![]() ![]() Just wrap my arms tightly around my torso and rock for all I’m worth. I might flail, or claw at my skin, or beat at I can easily lose track and/or control of my body at this point. Makes you think they’re going to make themselves vomit – it feels like I could It’s the sort of crying that infants do that Meltdown: the primal, animalistic, barely controllable, throat-tearingĬrying. When the Levee Breaks…Īfter a little time of being non-verbal, I break down intoįull-out screaming sobs. Support, a meltdown can still be prevented at this point, but it’s a narrow If I’m very very lucky and have the right Reason, but I don’t know how much use it would be). Sign a little (I keep meaning to pick up a sign language course for this very Laryngitis or something during this stage.īut it’s not that I can’t communicate – I can still type, text, even I often clutch at my throat as though I have The words can’t get to the physical parts of my body to produce speech. This point, it’s as if there’s some kind of glitch in the connection between myīrain and my vocal cords, because now I can think in full language again, but Gestures and pointing at my head, trying to communicate that my brain won’t doĪfter a while of this – the length of time varies – all my If you try to talk to me, I do a lot of hand I try to think in language, my brain grinds to a halt somewhere along the way. It starts with certain words disappearing not In short order, my mental energy gets depleted and I have Me that I’m an adult and these things are nothing to get upset over, so I getĬaught in a loop of being upset and being mad at myself for being upset, etc.,Įtc., etc. On top of that, there’s the logical side of my mind constantly reminding ![]() ![]() My brain work extra hard, and it is exhausting. Has caused my brain to have to adapt quickly, which is not its strong What’s happening is that each small frustration and stress Mind – a meltdown is caused by JUST ONE of these tiny stresses the most recent To the untrained eye – or the non-autistic Now, here is where a meltdown can look like a tantrum. Upset, I lose a coping spoon, and before long, I’m down to my last one. The key ingredient for the cookies I’d planned to make that afternoon, and they ![]() Like the soda fountain being out of the root beer that I’d looked forward toĪll week as my Saturday treat, add a mild sensory overload like being in a bright,Ĭrowded store, plus a disappointing change in plans like not being able to get For instance, take a small-ish frustration Something big happening, many little annoyances can bring on a meltdown, People walking by and barely touching you all in the same place will eventually It’s like my mother used to say, a million Several tiny stressors can add up to one huge hurt. But that doesn’t change how my brain reacts To buy isn’t in stock, a car repair cost several hundred dollars more than IĮxpected, or something has to be done on a day that I had reserved for doingĪdult, I can see which events are annoyances versus which are “Real Problems”. The thing is, this can be anything – big, small, it doesn’t That stick-shift brain of mine starts grinding and I can’t find my gear again for a while. But if any aspect of the situation deviates from my plans and script, I get lost and I flounder. I do this all the time – I play out the scenario in my head over and over until I feel really solid that I know what I’m going to do and what’s going to happen – this gives me a feeling of security that helps ward off my constant anxiety. We tend to get one scenario in our head: we imagine that we will do X and the result will be Y. This leaves a lot of room because autistic people aren’t great at predicting things. Now when I say “unexpected”, I mean something that I didn’t predict. To socialize or mask heavily, or, perhaps most commonly, an unexpected Sensory overload, expectation or demands, having (I’m a PC user Apple users, please tell meĪn equivalent analogy in the comments!) How Does a Meltdown Begin? On your age, giving you the Blue Screen of Death. With an overloaded processor, spinning that dreaded little circle or, depending Meltdowns are the result of an overloadedīrain that can no longer cope with whatever is going on and needs a complete Have them on purpose and we’re not trying to get something out of it. Let me start with a quick note, as I’ve said before, that ![]()
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