After a meltdown...

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^^^this^^^

Most of the time for me, I have meltdowns because of sensory overload and the way I deal with that is when I am in social environment. I try to stay as close to the restroom or and kind of room I can go into and turn off the lights so I can drain the noise from my head and as long as I can do that. I can pretty much avoid a meltdown.

That's also how I feel after a meltdown. Completely drained, I need to put myself in bed and sleep or take a nap (depending on the hour). It also happens that I have migraine (if I have been crying way too much). But after that it really feels that everything's going to be ok. The image I have in mind right now is an empty bottle on its way to be refilled.

Heh, funny. I have pretty much the same image.
I think you can compare it with a filled cola bottle with a mentos in it, the reaction is being played in slow motion, the bottle is somewhat closed, has a cap on it. When the pressure is too high and the bottle's cap is being pushed into the sky by a cola fountain which will empty the bottle, that's a meltdown. The bottle and its cap remain undamaged and the cap will eventually fall down again, once the bottle is empty, someone will slowly refill it with cola, a little bit for everything upsetting and when it's full, that someone will throw a mentos into it, put the cap on it and observe the meltdown explosion.

Mmm it's kind of what I had in mind about the "before" : the image of a geyser.
And in your description, the image of someone throwing a mentos in the bottle is relevant as the meltdown, in most cases, comes from an external source. Personally I very seldom have a meltdown because of an inner distress...
(Now I'm wondering if the cap of the bottle can be damaged after a certain amount of explosions, if yes - after how many, and finally how to apply that metaphor to humans ?)

The cap is probably your reputation/image/first impression/some other word that symbolizes what others think of you.

Having a meltdown in public lets the cap fall on a dirty and hard/rough ground, it might get damaged a bit (permanently), one has to find it and clean it afterwards, most won't bother to help you search for it and will consider the cap trash.

A meltdown in private/at home will make the cap fall on cleaner and eventually smoother and softer ground and more people could be willing to help you to find it and clean the mess, if there are any people, there is a small chance of permanent damage.

Alternatively it could symbolize one's mental state, who knows, maybe meltdowns do damage over a long period of time? Probably the worst case scenario interpretation of the cap.