Published on 12, July, 2020
This is mainly me just venting and most probably oversharing, I know it’s thought that meltdowns are uncontrollable with autistic people, I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s when it would have just been seen as ‘bratty’ behaviour and severely dealt with. I learnt to know when things were too much and channeled feelings into a shutdown, it was less noticeable, not talking for days was just looked at as sulking.
For the first time in a long while, I couldn’t stop a meltdown, it was all from allowing other people to ‘push my buttons’, I’m dealing with the sale of our house at the moment, the questions from the buyers solicitors have been non stop, I did my best to answer everything, my wife then had an appointment at the hospital which was sudden as someone else had cancelled, I didn’t have time to prep for a large waiting room full of people with no sound deadening. The final part of the day was another round of questions from a solicitor and then being told by a family member, “ why do you overthink everything?” The house was empty of people later in the day, I can’t remember much but looking in the wheelie bin, I need to buy some new crockery, at least only crockery was hurt.
Sorry to hear you had a meltdown Roy. The unexpected can be triggering, especially if it's there's a lot of it, and selling your house can be very stressful at the best of times. I hope you're feeling ok now.
Sometimes I feel a bit baffled afterwards, like What was that all about? I had a major meltdown on holiday, basically because it rained... well, there was more to it than that, but that was the final thing...
Thanks Pegg, it often is just that last ‘turn of the screw’. I imagine your meltdown with it raining was because you wanted to photograph something, holidays are always stressful, strange surroundings, noises and smells. Being with a partner full time for days on end can also grate in the end.
It was all those things Roy, the unfamiliar, and also the unexpected, piling up until... snap!
Amidst all the chaos of 5 autistic people and 3 NTs struggling to make any coherent plans, I just wanted the weather to be predictable- which it refused to be!
It was horrible at the time. Thing with meltdowns is that they're so exhausting, they always seem to take a lot.
I hope you're ok
Hi, as I said, a meltdown isn’t very common for me. You are correct about the amount of energy they drain. I couldn’t imagine holidaying with not so much the autistic people, add allistic people into the equation and it then gets very confusing. The fact is that autistic people just need space, quiet and structure. I went out today for a haircut, not most probably the best idea, someone who we sort of know said,” hello, nice weather,” I just couldn’t understand the comment, would I say “ Hi, blonde hair.” It’s just stating the obvious.