are meltdowns more asperger or autism releated?

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I've never had a meltdown. Does that mean I might not be on the spectrum? Do some of us just not get them?

Lots of autistic people don't have them -- they're just one of many responses to overload or confusion.

And there's also something called a "shut-down", which is different, right?

I have no idea if I get those or not. Under intense social stress, I do have moments (or occasionally prolonged periods of time) in which I am physically unable to speak, and I can't really think clearly either - it's like I'm temporarily paralyzed, sort of.

Fortunately that's an extremely rare occurrence these days.

Okay something in my phrasing seems to have been confusing. I didn't mean to exclude the possibility that autistic people could have them for a whole variety of reasons, just that I don't think the non-autistic people were generally having them for sensory reasons.

And sensory was sloppy terminology on my part. I meant overload/perceptual reasons in general, which seem more common among autistic people than non-autistic people (although not unheard of in non-autistic people).

"Meltdown" = lashing out, usually in the hopes of controlling the environment, i.e., keeping people away who expect things of the Autistic individual who can't do them

"Shutdown" = withdrawing, i.e., passive resistance

I haven't read that it's more prevalent in either of the disorders.

i think that there are people with aspergers that show more signs of classic autism but these doctors think that you need to do the stereotype things to be able to have anything that is not a psychotic diagnosis

in looking at my past i find that except for the iq i was more in the classic autism and at the time that these doctors looked at autism things before you needed to have a iq of 59 of less

i think that if my iq was in the ret*d range then i would be diagnosed with classic autism if evaluated today with a lower iq and it is the iq that makes me meet the diagnosis for aspergers

Apparently, I did not speak at age four. Perhaps this is why I got the autistic label instead of the AS.

Is it really possible for a person with Aspergers not to have meltdowns? I did not know
that. I do not know if I have meltdowns, I dont know if what I have qualifies as a meltdown
but even if it does I only started having them after I left school around the age of 19-20.(due to
the high stress of the work environment mostly) Despite this a psychologist who has alot of experience with Aspergers believes beyond a doubt that I have it.

Because I have always thought that all people with aspergers have meltdowns from a young age I have spent a lot of time wondering why I did not have them when I was young and why even now they are different. In fact this is one of the reasons I spent more than two years being sure I did not have Aspergers and believing I had NLD instead. If it is still possibe to have aspergers and not have meltdowns than it would not be an issue for me anymore.

When I think about it I dont think the diagnostic criteria for Aspergers do not actually mention meltdowns

Both. I'm mild and I have them. I used to have them more but now they are rare because my husband doesn't do anything to cause them.

I don't know if they're more one or the other. And I think they're definitely possible in people off the spectrum. My half brother, who we suspect is bipolar and who in addition behaves like my aunt (my other half side that he's not related to) who has schizophrenia, has had them since he was 1. It was terrible.

I don't have meltdowns - at least I don't think so - but I am learning from everyone's posts. I get overstimulated and have to withdraw. I must go be alone and I can't bear to hear or see anything, or be touched. It's like my pupils squeeze shut from light and everything's vibrating/buzzing and magnified. Maybe this is the shutdown that was mentioned earlier?

NTs have meltdowns too but theirs are not the same as ours and they are less prone to having them. Mine are like a toddler having one. That's how my husband describes mine.

Meltdown's occur more with severity of the symptoms, especially if the only way to communicate is to scream, cry and lash out.

Hmm, that'd make sense--with no symbolic communication available, meltdowns are more likely.

Of course, "no symbolic communication available" can happen with an overwhelmed Aspie just as it can with somebody who's never figured out language in the first place. I should know.