Is this a meldown or something else?

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I am quite emotional and I sometimes get very weird and intense reactions to some situations and I wanted to know if these were meltdown or "sensory overload".

Yesterday I went to an Animecon. We had to wait 2h in a very crowded line of people to be able to register. I didn't mind the crowd much, but I was really tired from waiting that much. Then, I went to a place where you sit and they show music videos of anime for 2h. Luckily I had my earplugs, but some songs where still very disturbing and annoying. After I while I was very tired of watching this but I couldn't stop due to the fact that I was there with some friends. After a while, I started stimming A LOT and I was very tired. It was very hard for me to get up when the presentation finished. I couldn't look at people in the eyes and I was walking in a very clumsy way. 5min later, we sat on a table and I was hyper-focusing on the table and I couldn't look at others. I couldn't even talk to my friends, trying to say sentences was extremely painful and difficult. I also felt like I was frozen, I wanted to go home, but I didn't even had the capacity to say it to my friends or even move from my position. It's like my brain was working in the inside, but the connection from my brain to my body didn't work.

This kind of things happen frequently when I'm feeling tired and I'm in a situation that I can't deal with and I can't resolve it or go away from it. I either get very moody and angry OR/AND I get very depressed and I feel like I can't move anymore (like explained previously). In either cases, I tend to hyper-focus and have trouble (or can't stand) interacting with others.

Are these all meltdowns or sensory overload? Is there anybody else who had similar experience?

Btw, I remember having these kind of reactions from a baby shouting and also one time from paint-ball due to the extreme pain I had from being hit by the balls.
My main over-sensitivities are sound and physical pain.

It seems more like sensory overload IMHO. I get that sometimes. I go hyperactive and hyper attentive to tiny details. I can't really talk sense and socialize.
Also I get some depression spells. To me that's more of an internal meltdown. I get over that pretty easy if I eat some chocolate ice cream

I'm pretty sure your right because right now my ears are more sensitive then usual and somewhat painful.
I thought that earplugs would help but it seems like it just help me survive a little longer but I still end up overloaded in the long run.

I guess that if I'd eat some good poutine, I'd feel better. But still, I tend to not be able to get over these until I go sleep and wake up the next day.

I'm not sure if I have sensory overload or not. I have anxiety overloads with events that happen in my life, but I don't know about sensory overloads. Today I was in a shopping centre with lots of people, and I did feel anxious, but I made my way through them, and got to the game shop where I wanted to go. In the game shop there was loud music, which I don't mind at all. Then right outside the game shop a big band thing started playing (sometimes they have that sort of thing in the centre of a shopping centre), and I couldn't help but feel a little disorientated from all the noise. Nothing hurt my ears nor distracted me really. But I just felt all dazed when there's too much going on, too many people and too many sounds. Not sure if this is sensory overload or not. It's not a meltdown. I can live with sounds.

Hi Leviathans. The situation you describe sounds like sensory overload. You should force yourself to such xtremes. Your health is more important that what your friends will think. I am sure they will continue having a good time even if you are not there. You should prepare some kind of mecanism to inform your friends when you need to leave a place. Maybe you can go out for a while, calm down and then return ?

I'm pretty sure that you had a sensory overload. It does not need to be physically painful to be an overload. For example, tickling is not physically painful but it is profoundly annoying and exhausting for anyone.



Hey Ilka,

I knew that I was getting annoyed and tired from watching the videos but I couldn't have predicted that I would get overloaded like this.
But you're right, normally I can sense that I'm going to get overloaded soon, but I still tend to stay because I don't want to displease others... I never tried to go away, calm down and return but this is what I should do. I'm not sure that I'd really want to go back to a situation that made me overloaded though. But the thing is that one of my friend told me that I was very rude when getting away without giving any explanation sometimes. I tried to explain it to him, but he would always focus on me needing to control myself and be respectful. He even told me that I'd have to find someone very accommodating as a lover, because I'd be very demanding and difficult to live with. I'm pretty sure that he's right... Argh...


I wonder how other aspies in couple deal with their sensory sensitivities. It must be hard to find someone who accept this... The routine and stubbornness is already enough hard to deal with for others...
Also, I'd be interested to hear about how you dear Aspies deal with sensory overload.

Hi leviathans,

I agree--sensory AND SOCIAL overload, leading to what I call a "shutdown", which is like an "internal" meltdown for me.

It happens when I've had to interact with people all day without a break, along with just regular fatigue. By the end of the day, it feels like I'm screaming on the inside but no one notices because I keep it firmly internalized. I tell myself "Okay, it's like having a panic attack--just keep breathing and you'll make it." This is in situations I really can't get out of, like work or finishing grocery shopping.

When I get home, I shut myself in my room with the lights off and lie on my bed. Eventually, I fall asleep. That helps me recover.

Regardless of what others think is "rude", it's far worse to have to suffer through this in situations where you really don't have to stay there. If your friends know about your AS, they should also know that, for you, this is part of the "territory"--no different than a diabetic needing an insulin shot and/or food at certain times.

Don't know if that helped or not, but--just my $0.02.

-Noise isolating headphones (and my kindle has music on it)
-Steampunk goggles that reduce my field of vision drastically and block UV
-leather to block the lenses completely if necessary
-Prescription nose spray
-Peppermint oil
-Strong flavored gum
-Kindle for mental distraction
-If its not summer I have a cloak instead of a coat
-Blankets if at home (seriously, I prefer the temperature in my apartment being lower than I find comfortable because being wrapped up in a blanket helps keep me mentally together, this is part of why my cloak helps)
-Deep touch (climbing onto my boyfriend's lap and making him just hold me tightly is most common for this)

And then if I overload, I either curl up, half the time hiding inside of my cloak, or leave, depending on what the triggers were and whether or not I have enough control of my body to leave. On top of that, my boyfriend knows what happens if I overload, and another friend knows about my mental overloads, and they can reassure other people who've seen me pull away that I'll be doing better once it calms down.

For me, true sensory overload can lead to meltdowns but tends to only lead to a completely empty brain, inability to parse anything because there is just too much incoming data. I will have partial overloads where I need to function in a different manner but have enough control to do that also, and in those situations I also tend to do things like go over to the bathroom and wash my face because water is relaxing to me and bathrooms tend to be quiet and not lit so terribly.

I've been meaning to buy some good earplugs too and add them into the stuff I carry with me, but I've not gotten around to it because I want them to not be disposable ones.

I'd say it was a sensory overload (like some others here have mentioned) that was about to become a shutdown (shutdown meaning that your mind would get to the point of ignoring everything until you calmed down). If it was a meltdown, you'd be in such a state of distress, you'd feel trapped in your own body and would likely harm yourself in the process (assuming you get a physical meltdown, instead of a verbal one . . . both are pretty harsh).

Yes, probably your friends will get mad at you, but you know what? It is very rude from them to expect you to go though that just to please them. I can bet if it was them the ones suffering the overload they would go and do not look back. It is very easy to request things from other people if it does not cost you. But there is no need for you just to go without any explanation. You can say you do not feel well and you need to go, and just go. You can explain it in detail later. I know how you feel, because I used to like to please others a lot, but I came to realize that sometimes it is more important to please you first, because if you do not take care of yourself nobody else will.

I am an NT married to an Aspie. We've been together for 16 years now. The only sensory problems he has is to crowds, noise and touching. I had to learn not to touch him the way I used to touch people. I need to be firm; I cannot be gentle because that bothers him. I like to go to discoteques and I stopped because he cannot stand those places because of the loud music. And we do not go to crowded places because he cannot stand them. I always try to accommodate so we can both have a good time. When you love someone you have to give up to some things in order to be with that person. That's what I have done. I prefer to be with him than partying.

I think it sounds like more of a shutdown than a meltdown, IMO.

Is this something you wanted to go to...or just went because some friends were going? I ask because you seemed to be miserable for hours there before you get to anything that you might have even liked. If this is something that you want to do, then I won't discourage it, but if you were so unhappy and overloaded there, maybe it might be better to tackle your interest in smaller ways first before going to something so uncomfortable for you? I don't know...just a suggestion...

conundrum:
That's pretty much how "overloads" are for me too. It's hard for people who knows me from a long time to believe or care about me having AS though. Either they don't believe or they think that it's irrelevant because supposedly everyone can change to be like they want to be. (I guess that yesterday will be a event that will possibly make them reconsider their opinion)
I like your opinion and thanks for your comment.

Tuttle:
Steampunk goggles, that's pretty cool! it's good that you have a set of things to help you in case of overload and it's incredibly nice that your friends and lovers knows how to deal with your overloads. Btw, try Etymotics ETY earplugs, they're pretty cheap (20-25$), they reduce the sound intensity so you can still hear things and they come with a small container so you can easily bring them anywhere.

PlatedDrake:
I guess that "shutdown" makes sense. I remember trying to explain this to a psychiatrist (before knowing I had Asperger) and he said that "shutdown" would be a better word than "depression" to explain this.

Ilka:
My MBTI type is INFJ so I tend to care a bit too much about other's feelings. Argh, I really need to stop trying to please everyone. A good friend of mine also told me that I should be wary of this because this could make me a good target for manipulators.
I'm happy for you two. Your story is cute.

littlelily613:
I was willing to go to the Animecon, but after 2h of standing up and waiting I got very tired and I would have gladly gone back home instead of going to the Animecon. You have to know that I do get tired very easily due to muscle problems. Also, I would have stopped watching the Anime videos after a while but I didn't just to please my friends. It wasn't really an big interest of mine to go there though. I don't like Anime that much.

It seems more like sensory overload to me.

Sensory overload leading to a shutdown.

Read this:

http://latedx.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/ ... he-senses/

Very interesting, thanks!

Your blog seems pretty cool. I'll start reading it.

This sounds very much like the way I feel when I overload. If I get into a situation where I'm overloading, I excuse myself for a bit and try to find a calm spot. I understand that this might be difficult at a convention, but maybe the bathroom would be a good idea? There tends to be a lot less input in a bathroom.