Some questions re meltdowns

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Can adults have meltdowns?
How are meltdowns different from tantrums?
Can acute anxiety/a stressful situation cause a meltdown ?

https://www.autism.org.uk/about/behavio ... downs.aspx

https://themighty.com/2018/04/sensory-m ... in-adults/

Yes, austistic adults can have meltdowns from anxiety, stress or other factors. These articles describe some of the differences between meltdowns and tantrums. The main difference I can think of, is that tantrums can be resolved by giving the person what they want. In a meltdown, the person is overwhelmed by a number of things and the outburst needs to run its course. The emotion is more diffused.

1. Yes.
2. Temper tantrums are different. With a meltdown it can feel like ones head is about to explode. Some get rages. Others uncontrolably cry... Some luckier ones feel the pressure building up and suffer within and feel like screaming but somehow scream silently... It all depends on how intense the mwltdown was and how one reacts to it. It is hard to control a meltdown as (And that is if it is what I have experienced were meltdowns as I am not 100% sure) to me, they feel like someone has attached a bicydle pump to ones head and slowly pumps it up and I feel panic, claistrophobic.. I want to run any random direction and continually scream, but I scream silently as I try to GRRRR! Cant put to words.. Is different from a headache. Is different from a temper. A temper is a rage with no backing. Is like an empty flare up. You may see someone do something you don't like and you get a temper...
A meltdown is like a tsunami inside ones head. The pressure of this generates intense emotions.
(For me, about 99.99% of the time I get partial shutdowns/shutdowns instead which are insideout meltdowns.. Think of a meltdown as an explosion of intense emotions inside ones head. A shutdown is like a series of overload cut outs which shut themselves down. I describe it like a series of tripswitches where one can hold them open temporarily to find a place to cope better, though if I do this even more trip switches turn off just after I let go of the few I held open. Is not 100% accurate but something along those lines.
3. Yes.

^^Thanks for those links, but I'm still not totally sure about the difference. In my case it tends to happen when negative stimuli gets too much/stress is heightened . It results in a dip from my usual level of cognitive functioning ', and being irrational and verbally heated .

Since I've been on Risperdal Consta and now Paliperidone such episodes have been far less in frequency and intensity .

I had meltdowns as a kid, but I tend to shutdown, which I think is an internalised meltdown

Just thought of a way to describe shutdowns and meltdowns. (I hope this makes sense. If not alter it with your take on it).

Think of a computer

Meltdown.

The computer has masses of information stored away, but lets say something starts to go wrong like it gets damp and the dampness is connecting terminals it shouldn't and the microchips start to release masses of storage of memory so they go buzzurk and one sees the screen zooming along with all sorts of randomly stored information flowing so fast it is difficult to focus on any one bit of information long enough to read it. The printer starts going crazy churning out all sorts of random information at speeds it has never done before...
Another similar example is the earlycomputer games which had screens lit by bulbs before LCD screens were popular, and if dampness got into the chip one may see every portion of the screen lit up where it just never happened when playing the game... Is like full on intense everything working at the same time...

Shutdown.

Now think of a computer that has detected some sort of virus and even though you were right in the middle of an important piece of work it gives a little message on the screen "Shutting down", and before you can respond to try to save your work, the screen just goes black and it has shut down. It is still switched on. It is still alive, but you have to wait until it is ready before you can restart it, and try to find out what caused the issue.. And if you try to restart the system before it has recovered, it will shut down again but this time it will need an even longer time before it is ready to restart.

^ That's too abstract for me, but it'll probably be useful for other people here .

Basically, shutdowns and meltdowns occur because people get overwhelmed.

I’m Captain Obvious

Yes, like other posted, I get shutdowns which is a meltdown I learned to turn inward when I was young.

Thus, other people didn't have to experience my turmoil as much as I did.

Monitoring my internal state never comes easy.

I've noticed something on reflection since diagnosis. When sensory stimulus has an out-size effect, pushing me straight into overload, That's a sign I'm experiencing a shutdown.