Does everyone with Asperger's get meltdowns?

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I'm definitely an aspie, but I can't think of a single time when I've had a meltdown, even though there have been times when I've felt overloaded with emotions and close to screaming point. Do I just have a very high tolerance for overload, or am I just odd?

Not all aspies have meltdowns. I had an aspie friend and he said he never got any. I used to not get many either and then I got a lot during my teens and now I don't get them much anymore. Once my anxiety got better, my meltdowns got less and my husband is understanding so he doesn't really cause them. It could also be because I learned to deal with my anxiety better so I don't get it when he fails to wipe crumbs off the counter or leaves his clothes in the bathroom. I learned to chill out. Besides he can't see the crumbs because he needs glasses. Plus he picks up after himself when he gets home. And he still thinks I need pills.

Many Aspies don't have meltdowns. They tend to be adults, and have a set of traits that makes them less vulnerable to overload than the average Aspie, so that over the years they've learned how to stop them before they start. Many Aspie adults have meltdowns only very infrequently.

There are also people for whom "meltdown" isn't really the correct term; "shutdown" is probably more appropriate. A shutdown is a very quiet sort of blue-screen of the mind, when you can't process things anymore and you just kind of zone out. You might look frozen or confused or just plain tired, but you stop responding to the world and you generally find yourself in a haze, not thinking very well. That's a shutdown. They can be just as dangerous as meltdowns even though they're not as dramatic, because you can find yourself walking into a road, or unable to tell the policeman that you're not on drugs.

For me, I had lots of meltdowns as a kid; but as I grew older I started to be able to control things a lot better. Today, I have mostly shutdowns, and even those I can see coming from some time off. The hardest part of it, oddly, is convincing myself that yes, I really do need to rest, rather than trying to "push through" as it's my instinct to do.

Things that make you less vulnerable to meltdown/shutdown:
--Increasing age and maturity
--Training (or self-training) in self-regulation methods
--A lower level of sensory sensitivity
--A lower level of sensitivity to transitions and unexpected events
--More skill with multi-tasking and parallel processing

Note that it's only the training that you can increase on your own. The rest is just part of whatever grab-bag of traits you happened to get. Some people will always be more likely to have meltdowns than others; some people are naturally less likely.

I have meltdowns. They started in my teens, but sensory overload never sets them off. Anxiety, panic attacks and anger sets them off. And I go insane when I have them. I scream, shout, swear, hit myself in the face, slam doors, throw myself onto a sofa to a bed several times, upset others in my house, and even slam out of the house. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I cry excessively too.

Very rare for me, if I have them at all - I'm not entirely clear on the definition.

From what i've read, it is rare in Asperger cases and gets more common once you cross over to HFA then more down into LFA.
Aspies have more tolerance to frustration, understands and "gets" more of society than Auties.

I've never had one myself, but i've been frustrated lots of times in my life with the lack of understanding from normal people.

I have never had meltdowns, in the dramatic sense, but I have had many times where I get overloaded (with sensory and stress), especially when I was younger. As an adult there have been some times where I need to go for a quiet walk outside or I am just going to lose it.

I've had meltdowns of different types since I was very young.
They seem to change with age.

Recent meltdowns include
standing stomping feet, shaking hands and head
Falling over on the ground, laying for how long I don't know.. minutes?
or
Gasping, waning to going in circles.
They don't happen much anymore, most times I can see it coming.. But sometimes the come too fast or I'm trapped.
It helps if I can go outside or stare out a windows... some days I do this several times.

I don't seem to bang my head anymore or want to cut myself... Unless it is really bad..

Me - Diagnosed in 1969 at 6 as autistic with higher IQ. Left in the ocean with sharks...

most meltdowns are because / happen when I'm around NT people.
Funny how we can better understand NT then NT can understand us...

I get them, but I'm so good at hiding them that it's rare for anyone to even notice them. It's like containing a nuclear explosion inside a submarine.

Extremely rare for me. I mostly have shutdowns though.

I didn't know I had meltdowns or shutdowns until I did research about aspergers and autism. Even then, it took a few weeks before it clicked. I usually have a meltdown which is followed by a shutdown. It's weird. Hours can pass and I don't notice. It feels like I wasn't thinking of anything for that time, but I know I was. I just don't remember. It's weird.

I know I have a very low tolerance for stress and deal with it by avoiding anything that causes stress, so it would be a lot worse if I had to behave like a normal person.

Haven't had a meltdown for over a decade. If too many things happen at once and it becomes a sensory overload, I'll have a shutdown. I seem to get shutdowns during the holiday shopping months.

I used to have severe meltdowns but I hardly have any anymore. I think my last bad one was when I was 20. That was 11 years ago.