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Micro-meltdowns

Martin

I have read online that autistic meltdowns last 'from minutes to over an hour'. Mine certainly don't, they last from seconds up to a minute or so. They tend to be somewhat violent - always self-directed - and the trigger is often something apparently very minor. They only happen, or I allow them to happen, if I am alone. If I am with others, I tend to shut down instead, also of short duration. I wondered if anyone else had these sort of short-duration episodes, and if they, like me, do not have anything that lasts longer than a minute or so?

Parents

  • I think meltdowns - of whatever scale - are caused by lack of resilience. The disorganised brain struggles to stabilise. Sometimes it is a short period of realignment (following minor meltdown, shutdown, breakdown). Sometimes it is longer - the common factor is that this disruption is always always there and is going to happen. There is a correspondingly growing problem with meso and macro meltdowns. I suspect that once you have passed a certain type or phase you will always go forward to larger scale melt/shut/break. It's like a rip that cant be eradicated - maybe patched up or repaired but the precedent is already in place and you cant go back to pre-crisis, just try to avoid the experience of it in the future. It's a kind of hell. 

  • in reply to Rob

    Not in my case, I'm 60 and only have meltdowns lasting less than a minute, and I've had them from childhood. There seems to be no progressive factor for me, they have not become any more frequent either.

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