How do you control meltdowns?

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I never learned how and I feel I'm falling towards one any minute. I really can't afford this, I don't want to let it make me lose my job.

OMG I feel the same way and have had meltdowns at work-they feel like a thunderstorm in my head and it has to die down on its wn-I do try to find a quiet place or get in my car and try to get it all out in private-doesnt always seem to work though

Hmm I only have meltdowns at stuff when I begin to yell at it and people don't take that as badly, but if you never learned to control it then you can visit a mind-doctor(shrink) or you can do as me when I feel like hitting a person I bite my hand real hard so I let the rage out on myself instead of other people.
Hope I could help in an:?

I'm assuming that telling your employer you're AS/ASD isn't an option for you.

Many of us haven't learned how. If one comes on for me then it comes on and there is little you can do about it, although sure people can adapt and learn coping methods the fact is that the very nature of meltdowns means they're out of our control and an effect of too much being thrown at us to deal with. My meltdowns simply phased-out for the most part, now I have them rarely but I know that my major trigger is a loss of control - so if I can I take control, I address the situation to see if I can step away from it or stand-up against whatever it is that's bothering me, I try to make pre-emptive strikes by making sure I know what I'm supposed to do and what my rights are, try to avoid the feeling of being boxed-in by a situation whenever possible...

...if you know your triggers try to think about ways to avoid them or counter-act them, if you're stressed sit and write down the problems and think about whether or not you can do anything to improve your situation, but at the end of the day you have to accept that meltdowns are sometimes out of your control, stressing about having a meltdown and what may happen as a result will just make the meltdown more likely to happen. Of course, all this is easier said than done

I don't. I bottle it up and do my best to act normal, but I inevitably explode.

I don't know how to control meltdowns. VERY occasionally I can stop one before it arrives, but once it gets here, it does not end until it is ready to--usually by the time I am completely exhausted and simply cannot "meltdown" any more.

I have actually learned to just completely shut down. I had one just a couple of days ago taking a very hard test and I just completely shut down. I stopped thinking about it and I actually can't remember some of it. I'm very happy I have learned to do this. It still gets me strange looks I think, but not as strange as when I would start gasping for breath and heave sobbing. I hope you can learn a coping technique. I remember how awful it was not having one.

Sorry! Double post

Last edited by AdiaofArcadia on 25 Jul 2011, 9:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks, I just tried pumping it all into creativity and it payed off.

I escape, if at all possible,
preferably to a soundproof location.

But sometimes I can't abandon my post,
in which case I try n' suck it up.

I have trouble also. I find that avoiding too much stress helps, but inevitably, even with that, a meltdown will happen.

I have trouble also. I find that avoiding too much stress helps, but inevitably, even with that, a meltdown will happen.

I listen to Billy Idol!

If it already happens, it happens.

But I'm a young adult now and if I want to play in a league I'm not thought to be made for, I need to watch out and make sure I cause no havoc by accident. So yeah, that is what I decided is important for my person.

It means I will remove myself from an unchangeable situation or change a situation, if possible a long, long time before the meltdown would occur.

I thought I had the meltdown problem beaten out of me as a child, as an adult I have learned that my "meltdowns" simply took a more self destructive route. In high school I must have gotten into more than a dozen violent altercations that I didn't realize until much later in life, after I was diagnosed, were meltdowns in disguise.

As an adult I simply become quiet and stony faced, grind my teeth to the point where I have lost some because of it. It does not help people still notice that I am strange and I always eventually lose my job over it. NTs have a way of knowing that you just are not quite right and its in their nature to hate you for it. There are of course exceptions I do not want to disparage all NTs.

I don't know if it will help or make it worse, but I have simply decided to not hide being autistic anymore. I let anyone who might suspect that I am "weird" know up front that I am autistic. At the very least it stops them from always trying to make eye contact.

I listen to The Kinks.