Help needed in understanding meltdowns

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Hi, I'm the mother of an 8 yr old AS boy. My son has been having a number of meltdowns lately and what I'd like to know is whether AS people can remember what exactly happened during a meltdown, or whether the details of it are hazy. For example, if my son throws something or ends up lashing out in self defence, does he remember these details exactly, or is he just left with an awareness that something "out of control" happened, but not sure what? I have talked to him about some of the things that have happened at school during a meltdown, which he seems oblivious to (like they never happened), but I am not sure whether he is just covering up for himself, or whether he really isn't aware of his actions in a meltdown.

There's no memory loss involved. Maybe the school is lying.

maybe he feels ashamed. I know I have an amazing memory when it comes to things.

A lot of AS meltdowns have to do with inability to communicate and extreme tons of frustration that come with that (if not, I guess you can say, that's the flavor mine come in). The easiest way for me to start into a meltdown is if I'm dealing with someone who is a poor listener and/or won't give me a chance or the time of day.

My understanding of meltdowns is that they are the expression of a stress overload.

AS people experience stress differently to NTs. NTs experience stress in incremental increases, which can be managed and reduced fairly easily, preventing them from reaching overload.

AS people however, seem to experience stress in exponential increases, so that if not managed and reduced continually, they can very quickly and suddenly reach overload.

For AS people, during a stress overload meltdown, emotions may be totally overwhelming. This may impair cognitive functioning - the ability to hear, think, control one's behaviour, be reasoned with, etc. For some, this may even affect the ability to recall all aspects of the incident afterwards.

So....the trick is to be aware of all the things that cause stress, all of the things that reduce stress, and constantly monitor stress levels so that they are prevented from reaching the level where one more stressor will result in overload - and meltdown.

There's not usually much of a memory loss but it's often a bit hazy afterward.

It does often feel like you're acting outside of your own body.

Have a read of my meltdown articles...

They're on my Life-with-Aspergers site but here's a page with some handy links.

http://sites.google.com/site/gavinbollard/about-aspergers/What-are-Meltdowns