Crying meltdowns vs. feeling sad

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Thanks im better now just still got allot of stress in me, no real healthy way to get rid of that as its always present.

I am glad you are better. We are always here for you.

Until very recently I thought that I had stopped having meltdowns because I haven't had the really bad and really out of control "temper tantrum" ones in a while. But since joining WP I've learned that the crying that I do when I am overwhelmed etc. is actually melting down. I thought that sobbing uncontrollably not triggered by sadness was way too mild to be considered melting down.

It is quite complex with me, so I will try to explain it as best I can.

I will explain by comparing depression and sadness, as it is not a blanket statement I will just tell it from my own experience and see if anyone can relate.

I am now on Sertraline, which has helped with my depression a LOT, but before then I was suffering with severe depression which was ruining my life. I felt angry at myself, I hated my life, I was bitter and jealous of all the NTs around me, and I just wanted to give up on everything and commit suicide. Also I kept on having rage outbursts, which included crying my heart out, hitting myself, yelling at people at home, and slamming and kicking doors. Usually these were triggered off by too many negative thoughts and emotions and it all just got on top of me and I just felt so unhappy about myself.

Now I'm on these tablets I find I can keep my thoughts and emotions under control. Now if I see something that used to cause those bad feelings and rage outbursts, I may get a little sad or pissed off, but the thought suddenly goes out of my head and the feeling goes away pretty quick, making me more able to feel happier and get on with life. I can't cry so easily either, although I did keep crying one day last week, but that was because of PMT and also I heard that something to do with my special interest was changing beyond my control and so I got upset with that, but it didn't result in a rage outburst like it normally would. Instead I was more able to accept it quicker and not worry too much about it, although I still keep feeling sad about it every now and then.

So in the former paragraph, that was depression to the point where it was a mental illness ruining my life and destroying my self-esteem.
In the latter paragraph, this is just general sadness that everyone feels and is easier to get through and is not ruining my life or affecting my self-esteem.

You know what? Now that you mention this, I often find myself crying for what I perceive as no reason or no reason I can think of at the moment. It might be triggered by something slight but not usually by something that should merit that level of crying. Maybe when this is happening, I am actually having small meltdowns like you mentioned. I never thought of that because I usually consider meltdowns as when I am having a much stronger and much more "obvious" episode but maybe these more mild cries that just kind of come are meltdowns as well just in a lesser degree.

I don't think it is exactly a meltdown but it is part of the same thing: our inability to deal with emotions and situations. Sometimes it raises and becomes a meltdown, other times we just punch the table a couple of times in frustration and it is gone.


yes. When you are feeling overwhelmed and exhausted (usually many things at once, sensory overload, emotional overload or all) you may have a crying meltdown and you just cry and cry and cry usually with a feeling of not knowing why. Crying meltdowns are common for me! Much more than the outbursts.

One of the reasons I love it here. I learn so much about myself! :0)

Same here to I tend to just out burstinto tears easily sometimes over nothing at all, other times like tonight I was not feeling grand again (im working on this difficult times for me atm) I just almost stop and am silent for hours but cracking up inside.

Yes, I learn so much!
about my meltdowns -
for instance, I am having a nice day, everything is fine, then I get home and curl up on the sofa and cry cry cry. For years I thought I did it for no reason, I was depressed, I was mad etc. Now I know they are not random! If I stop to think about it later it is like: "calm down, okay, let's think. You spent 2 hours today talking to your friend, you are tired, and there are so many works you have to do this week, and.. Hmm.. You were expecting to arrive home and rest but you're grandmother was watching loud tv." or something like that.
other times are a little bit different, with a trigger. Like I was expecting it to be 6 pm so I would spend one hour reading, then I look at the clock and it is 7 pm. Then I start to cry. for other people it is like a crazy person crying because of nothing, but it was only a trigger. If I stop to think I will see I couldn't rest this weekend because I had a family gathering, and I am anxious because of the basketball game, and I did too many things today and had sensory overload etc.