Does anybody else NOT experience meltdowns?

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Just wondering. I never had tantrums as a child, and nowadays I shut down, rather than melting down, if overstimulated.

I threw tantrums as a kid. NT kids throw tantrums as kids.

I'm a "shut-down," rather than a "melt-down" type of person.

Meltdowns were never really part of my childhood. Occasionally I'd get angry enough to hit someone or kick a door or wall, but I mostly just shut down. Anger is my primary trigger for meltdowns, and as a kid I was never really angry, just highly anxious all the time. These days, the anger and overwhelm can lead me to yelling and hitting myself and kicking or throwing things and generally behaving in a way that I almost never did when I was younger.

The Squid has only experienced one really bad "Shut down" in recent years about a year ago. We took some time off of work. Went out shopping for ourselves, and returned to work on Monday good as new. As far as meltdowns go, violent or no, we've never had them. We, like the OP are more of the shut down kind of aspie.

Same here.

I had 'temper tantrums' until later than most, but now anything that resembles a meltdown happens in private

If I remember correctly I only had shutdowns too.

I've only ever had a handful of meltdowns and none since I was a child. I do have anxiety attacks on a fairly regular basis. I definitely shutdown during these episodes. Sometimes it feels like I'm dissociating due to stress or sensory overload and I often anchor myself by stimming in some way. Sniffing my hands, stroking a nice fabric and similar things. I enjoy doing these things so they're not tics, I think.

it takes a lot to throw me into such a thing. they do happen but it's not like when i was a kid, misplacing my shoes causing me to miss the bus would throw me into a full blown panic attack lol.

I used to have tantrums as a young child, but my parents weren't the sort to tolerate that kind of thing at all, they seemed to see it as a challenge to their control, so I guess I must have had it knocked out of me, if it was ever really there. I don't know that the tantrums were any more severe than an NT child would have thrown, and I don't remember feeling traumatised at being forced to compose myself.

I've only had one episode since those very early years, that could have been called a meltdown, when I was in my 20s. I was in a very difficult situation with a partner, under a lot of pressure. I thought I was going to laugh, but my breathing went out of control, hyperventilating. Seems like a panic attack, which I guess is a kind of meltdown.

Beyond that, nothing. I'm an unusually calm, stable person. I sometimes get quite ruffled on the inside, and I feel my fair share of anxiety and hopelessness, but from the outside I continue to behave quite normally.

Walking into someplace crowded such as a mall can do this to me, particularly if its on a weekend or evening or at lunch time when there are more people.

I get so overwhelmed and shutdown myself. Just pull into myself and stop talking.

I suffer from meltdowns. Still get them at age 44. I cope better with them now though. I'm not sure why tantrums entered this thread. Meltdowns and tantrums aren't the same thing. Meltdowns are the equivalent of fainting or having a mild seizure (both of which have happened to me.) Tantrums are an attempt to dominate or manipulate.

I don't think I really had them as a kid unless it was just me yelling and screaming at everyone and crying but it got more common when I reached my adolescence to a point where it got disruptive for everyone. I didn't know this had a name until I was sixteen when I learned the word meltdown. I just thought they were tantrums because that is what my dad called them. Now I just have outbursts and feel explosive. Someone not listening can do it or if they do something that got in the way of my routine and then anger builds up and I start cursing. I think it really depends on my mood and how my day has gone and if something is really small where it won't affect me, I don't get too upset. I told my dad I didn't want the desk close to the closet and what does he do, he puts it right next to it where I can't get in on the other side. I didn't explode and tossing stuff, I just said "God damn it, now I can't get in and I told him I didn't want it close to it and does he listen? No." I don't get in the closet much anyway and only do for my son for his stuff so I told him "Sorry kiddo, it looks like you won't be able to get in there for a while." It was my kid's problem, not mine. But luckily he had left his Play Doh out so it wasn't trapped in there and that is his favorite thing to play with.

I have meltdowns. Sometimes I wish I had shut-downs instead. At least those wouldn't make me stand out as much.

Sadly it seems like almost everyone, including aspies, see it as the same thing. Wen you look up tantrum, you will find articles about it and see they are actually describing a meltdown. And one time in a Parenting magazine I was reading No More Meltdowns and they sounded very like tantrums they were describing.