It started wearing off after a while though, which is why my GP increased my dose. She increased it again last month when I went to a psych hospital for suicidal ideation. I've tried other meds to help the anxiety and depression, like ativan and risperdone, but they didn't work. Ativan is supposed to be a depressant and calm you down, but it just made me agitated and made my meltdowns worse, more frequent, and they would be triggered apropos of nothing. Risperdone didn't really do much at all except make me so tired I couldn't get out of bed. I stopped taking it during the weekdays and only took it on the weekends because it kept making me late for work. My GP took me off it because there was no point in continuing it at such an infrequent dose.

Hey cool location and avatar , sorry the medication didn't work out for you, Risperdone
Sounds terrible, I've been wanting to change from sertraline because it makes me my head feel fuzzy in a way.

I was given it for anxiety because i'd been having panic attacks most days and not sleeping. It made the panic attacks worse but also it made me be unable to move at times and feel as if my whole body or parts of my body disappeared, tremors and my jaw would shake by itself, sweating, palpitaitions it gave me horrible mood swings. I get random mood swings anyways sometimes so thats normal for me but when i was on the medicine it made the swings more intense and way more frequent than im used to, really intense fear and i couldnt bare to be alone for even a few minutes and was afraid to go to bed everynight. I temporarily got depressed because of the drug i think because id never felt so bad and low in my life, 3 weeks after i stopped the medicine i felt suicidal and got attacks of being super angry for no reason. Idk how only 2 pills could have done that, its some nasty. It took a few months to feel back to normal. I kinda feel back to normal though now have a conversion disorder but its mild, so i've been told by GP. I think thats though from stress overall and not the drug reaction. idk.
I couldnt play video games or watch TV but colouring helped when i was feeling bad and people telling jokes and stuff. Personally I think that sort of medicine is not good for me though.


I don't mean to freak anyone out though, i'm better now and tbh i think if i've handled that then I can handle most things and a lot of people it helps so i guess i was unfortunate lol

There was one good side effect, it seemed to make me more sociable, i wanted to be around people more but then again it could have been because i was afraid and that fear outweighted my social anxiety.