happiness meltdown?

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Do you ever get out of your routine and so get all overstimulated but in a good way, like doing things you really like so you aren't like depressed or angry or upset and then afterwards, you have a weird happiness/hyperactive "meltdown" before crashing into a state of calm?

No, can't say I relate to that. Sounds like you're kidding around.

What do you mean by kidding around? That I am kidding around and joking around when this happens or that I am posting a "joke" post? I really do have this. If I can't be alone or with someone like my husband who won't be bothered by it and do this silliness thing and hold it all in, I might get the traditional sort of meltdown.

It happened today. The only day this week that I stayed home and did the usual was on Tuesday. I was out alone with my husband for a couple of hours Monday, which is unusual. Then on Wednesday I took my kid to a science thing where we did a pond study and I got two fully-intact exoskeletons and a dead cicada to add to our collection, which I got excited about. Then after that we ate lunch with another parent (who is a friend and her kid and another). Then we went to Lego Club which was loud. Thursday was dental appointments for the kids and then a vet appointment for the cat, then church at night. Today we had a homeschool co-op all day which was loud and I also found a cicada exoskeleton to go with the dead cicada I have. All of this entailed lots of people and lots of being out of the house. On top of all of this, we are planning a trip back home very, very soon and I am both looking forward to that but also fearful of it. I overdid myself, I guess. Anyway, now I feel bad.

The co-op wasn't all day, but most of the day.

I think it as to do with not stimming as much as usual because I am with other people and doing things outside of the norm and I get a lot of energy out of it, an it builds and then has to get out.

This is sounds like me. I have lots of rampant personality shifts, from depressed to extremely happy.

All the time, a lot of times people with autism get really excited over stuff especially a special interest.

I tend to get a "hype and crash" effect when it comes to "positive' over-stimulation, similar to how many people report a "hype and crash" effect after consuming energy drinks or coffee; I will be very excited, enthusiastic, and energetic...and then I'll "shut down," my cognitive processes slowing to pretty much a complete stop and me finding it difficult to stay awake or, in some cases, to even move (though I am usually able to keep myself out of a complete shutdown until I am within the safety of my own house).

this happens alot to me,
actually, sometimes I feel like I have the symptoms of drug use without doing drugs of course
this really scares me, but I can't stop myself of being sooo happy for no reason when it happens

It usually happens after a long time of deppression
it's like a reaction

Good to know I am not the only one, BeggingTurtle and EsotericInterest. It doesn't scare me or make me worry about bipolar. I always took bipolar to be mood changes and mood cycling with no apparent reason. This happens when I am really happy about something or some things or with lots of "positive" stimulation like WerewolfPoet says. I have had this reaction since I was a kid. I didn't know til recently that the things I do when it happens are stimming behaviors. I think when I was an adolescent these reactions did scare me a little because it felt so out of control or because I felt stupid, like I shouldn't be that happy or do those weird things. So I suppressed it because I didn't want to do those things in front of people like parents, sister, or other people I was around and had a lot more anger and frustration meltdowns because of my mom's reactions (which weren't negative really, but I took them to be that way). It will last about 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the situation, I assume. And then I get very tired and sleepy and then pretty depressed the next day. I used to focus on sad things to control some of this too I think and that may be where the drop comes from, from being conditioned to do so and also just for biochemical and physical reasons.

Dindon, I have the same thing. My husband said it's like I can get high on my own brain. It's a "positive" overstimulation thing in my case. We have azalea bushes in the area that I live in and when I am in that way, it's like those hot pink flowers are glowing against the darker green bushes and it's funny. Stuff like that. He says it's like LSD. And a grape slush with Nerds from Sonic? Yeah, that's like a drug for me.

Bipolar? Maybe. Who knows. Maybe it's more like cyclothymia. I hardly have any other bipolar symptoms. Hope it isn't a precursor though.