Why do you have Meltdowns when an NT doesn't?

Post Reply New Topic

Please leave feedback for this meltdown model here as this is still undergoing review/changes.

This is a model presented to me by a physchologist that I work with in my area. She and I started a Big Brother's program for ASD and this is some of the supporting documentation that will follow that program. I want to get a feel for how other people with ASD view this model and if it makes sense even without the lecture behind it. I can add her voice and some instruction but want to get a feel first for the picture part of it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh26B9n9tRE[/youtube]

The information she presented to me was actually very, very helpful for me understanding RE meltdowns.

Last edited by kfisherx on 20 Apr 2011, 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

hmmm, did scientists put this together? its interesting and confusing

Please elaborate on what is confusing to you so I can make it more clear. I realize that you may have to watch it more than once to fully grok it but the information is actually really important to anyone who suffers meltdowns.

Yes it was put together by a scientist and a psychologist. Both Gifted beings, if that is what you mean.

I found this pretty helpful. It makes sense. I feel like my brain fills up with emotional and sensory clutter until I can't cope anymore, and then I either hit meltdown -> shutdown or I go straight to shutdown.

I am not sure whether I have meltdowns or not. I can get more upset than most people about certain things, and I mean things that wouldn't be a problem for other people would have me ready to slash my wrists. Similarly, things that other people find very distressing just doesn't affect me.

It doesn't work the way the diagram works at all.

I would be highly interested to hear how you think it works if it isn't like this. If you don't mind sharing.

Thanks...

Most of the ASD friends I have showed this to have said similar. It was also really helpful for me too when she was explaining it to me. It just needed pictures IMHO in order for it to be mad clear. Apparantely I am more about the pictures than most....

Yeah, same. The visualization helped a lot, and I can actually explain it now in a way I don't think I could have before. This was also on my mind because I tried to explain to my therapist today.

It isn't really related to how much other sensory input I had at the time. It's more just that certain things like invasions of my privacy or people being given information about me that I didn't want to have have the emotional impact of losing a parent and the trauma can scar me for years. Whereas other things that people would perceive to be upsetting (divorce, violence in the home, my father getting pissed before he was supposed to take me to a university interview, my mother threatening to commit suicide) don't really affect me.

But it wouldn't make any difference how much other sensory input I'd had that day-the same stimulus would always produce the same response.

Sort of. There's things it doesnt get into.

Is there no sound?

Can someone do a simple text summary?

I don't find it confusing at all. I see it as matter of fact and to the point. Thank you for posting that.

I usually just say it's a limbic system dysfunction and then people look at me all confused like.

It was a good video to describe the process. I feel like the emotional stress and sensory overload happen at the same time though. It all just floods my brain and I can't take it anymore.

What isn't addressed is that an NT can deal with their stress much more easily than an autistic can. For one they can choose what sensory input to focus on and they have better control over their emotions. So they could actually create more free space, say they compressed all that input so that they had more free space.

I think this capacity analogy is totally wrong. It doesn't work like that.

So according to this NT's do not experience emotions...or maybe I'm just not understanding what the video is trying to say. Either way, it's very possible for NT's to have a breakdown of some kind pretty often, even if it's not technically a "meltdown"

if i understand correctly, the video is trying to say that autistics use their 'functional' brain to process emotions, where NTs have a seperate process for that, so it doesn't take anything out of the functional brain.

that said, i indeed think the analogy is flawed, since my overloads are not becouse of emotions, but just a pure overdose of input.