When I was younger and had meltdowns (and I still do), it was mostly just screaming, yelling, throwing things, punching myself, hurting others and breaking things. I would throw up all over. They would last for hours on end and would only stop once I started crying. Once people saw me crying, they knew my meltdown was close to finishing.
When I was about 14, I started scratching my arms, hands, face and head. Every week I'd have a new bandage covering my arm. I was forced to cut my nails and wear gloves. When I was 15 or so, I learnt not to take my anger out on others but have never learnt to not take my anger out on myself and objects though.
Right now, I usually hit my head quite hard with either my hands, with objects or on walls. It's caused so many bruises and cuts on my head. This is my main one at the moment. I feel really embarrassed when I do this in public because people look at me strangely and it makes the situation worse. I'm starting to think I might need some sort of headgear to help me out as I'm hitting my head quite frequently now and I don't think my skull can get hurt any more.
It's quite bad when I'm on a bus or a train as I start hitting my head when the noise level gets too loud and like I said, it embarrassing when people look at you with that weird look. It makes my situation worse, causes me more anger and stress and makes me hit even harder.
I dig my nails in my skin and scratch until forced to stop. I try to control myself as the pain afterwards isn't nice and makes me have more meltdowns. Thankfully, most people around me know when I'm secretly scratching and tell me to stop, which I do.
I pull my hair (which is hard as it's quite short) and have caused a few temporary bald patches.
I bite the insides of my mouth and rip skin off around my nails.
My outbursts are getting worse too because the end of my college year is getting close and it causes a lot of stress.
So you are not alone. In fact, it's silly to think you are alone on this as many autistic people self harm when under stress or are angry. So don't think you are dumb, please don't.
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Diagnosed with Autism, ADHD and OCD in 2008, aged 11.
Your neurodiverse (Autistic) score: 193 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-Autistic) score: 23 of 200
"Different but not less."