What is a "meltdown"?

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I had public meltdowns when I was a kid, up to the age of 12
But now I don't I do get angry and cry and scream when I'm at home, but I wouldn't count them as fullblown meltdowns.
On thursday night a part of my laptop broke and I was really angry about it so just kept shouting and yelling at people then burst into tears, then I shut myself in my room and kept hitting my own face and banging my fist on things and stuff then I just sat there sulking with my hands on my eyes doing a very good impression of a rocking horse What would you class that as I'm not sure

^These things are hard to classify aren't they.

My understanding of a meltdown is that it's any major reaction to overstimulation.

If I'm in a room full of people and they are all talking at once, sometimes I have to close my eyes. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, tears just come out.

My last major meltdown was in November, when I couldn't stop crying and I put myself in a closet to calm down because I was so freaked out with anxiety.

NT's can melt down too. They just melt down over NT things.

all human beings can have meltdowns.

But the issue for many aspies or ASD people is that we can have emotion regulation dysfunction. so we might go from calm into a rage far more rapidly than most people.

i might seem perfectly calm one minute and then something happens - too much verbal info and noise and bright light all at once and i will start screaming and then fly off the handle.

unfortunately it can be quite rapid for me and very distessing.

Like Spokane Girl i can get violent and this upsets me a lot as i am not a nasty person or a cruel person. The problem is that i do not have a smooth gradation of feelings in me when i am around other people or when there is too much stimulus. (people mean LOTS of stimulus - way too much.)

there are few mid-range emotions in me except when i am engaged in my main special interest.

Meltdowns can look like infantile tantrums being acted out by an adult.

the other way they can manifest is through shutting down into rocking and hands over ears and humming, in my case. for me., this can happen after the rageful outburst part.

Not everyone with AS gets meltdowns. but they are common.

I'm not sure if I have "meltdowns" or not. From some of the descriptions above, maybe. I tend to get annoyed with machines that don't work and within seconds can get into a mini-rage and destroy them.

Yesterday I could not light the gas on the cooker with its electric ignition switch, so I tried a match but they were damp, then I picked up the pizo electric lighter. It didn't work so in a momentary rage threw it onto the floor smashing it into lots of little pieces.

My other laptop lost its letter G due to a mini-rage with a little software problem and I pounded the keyboard. All my life I've had these sudden bursts of rage - which I usually regret because I break things. If people annoy me I'm unable to express myself or my feelings very well. So I often tend to say nothing or walk away. I dare not lose my temper with people in case I break them too As a child (up to the age of around 14) my first recourse in a dispute was my fists. At least I've stopped hitting people! However, I know that if someone did push me too hard the wrong way that I could be extremely vicious and violent, but it is a side of me I have not seen for many years.

Are the above meltdowns?

They seem to happen over trivial things and it is like I've got an emotional block somehow and go from normal to rage within seconds then I'm back to normal again regretting the damage I've just done.

its when the reactor gets really hot and goes booom

My meltdowns usually involve lots of hysterical crying, but they have been known to trigger asthma and panic attacks, tantrums, and fits of rage. I haven't learned how to deal with them yet. I just take deep breaths when I feel one starting to brew.

a meltdown in my terminology is a step beyond a tantrum.
with a tantrum, you can express silly ideas of discontent with fervor.

in a meltdown, there is a neurological short circuit that seizes any ability for me to respond in any way except to get away and find a dark quiet place to be still and shiver in complete rejection of everything i am sensing.

I don't get the rage. I just melt down with tears and can't stop crying. But then, I'm very out of touch with my anger. I have gotten so upset I threw heavy objects, etc. That was in 2006, in the summer.

yes, that is a good point B9.
the short circuit experience is certainly there fro me, and accompanied by bright flashing shards of white in my brain. it really is beyond tantrum.

Perhaps it is better to say it can "look" like a child's tantrum, but in effect it can feel far more out of control than that...which in my case it does.

For those that knowingly experience meltdowns, do you remember what happens during them? I've often had fits with rage and anger and just generally being upset and sometimes I can't remember what precisely has triggered them, or what I did during them.