The term meltdown - does it cause offence?

The problem with the term meltdown is that it means different things to different people and they fail to see the difference between a meltdown in someone autistic and someone who isn't.

A workplace is not a good place for an autistic person to have a meltdown.  Managers do not understand. They see it as bad behaviour.They will not think that processes at work are causing it and that removing the cause is a better action than discipline and that occasional meltdowns are a curse that autistic people have. They think disciplinary action will cure it. But it won't. My meltdowns at work have been caused by no one listening to my concerns, when things get so bad that my mind will not function rationally, when I am goaded and coerced into doing things that do not fit in with the way I think. This is the cause and effect. Remove this overload and the meltdown will not happen.

The more I try to suppress a meltdown the worse it becomes. But trying to tell a manager that it is their behaviour that is often the cause is not taken well by them.  After a recent meltdown at  work the manager wanted to put me on a 'behaviour plan, which I contested on the grounds that having a meltdown was a consequence of being autistic and that it should be more of an understanding of what leads to a meltdown than a behavioural issue.  I also asked what risk assessment they had as regards my autism, their reply seemed to indicate there wasn't one. (It is a duty of any employer to have a risk assessment for anyone who is classed as disabled and this should also be available to the disabled person)

I am now waiting to see what is drawn up and I have asked for meaningful consultation. But there is no way I will sign any behaviour agreement, anymore than someone with a physical abnormality should sign an agreement to keep it covered up as it might distress others.

I am also finding my meltdowns mare getting more severe in their intensity. A lot of articles on autism seem to suggest that autism 'wears off ' (for want of a better term) with age and the symptoms get milder.  This is not my experience at all, if anything I  become more affected and more misunderstandings occur.  I think more study needs to be done of autism into old age, the problem is that far fewer senior citizens have been diagnosed since autism only came to prominence in the 1990s.

The problem with the term meltdown is that it means different things to different people and they fail to see the difference between a meltdown in someone autistic and someone who isn't.

A workplace is not a good place for an autistic person to have a meltdown.  Managers do not understand. They see it as bad behaviour.They will not think that processes at work are causing it and that removing the cause is a better action than discipline and that occasional meltdowns are a curse that autistic people have. They think disciplinary action will cure it. But it won't. My meltdowns at work have been caused by no one listening to my concerns, when things get so bad that my mind will not function rationally, when I am goaded and coerced into doing things that do not fit in with the way I think. This is the cause and effect. Remove this overload and the meltdown will not happen.

The more I try to suppress a meltdown the worse it becomes. But trying to tell a manager that it is their behaviour that is often the cause is not taken well by them.  After a recent meltdown at  work the manager wanted to put me on a 'behaviour plan, which I contested on the grounds that having a meltdown was a consequence of being autistic and that it should be more of an understanding of what leads to a meltdown than a behavioural issue.  I also asked what risk assessment they had as regards my autism, their reply seemed to indicate there wasn't one. (It is a duty of any employer to have a risk assessment for anyone who is classed as disabled and this should also be available to the disabled person)

I am now waiting to see what is drawn up and I have asked for meaningful consultation. But there is no way I will sign any behaviour agreement, anymore than someone with a physical abnormality should sign an agreement to keep it covered up as it might distress others.

I am also finding my meltdowns mare getting more severe in their intensity. A lot of articles on autism seem to suggest that autism 'wears off ' (for want of a better term) with age and the symptoms get milder.  This is not my experience at all, if anything I  become more affected and more misunderstandings occur.  I think more study needs to be done of autism into old age, the problem is that far fewer senior citizens have been diagnosed since autism only came to prominence in the 1990s.