My project on Autism and Asperger's

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when *you* experience an overload or meltdown, what causes it? is it a sensory overload, too many people, lots of people talking to you at once......

Thankyou

Hiya my pleasure! Hope it helps.
I am diagnosed ADHD but have Autism underlying. ALL 5 of my children are diagnosed too, from Autism - Aspergers - DAMP - ADHD - ADD -PDDnos!! ! I was a late speech developer and couldn't read at all until I was 7...when it did happen it was literally overnight. One day I couldn't read, the next I could!!

Meltdowns.....mmmmm aka Tsunamis! Check out more on our website but this is just a taster! Anything I can do to help just YELL. We have a family with 14 kids! 11 diagnosed too! Whooohoooooooo! Bring it on, we LOVE the spectrum! Remember when you read this beneath WE call all on the spectrum JELLYBEANS and neurotypicals MARSHMALLOWS!! It makes it fun, easy to understand and gentle/friendly.

MELTDOWNS

Because spectrum children and adults work so strongly in local (perceptual) processing, the amount of sensory detail they have to deal with can be overwhelming. It can also be difficult for them to select the most important instruction or piece of information they've been given, and this, too can be overwhelming. They can then go into 'meltdown', which used to be called 'temper tantrums' in the bad old days. Debi calls them tsunamis, and here's her description of what can cause them, and how to deal with them:


WHAT STARTS A TSUNAMI?



1. I've asked my kids and their most common trigger is FRUSTRATION. Imagine your child in the classroom trying REALLY hard. If your child has for example Dyslexia, s/he will quite obviously have difficulties in specific areas. With jellybeans you see it may not be as obvious, it may be a particular lesson that's coming up, a break time that proved stressful or just trouble ruling a margin on a page. It can be the smallest of things to trigger the feelings of frustration. Frustration when accompanied with increased stimming is a sure fire way to see the early warning signs.

2. COVER UP. This is also a common reason for a Tsunami, the time your little jellybean HAS done something wrong and is so angry with themselves that the anger is overwhelming and they get so cross that they punish themselves and others. Apologies are hard when your skin is leaking like a colander, your arms are flinging and flanging and your face is screwed up like last week's homework. The Tsunami is in a kind of bizarre apology, a recognition that they know they've done something that they shouldn't have. They are very sensitive and even when they have been a little devil, most know it and do beat themselves up.

3. SENSORY OVERLOAD. This is the most common reason in jellybeans who may have over-sensitive reactions to their surroundings - to light, heat, clothing, sounds, smells. Remember that to these jellybeans it may feel sometimes that every single thing in the room is trying to attack them. Why? Because they actually CAN'T filter anything out. Everything can hits them too hard and too fast, all simultaneously sometimes. They may feel too hot (remember their thermostats can be set far too high), and at the same time they can hear the neon light making a deafening buzz. Someone in the room is chewing a sweet and that sounds in their ears like a whole swarm of bees. Dinner is cooking and your jellybean can smell every ingredient, just as if he had his nose right inside every cooking pot and saucepan. Light is coming through the window and dancing about all over the place like pieces of blinding broken glass. And you're speaking to him and your voice sounds as if it's amplified so loud that it's completely distorted - it's like having his ear next to an amp at a rock concert. Is it any wonder he suddenly starts to scream and shout at everything just to STOP AND SHUT UP AND GET OUT OF HIS FACE?

4. INFORMATION OVERLOAD. This is a particular problem to jellybeans who may not be able to listen for very long. Did you know, some jellybeans actually can't listen and look at the same time? They have to do one or the other, but may not be able to do both simultaneously. So, if you're giving too many instructions too fast and these instructions are complicated and involve shifting between listening and looking, and if there's an emotional edge to what you're saying, too, that puts your jellybean's brain into free fall. It's like a computer crash.

The best way to cope is to deal with them, and trust me they need dealing with. TSUNAMIS are DANGEROUS. It's as though we lose control and although we may be sort of aware of what we're doing we just can't stop. As a parent you really do need to alert everyone to Tsunami-spotting and try to stop it before it runs its full course. It comes on in waves, sometimes out of nowhere, and CAN be halted in the first wave, which lasts about 20 to 30 seconds, but after that it's as if we're drowning under successive storming and crashing waves of panic, fury, frustration. Our brains go down under it all. It's a very scary experience, for us, as well as anyone who may be around, and WE NEED HELP PLEASE!

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP - WITHIN THE FIRST 20 SECONDS

1. Speak to us and tell us firmly and in a single word that we are getting out of control.

2. DON'T TOUCH US!! !! !! Touch puts us into even more overload.

3. Don't give us a lecture - we can't HEAR.

4. Leave us alone, let US have the last word.

5. LET US RUN, if necessary, out of the door, upstairs to the bedroom or to lock ourselves in the bathroom.

6. When we emerge SAY NOTHING about it, ignore us when we reappear, we are probably a bit sulky still so let us be. We will communicate with YOU when we are ready.

WHAT CAN THE TEACHER IN THE CLASSROOM DO?

1 Don't Panic. Speak clearly and firmly - just one word is best.

2 Distract the jellybean with something that they are good at. SUBTLY

3 Remove the jellybean from the classroom with one adult to a quieter more private area.

4 Allow the child to STIM and don't crowd them, just be kind and keep them SAFE.

5 Allow the child to let off steam physically, allow them to RUN and run and run, the playground being preferable to the school car park.

6 Reassure and stay in the background. The child will wind down.

7 Don't threaten with anyone or anything.

Finally on Tsunamis, DON'T TOUCH. Unless you are invited to, try and avoid the temptation of hugging a distressed jellybean, even when you think its safe, it MAY NOT BE!

Debi
AND
I'd like to add just one thing here. I tell parents, teachers and carers to treat a meltdown as if it was an epileptic seizure, because usually there's an altered state of consciousness. And, it's worth remembering that there's an outside chance it just might be a complex partial seizure as we've discovered with Debi's youngest son.

^^Yes! all that^^

Also, being blamed for things I haven't done... because people misinterpret my body language. Last year it seems like everyone I knew was chewing me out for being disrespectful and dismissive... because I don't look at them when I talk. In one group I had been trying and trying to 'get it right' and still got reprimanded and chewed out by the leader for being disrespectful and criticizing others and I just flat lost it.

It is actually this that drove me to find a cause for what was going on, that lead to my Dx. My therapist had initially missed it because at 50 the symptoms are not as obvious; I've learned a lot of social skills, I have a sense of humor (my class clown personae has stood me in good stead as an adult), and I do look at a person's face (the mouth) when they talk. But as soon as I mentioned the possibility and we started discussing it, she had a lightbulb moment when she saw that I didn't look at her when I was talking (and I didn't even know about that symptom). Her brother is AS and so she's very familiar with the repercussions of odd social behavior. We did the family interviews and she's continued to observe me and now there's no doubt in her mind... which explains a lot of what's been going on in my relationships.

But I read Jelibeans description of meltdowns and I totally recognize my childhood. Fortunately, I lived in the country, so mostly I just took off for the hills when things started getting too intense. And both my parents had terrible tempers, so mine didn't stand out.

Meltdowns are definitely a back-off reaction, as well as sheer frustration with the situation.

[quote=
We have a family with 14 kids! 11 diagnosed too! Whooohoooooooo! Bring it on, we LOVE the spectrum! ]




hi, i was just wondering if this family is your family ( i know its not your children). i am writing at the moment about autism in genetics.

if anyone has any suggestions about what to write about then please say, i have to write lots!! !! !

also if anyone has experience with hypo sensitivity then that would be really helpful as well.

thanks

i have written up a big list on the sensory issues that accompany ASDs, donkeybuster and followthereaper96 and you have given me great quotes about things being too loud, too bright so i have linked the writing of hyper sensitive issues with reality but i would also like to give experiences with hypo sensitive issues.

thanks, you have been very helpful.

Hey Cellardoor, you might check out Rachel's blog for her experience with Sensory Processing Disorder... she's profoundly affected by it and is able to describe it very well. Also, she's been able to function "normally" most of her life, but recently the SPD has become overwhelming and she is really having a difficult time getting around now.

How's the project coming along?

Not seeing a lot of recent posts. Are you still doing your project and what is your deadline? I will probably be officially diagnosed Aspergers by December, if not November 2009. Would love to particiapte.

the deadline is around december time.
i wish i could get diagnosed, how is it going for you gingersnaps? (hehe thats my aspie-like dad's favourite biscuit)
if you've read the other posts then you may know what my project is about, it isnt specific at the moment, so far ive written on the ethical issues if we could do a prenatal test for ASDs, girls being underdiagnosed, characteristics, sensory issues and a lobe-by-lobe part about how it relates to the spectrum, is there anything else you think i should write about, or maybe i should make it more specific.

What sensory issues do you have to deal with? how do you deal with them?
Do you like routine, and if so why?
anything you know about the neurology of the 'disorders'

and anything you think is interesting about your perception and experiences with asperger's.

thankyou for joining in.

Deal with a lot of issues around sound. Ticking of a clock, the hum of an air conditioner or refrigerator can distract me from hearing what someone is saying. I have the hearing of a dog (an audiologist actually told me this) so all background noise competes equally upfront for me. I like gathering new information at lectures, speeches, etc. But a couple people muttering at the back of the room can destroy it for me. I now have a speech therapist who is going to start working with me on learning to more accurately fill in the missing pieces when I don't hear all of what peole are saying, read body language and tone of voice. I hear a gentle door closing or a gentle voice as a slam or a rage and feel like the whole world is attacking me. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and want to attack back. I'll have a meltdown that has never gone beyond verbal in sixty years, but "they" have me listed as dangerous and
"they" keep trying to move me toward institutionalization for it. The meltdowns prevent me from getting medical care and I'm treated as an imbecile who has no right to participate in making my own decisions about how my own life is run. When I try to explain how I feel, it comes from so many sources, people dismiss me as paranoid. This all accumulates on top each other with too many battles to fight all at once alone and just leads to more meltdowns.

Their best argument is that I don't have routine in my life. I forget to take my meds, to eat, to sleep, the basics, and at this point my health is so poor that this could kill me. I think I could thrive on routine, but I have no idea how to implement it. I know it drives me bonkers when my appointments get canceled or rescheduled or some professional calls me and says I'll be over in 5 minutes when I had planned to use that five minute to do something else, even if it was pretty trivial. I can get OCD and I think I use this to sub for the routines. I live in a nuclear waste dump and will go stark raving mad if somebody moves anything slightly off center and I can't find it right away. Although I'm constantly losing things myself because I didn''t put them back where I got them. I just moved a couple months ago and complained that the black hole in my last apartment followed me when I was hoping I would lose it.

I could write a lot more, especially around relationships, but I'm not getting my basic needs met now because I was up all night posting on this website instead of doing what I was supposed to. So I'll have to return later.