What is a "meltdown"?

Post Reply New Topic

I've seen the term "meltdown" a lot around here, and on Aspergers/Autistic websites. I'm not sure if I understand what is meant, so let me relate my recent experience, and someone tell me if this is what is meant by it.

I took my first ever visit overseas, September 10 thru October 10, for a spiritual & family group reunion of 130 strong, arriving in Marseille, France, and staying for the first week before the formal reunion gathering with friends at a "Petit Village" by the sea, whose street name translates to English as "The Wrong Way", literally "The Way of the Wrong Step".

Of course this was before my self-realization I was an "aspie". On the second or third day, a couple American lady friends arrived, and needed to go downtown to change money. As there was no one else present who needed transportation downtown, I was delighted to be invited along, my first tour of this ancient city, the oldest seaport in Europe, and possibly the oldest city.

After the money changing, we walked into an old section of town known as the "Arab Quarter", a place with narrow streets, having one car-width between rows of posts delineating a difference between the "sidewalk" and the "street". However, the crowds of pedestrians seemed oblivious of this distinction, and walked all over the place, and the autos would occasionally drive up through the crowd who would make way as needed and then go straight back to the middle of the street! At one point we were crossing the street, and a car turned right behind me, passing me within what felt like 5 inches! When we got up to the square where the public market was, there were vendors occupying the "sidewalk" leading in anyway, and the market square was this huge crowd of humanity, in another culture, and I pretty soon was feeling a little light headed and felt like maybe I was going to faint if I didn't get something to eat or drink pretty soon, and I'd really like to get further from this crowd, and perhaps I felt a little bit panicky but I am an older person and I was with my close friends, and I don't tend to panic feelings as strongly as I would when alone in such a situation.

The ladies agreed, and our French hostess steered us to a tiny Cafe (in France this means a bar or pub) with a single cafe table and 4 chairs outside, and I had a brown beer, and in the quiet away from the mass of the crowd, and a little brew to calm and feed myself, I still felt like I would be very grateful the sooner we got the hell out of this crowd and back to the quiet little village on the wrong way. I felt much better once I got back there. Now at the time, I simply chalked my experience up only to the effects of slight hunger and "culture shock", but know now that there was something more to it than that.

Is this what you mean by "meltdown"?

I think meltdowns have more to do with sensory overloads than panic attacks. Not too sure, though.

My idea of a meltdown is the "system shutdown" you get after being bombarded with too much stimuli of some sort.

I always thought a meltdown was more of a temper tantrum. I used to have insane temper tantrums as a kid, complete with throwing things, punching myself in the chest as hard as I can, etc. I have always linked meltdowns with the legendary "aspie rage" that so many of us possess. But perhaps there is more than one way in which an aspie can meltdown. Or, maybe I'm just wrong, and it has more to do with sensory overload

I think meltdowns are a bit more intense, though they can result in tantrums (though I don't throw tantrums, I express annoyance ). Ever feel like you're temporarily burning inside, under your skin? That's a meltdown.

I guess we have different ways to define it. I think Butchcoolidge has the right idea, but perhaps we should add the component of causation. If the sensory input is overwhelming and unpleasant or even tortuous, or if the situation is so so very frustrating, the meltdown occurs and the person can't even try to be appropriate any more and manifests in tantrums or crying or self-injury or catatonic states. Reason flees and there is left only the imperative to get away from the sensory overload/situation.
We were at an icecream parlor once and the table next to us were celebrating a cute two-year-old's birthday. He was smiling and laughing, and when the staff gathered and sang to him, he clapped. Then they put the icecream cake in front of him with cancles lit, and the little guy burst into screaming tears. He went over the edge and had a meltdown. A few minutes in a quiet corner, and he recovered enough to return to a party a little more subdued so he could handle it.
I don't think you had a meltdown because you recognized the symptoms of overload and removed yourself before you were totally overwhelmed. If you had stayed until you started screaming, then you would have had a meltdown. Or so I think.

Thanks, that makes sense; feeling overloaded and getting away before I started to feel desperate.

The last time I can remember a stressful situation in which I broke things (this sort of behavior has been extremely rare, practically non-existent in my adult life) was down home after my dad passed away, I was looking after my mom and she made some comment that hurt me deeply and I started screaming at her, one of those "why the hell can't you understand me!" kind of things, and I started crying and had to leave the room and go upstairs and be alone. When she made the remark, my first instinct was to pick up one of her antique china bowls she had served me soup in and pick it up, walk over to the sink, and throw it down and smash it (my attempt at non-verbal communication). IIRC, it had something to do with her apparent valuation of material goods over her children's needs and feelings. After her to be expected reaction to this was when I started screaming. Probably not a meltdown either, but probably as close as I've come to the described behavior.

It's only recently that I've realized she was also under the autistic spectrum, but was undiagnosed (she had a paranoia about psychiatrists, and a deep fear of being classified as "mentally ill", especially since her mother was.).

I believe a meltdown is when the situation or environment you are in over taxis you system. Aspies are sensative to social situations and to much outside stimulus of the senses.

I am able to control my meltdowns so to speak. But sometimes I am overwhelmed in a situation and find myself having to take myself out of the situation because I cannot handle it.

Examples are overcrowed places when there are people everywhere and you cannot get to where you need too, or their is just too much going on around you. Also, if you are at a party and too many people are talking to you, or too much is going on at the party. School can get to be too much too.

Children can handle less than children, so children have more breakdowns. Some things also wear us down more quickly than others.

Best,

Idaho Aspie
www.AllThingsAspergers.com

I have both meltdowns, and panic attacks. My panic attacks usually stem from anxiety, and phobias. When I was child my meltdowns were caused by frustration. Now they are usually caused by too much information at once, that I can't process. A meltdown to me now means I will take out my frustration on those around me. It is a bad thing. A panic attack usually makes me freeze up, I tremble, have blepharospasms, heart palpitations, shortness of breath and overwhelming fear. Meltdowns make me angry, like I want to punch something, I want to blow up, freak out, or scream.

They are quite different for me.

Hello,

Alcohol, not too much, helps me to lubricate myself into social situations.

Without Alcohol, I doubt that I would ever socialize or go to a Rock Concert again.

Too much Alcohol can cause a meltdown also. Fine line of Buzzedness that I walk to be able to interact without feeling so "out of place."

Idaho Aspie, good website listed below your answer, I enjoyed the Aspie Test there. Yes, I scored high on the Aspie chart.

crazedchef

A meltdown is when you become completely overloaded and do things you'd not normally do.

In young children (and some adults) it will manifest as a temper tantrum, in other adults it could result in curling up in the fetal position in a corner.

Meltdowns often happen with a slight provocation - this isn't the reason for the meltdown, it's simply "the last straw".

Refer to my blog posts;

The Aspie Meltdown - An Insider's Point of View - Part 1 Intro and about Children (Life With Aspergers)

The Aspie Meltdown - An Insider's Point of View - Part 2 Mainly about Adults (Life with Aspergers)

My meltdowns are dangerous i do not care about anything and will cross the road without been bothered if i get knocked down.

All meltdowns are dangerous - either to you, or to others.

I once drove in a meltdown state - All I remember is traffic parting in front of me like the red sea so my driving must have been pretty aggressive.

In that case, the meltdown was triggered by stress over doing a "group" assignment where I did 300+ pages and wrote an application white the other two members of the group did about 10 pages each and no software development.

I triple checked the assignment and took it to the university to get it bound. They must have dropped it and screwed up the pages because some were upside down, back to front and all were out of order. Most were hole-punched down the wrong side of the page.

I had to drive 30km home, spend about 4 hours reprinting it and then drive back to uni to hand it in. If it was late, I'd automatically lose 10% and being an aspie, I never considered that the rule could be bent in the circumstances.

I was very lucky to have not killed or been killed.

u said it im not sure should i classifie my meltdowns to tantrums or what:D

I finally understand the mechanism of a meltdown -

it's when DEATH is interchanged with LIFE.


Dying becomes more important than living.

A meltdown is not the same as a temper tantrum, nor the same as an anxiety attack.

It's when a person gets overloaded, and their response to that overload, is to do something either loud, aggressive, destructive, or obviously self-injurious. Basically, it's pretty explosive in one way or another.

Another possible aspect of overload gets called a shutdown, and that is a response to overload causes a person to lose a certain ability or set of abilities (whether temporary or long-term), and it is generally quieter than a meltdown. (Although from the inside it can be just as unpleasant, and it's of course possible for both to happen at once.)

The difference between a meltdown and a temper tantrum, is a temper tantrum is something someone does because they didn't get their way or something. Not because they're really overloaded. From what I understand (and I've never really had them), a temper tantrum is something a person, usually a young child (or a spoiled older child) does, because they really want something, and their parents won't do it. Often, as soon as their parents do what they want, the tantrum abruptly stops.

A meltdown is not in response to a desire (although a desire for peace and quiet might go along with it!), it's in response to so much overload that the body just can't deal with it anymore. Often (not always) it continues for awhile even if the stimulus that triggered it stops, and giving a person having a meltdown what they want won't necessarily stop the meltdown. I have a friend who has meltdowns, where it sometimes seems at first glance that they're because she wants something, but if you give her what she wants, she just keeps screaming at you, and it becomes obvious that she's just been tipped over some edge in a sensory way. If you leave her alone for half an hour or so (after the stimulus has stopped) she'll generally be okay. If you do what it seems like she wanted right before she started screaming, she'll just continue screaming at you, and it becomes obvious that that one thing changing was just the last straw in a whole cascade of things that sent her into overload in the first place, rather than the thing being a "tantrum" in order to "get her way" or some BS like that.

It's really important to know the difference, because calling a meltdown a tantrum is essentially comparing an overloaded person to a spoiled child, which is pretty offensive.

Not necessarily. If a person is just sitting in one place (somewhere where nobody will call the cops or anything) and screaming, they might get a sore throat, but nothing more.