Published on 12, July, 2020
How do people experience these differently?
personally, a ‘meltdown’ (don’t like this term) for me takes the form of an intense headache (which can then last for 3 days despite painkillers) & need to be alone( not always possible), whereas for my niece, she needs to scream when she’s overwhelmed. I just wondered if others also had differing experiences?p
I'm not far enough along my post-diagnosis exploration to know what I would identify as a 'meltdown'. I don't know that I've ever had one, not that I can remember anyway.
I have had a few cases over my life of complete shutdown - where I feel like my brain has stopped because it is overwhelmed, and I can't interact with the environment around me. I can't respond to anything or anyone because of the inner turmoil and whatever my brain is trying to process. This has been the result of things like sensory overload and being given cancer diagnosis.
Burnout, I suspect I have been in this for the past 2 years, and it seems to involve emotional over-reaction, a general feeling of not quite being engaged in everything, not having the energy to cope with things I used to cope with, not being able to mask for such long periods, being easily irritated, more sensitive to sensory inputs. Maybe it's depression, but my mood isn't particularly low, so I don't want to go to GP.
I'm similar to you, Fiona. I don't think I've ever had a meltdown, but can shutdown and also think I have been in some kind of long-term burnout for a few years now (which led to getting diagnosed) I also toyed with the idea of it being depression but that doesn't sit right.