Autistic Meltdown - Tumblr Posts
So I had pretty bad sensory overload yesterday due to too much social interactions and sensory input so here’s some ways to treat yourself after a sensory overload/meltdown☁️
- Take a calming bath
- Drink water
- Lay in bed; under a weighted blanket
- Wear comfy clothes
- Watch your comfort movie/show
- Do breathing exercises
- Hug a stuffie very tightly
- Sleep
- Research your special interests
- Draw
- Listen to an artist you love
- Get away from any extra stimulation
- Meditate
- Dim the lights
- Go for a walk
- Light a candle
- Take a warm shower
- Make a routine for the rest of the day
- Eat your comfort food
- Remember it’s okay to experience it
- Don’t push yourself into doing productive things, let yourself rest :)
What are you doing after a sensory overload?
Let me know if you have anything to add to the list.
Dear Non-autistics:
If someone you know or love is having a meltdown, please do NOT
Tell us to "stop it"
Touch us without permission
Yell at us or talk over us
Ask for complicated tasks or answers
Leave us alone if it's obvious we're a danger to ourselves or others
Use restraints, either with your own body or with physical restraints
Panic
Shake us or manhandle us. We can hear you, we just can't respond well
Remember, we are not being a problem; we're having a problem!
So, things to do!
Do:
Make sure we're safe
Remove all stimuli including turning off lights if possible, giving stim toys, noise cancelling headphones etc
Remove us from the situation if possible
Talk softly and offer alternative forms of communication if possible
Sit with us if safe to do so
Offer a stuffed animal or comfort item
Set up a meltdown guide with us so everyone is on the same page
Understand we will be unable to do much post-meltdown. Water, snacks and quiet is required.
Reassurance helps. Guilt often sets in post-meltdown.
A period of inactivity (known as a shutdown) often occurs right after a meltdown. We won't respond or look at you, but we can hear you. Please let this happen naturally
Autistics please add on. What does and doesn't help you?
Anyone else go long periods of time without having a meltdown only to have a bunch in a row, like at the moment I do school online and haven’t moved out yet so I don’t have a ton of responsibilities or at least not as many as I’ve had in the past (used to have at least one meltdown a day during the school week sometimes more.)
So occasionally if things go exactly right I’ll even last a month without having a big meltdown (although I will get really edgy and overstimulated the longer it goes on, to the point where I can tell it would only take a little thing to tip me over that edge and wish it could just be over with.)
And then when that final trigger happens I’ll end up having two or three meltdowns within twenty four hours (usually due to unaccommodating recovery environments and already being more overwhelmed than normal. )
Which I’m kind of teetering on the edge of right now, thus the curiosity as to whether other people experience this.
I’ve noticed this every time I try to Google advice for meltdowns. It’s “dealing with autistic kids/coworkers/classmates/teens.” It makes me feel like so much more of a burden because people feel like they have to “deal with” me. Like my existence is just a chore for them.
Then when I do get “dealing with autistic meltdowns” typed in, it’s all resources for allistic people, again, “dealing with” us.
Google when I look for advice for my autism: "How to deal with Your CHILD WITH AUTISM."
Google when I look at advice for cane user stuff: "Canes for old people. What to do when you're 80 and your joints hit the shitter.
I am screaming and hitting the wall just give me advice I can actually use.
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗠𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻
𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺:
Autistic meltdown is an uncontrollable reaction by your brain being triggered
Sounds, smells, emotional related, not being able to understand what you're feeling.
As adults, autistic meltdowns are humilating. They are mentally and physically draining and exhuasting.
Physical overstimulation, too many people in your space, pressure of having to hug or give hugs etc.
You're born autistic, you die autistic. You don't grow from it.
Autistic meltdowns are not just for kids. Autistic kids aren't the only autistic people that have meltdowns. It continues in life. Can potentionally get worse as more stresses are placed upon you
do normal ppl also get this urge to lock urself in ur room and cry ur eyes out? no apparent reason or anything (i am very bad at recognising emotions but i know its a bad one and its very potent) if im not at home i just curl up in a corner as far away from ppl as possible
sometimes i also want to scream or throw things at the wall. no? just me?
I just wanted my Bubba back
He was more then just a plush toy to me
I still really miss my Bubba, but I saw my best friend today and got some Koran bbq for his birthday. He asked why I was a bit down and I told him I lost my favourite chainsaw welding machine plush and he told me about how he lost his favourite Pikachu plush while he was at the airport a while back. He said that maybe they found each other and are travelling the world together, it made my whole day.
I still really miss him and hoping to god someone turns him in (but it very unlikely now) but it helps me sleep at night knowing that Bubba might not be alone and with my best friend plush and travelling together. I’m thinking I’ll draw them to help me cope
And yes before anyone tells me it’s just a toy and what not. I know but it meant a lot of me
Is somebody gonna match my freak? (Crying and almost throwing up cause I miss my loss plush toy)
Had a strangely affirming experiance
Was recently on a one week bus trip with a tour guide. Lots of driving to places (at least 4 hours a day) and the tour guide was just the worst. She talked... CONSTANTLY and it was so annoying cause of the overgead bus speakers, she also had that god awful nasaly voice that mede her sound like she is constantly berating somebody (she was also borderline fatfobic and most likely hostile towards lgbtq+ and ND people). Quiet moments in the bus were far and few between because when she was not talking she put on local music which was kind of better but we still had to constantly remind her to turn it the f down.
Anyway, I had a meltdown in the morning of day 3 and it was strangely affirming. I got really annoyed with the guide cause emen my headphoned could not drown out the voice, i just wanted her to SHUT UP already. The realization thet other people were okay with her talking pushed me over the edge. I felt so stuck in that situation and there was no legitamate way out for me.
My mum was there to help me through it and when I was able to think I felt really affirmed. Other people on the bus were not having meltdowns because some lady with an annoying woice would not shut up. They could deal with it and I couldn't even with my headphones there. For me it reonforced my understanding of myself, that I can not do things an partake in them the same way NT people can. I need and deserve acconmmodations and so do you my fellow disabled folks!
anyways parents who record/post their autistic child having a meltdown are awful people :)
Words cannot properly express how much I hate being neurodivergent sometimes.
I HAVE to shower. Every day. If I do not. I am not okay.
Due to pots primarily, I overheat in my sleep. So literally every day I wake up I have got to shower. I can feel every inch of skin every strand of hair covered from sweat residue.
If I cannot wash that off every day. I become overstimulated immediately and extremely unhinged. I cannot think I cannot focus my mood is extremely negative I simply cannot function with that sensory status.
Today was day 3 of not having been able to shower (due to spoons and being a parent) and I snapped. I was shaking and crying and even yelled at inanimate shit in my house because I wanted to rip my hair out and shred my skin.
I finally had enough and I got into the shower.
Stood there a moment. Shaking. Crying. Bitching. Then berating myself for being such an unhinged pos. I got lightheaded and sat down. Cried more.
I have a little shower thing I say that helps. So I repeated it. Calmed down. Then I stfu and did my routine. Continued to improve. Kept saying my little thing every so often. Kept feeling better. Lighter.
Finally I just got out and did my after routine. Got dressed. I'm lying in bed still feeling stupid for the fact that 60% of my unhinged meltdown was washed away in the shower. My body is now all sensory goodness and we can all get on with our day.
I hate being like this. These not so whimsy sides of neurodivergence. I'm exhausted from the meltdown and from the task of showering itself.
Thanks for reading. Vulnerable snippet of my day today. Hope you're all doing better than I.
cw: ableism against neurodivergent folks, discussion of police violence, contains a personal story about a negative interaction with security officers
Most of the time I exist in a strange middle ground where I pass as neurotypical to some, albeit a weird one while some people just assume I’m autistic. Part of the reason why I want to get a diagnosis is because while yes, people who assume I’m autistic sometimes treat me like a child, I rarely encounter outright hostility with them when I can’t hide my autistic traits. Neurotypicals seem to need to have a diagnosis disclosed to them before they’re willing to tolerate perceived strangeness. It’s that thing where it’s okay to bully someone for autistic traits, but it magically becomes discrimination when the person discloses a diagnosis. I see people talking about this a lot, but I want to emphasize the potential danger of not being able to prove your autism.
In meltdown, I have had campus security called on me. Fair enough. I couldn’t stop screaming. I can see how that might scare someone. They wouldn’t believe me that I wasn’t high. I had to give them way more personal information than I should have had to to convince them that I was not, in fact, taking drugs I wasn’t prescribed. I had to tell them what medications I was on, convince them that I was taking them, tell who my psychiatrist was, and that I was on a wait list for a therapist before they would stop trying to convince me to admit I was high. Before they would treat me like a person and not a threat. I essentially had to prove that I was an acceptable mentally ill to them.
First I say, so what if I had been high? So what if I wasn’t being "appropriately managed?" Even in those cases, it is not helpful and potentially dangerous for the person in crisis to treat them like they’re a threat. That’s ableist. Requiring people to convince you that they are receiving or pursuing certain treatments or otherwise meet specific standards of respectability before you treat them like a person is ableist.
What if I had been having a verbal shut down that day? I was barely able to talk at all in that moment. Speaking felt physically painful and I was struggling to form complete sentences. I was lucky I was able to communicate the necessary details to earn safety from them. What if I hadn’t been able to? What if they had been real cops? What if I hadn’t been able to say "no touch" or communicate other basic needs and the situation escalated?
What if I had had an autism card? That situation would have been much less terrifying. I would feel safer going out in public knowing that if I get upset and can’t communicate, I have a diagnosis other people are likely to believe to back me up. I can make my own warning card with instructions on how to help me, but ultimately, people don’t listen to disabled people, they listen to their doctors. If I say I’m autistic to an authority figure and later on I can’t prove it, I will be in trouble.
The same way I hope people in my classes assume I’m autistic so they are willing to be tolerant of my autistic traits, I hope people who can genuinely hurt me assume in my worst moments that I am autistic so they won’t fucking tase me.
If I, a white person, a housed person, am worried about being hurt because I can’t be clear about my autism, imagine what it’s like for people from other demographics that are already more vulnerable to police violence. People who are also less likely to receive an official diagnosis.
I am willing to discuss this and would love to hear other people’s perspectives, but I will not be debating people about my choice to self-diagnose.