didnt not have meltdowns until about a year ago!!

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I don't think I ever had a meltdown until when I was off college for a year, since then I have had them. Is it even possible to not have meltdowns until 17 years old.

It clearly is possible. You just did it.

"Meltdown" is a vague phrase with no fixed definition.

I found several descriptions in the DSM initially that I didn't think applied to me at first, then later had little epiphany moments when I realized that they did apply to me, I had just misunderstood what the clinical jargon meant.

haha, yeah, i thought that meltdowns would have occurred earlier though, i am thinking that maybe what has been happening to me could be something else

do you know if meltdowns can occur with depression, I am starting to think that's the reason for mine

Can't say my meltdowns were Aspie based. I usually have them when I get depressed or anxious, and Aspergers can play a role, albeit not as significant as I once thought.

I find the Aspergers part relates more to burnout in social interactions and lack of time alone to adequately function.

As my sig says, I don't think I'm an autist, but I would say I've experienced meltdowns. But like you, only once I was, well, 17 exactly actually. That's the age I developed a very long, sometimes severe, depression. I also think that's when I developed my celiac disease too, but I'll never know that for sure.
Lots of mental illnesses strike young adults/old teenagers for the first time; depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, likely others I can't think of atm.

I do think I have some ASD traits, but I never really considered them as such until, oh, years into being depressed. They have become worst in the past decade. Desire to be antisocial, sounds and smells bothering me a lot.

I also seem to differ from what I read about most autist's experiences with meltdowns in that I never really thought of them as anxiety driven. But I think this might just be because I just don't do anxiety. I don't function when I'm anxious, like, at all. The vast majority of the time, anxiety is mixed in with something negative, so it's always a double-hit and I'd just shut down, go to sleep or just go to bed, shut out the world, often at the most inopportune times, and hope I feel better when I wake up. (I nearly always do/did.) I am very, very good at avoiding or dimming/diminishing any anxiety I might have, possibly because if I don't, I WILL shut down.
I also have improved a lot with this since being gluten free.