Meltdown?

For me I seem to go into a semi paralysed state, where I can move but my inside of my head is short circuiting. I cannot function properly and tense up completely. Its a bit like a panic attack, but more complete sensory overload.

I am definitely aware of it happening, and without moving away and isolating myself for a time it does not ease off. It can take 10 minutes to a couple of hours of being alone with headphones drowning out the world before I am ok to function again.

My issues are usually around lack of control of things, and personal space.

Though a meltdown is more like a 'straw that broke the camels back' scenario, that can be one trigger on top of a whole host of underlying issues. The doctor I speak to at the Autism Diagnostic Service said that for a NT person, if the stress scale is 1 to 10 they will know when they are over 5, and start to take remedial action.

For an ASD person they have a base level of say 4, and do not notice until it gets to 9, which is also the trigger point for something. It is more likely for someone else to spot an ASD person getting worked up than themselves, which is where having people around who you can trust is a good thing.

I agree with Hendrow, great question Meerkatz!

I agree Daniel - "My issues are usually around lack of control of things, and personal space."

i then start to panic, the worse thing with this is the physical aspect in that I start getting palpitations and get pics and needles in my legs and fear I might collapse...,the last time this happened was up an escalator on the London Underground. Thankfully I did not collapse...but scary...

I had to take my daughter through the underground 2 weeks ago on the way to London City Airport,

I was worried before I went, but actually there were so many people it was ok for me, I would have been worse if there were less people I think. I was very suprised. Maybe its true that you can have privacy in  crowd, as long as the crowd is big enough to make 1 person annonymous. I can imagine how a meltdown in the underground could be very difficult to resolve! How did you manage to get through the episode Elephant?

I think the panic about losing physical control won the battle over the panic of the crowds on the underground...gritted teeth and determination won but it was scary particularly as I was on my own

I think the panic about losing physical control won the battle over the panic of the crowds on the underground...gritted teeth and determination won but it was scary particularly as I was on my own