What is "meltdown"?

Post Reply New Topic

I would really like to know what people mean by this term. Is it loss of patience when things don;t go right, quickly escalating into complete loss of temper or almost rage, not directed at others but kind of inwards / at the world in general?

I see the term used a lot but it's as if everybody else understands it and nobody feels any need to explain it. I am asking, please, for an explanation. Thanks.

A meltdown is when you lose control over your body due to extreme overstimulation and/or anxiety.

In my experience, it's really not about anger or rage or frustration with things "not going right" or any kind of expression of those feelings. It's about pain, terror, loss of self control, and then finding out the next day that you broke someone's ribs. The body goes completely into threat response mode and starts attacking whatever it perceives as a threat, which is pretty much everything, unless you're able to retain enough control to redirect yourself into doing something that won't hurt people (I try to crouch on the ground and scream, and some people will stim violently or hurt themselves rather than hurt others).

To me a meltdown is when you lose control of yourself and have a volatile reaction including screaming/crying and self-harm or other out-of-control body movements.

I'm not really sure myself. I have times when I'm overwhelmed and then get very angry and frustrated. I sometimes yell at people, or get mean. It's usually when I'm in a situation I can't control and I feel like I just have to get out of there, right that second.

It's usually when there are too many people around me, and I feel confined or distracted. Too much going on, and too much noise. It makes me feel like I need to run away.

But I never throw tantrums or anything like that.

Oh, and I do have episodes when I get really upset and start crying. Usually the crying is seen as inappropriate or as an overreaction by other people. I don't do it often, but have done it in public in the past. I can't help it when it happens. I have no control.

When ever, I have a Meltdown. I try to get away from the situation As fast as possible to the point of hurting myself. Me and my Psychologist have agreed that it is a Fight or Flight situation (Typically flight). I've heard Parents Compare it to a Temper Tantrum, but I don't agree. It is a very different Situation.

Interesting responses. It seems I don;t get these meltdowns then. I do get what I described in my original post, ie: the escalating loss of patience/temper etc and when that happens I can get very wound up. I usually just stomp about and swear but don't smash things of anything like that (though in my teens, I did smash things - never tried to hurt anyone though, just items)

When feeling overwhelmed, eg: at a party I've unexpectedly found myself at, I have gone totally the other way to 'meltdown' as I now understand it. I have curled up behind a sofa or in some corner and pretended to be asleep.

Otherwise, if I've wished I wasn't somewhere, I've left, without delay but under control.

For me too it's a loss of control. It's the point where I simply can't cope anymore. I usually cry and run away which is very very embarassing for an adult. Sometimes while crying I can say what's causing the problem but sometimes I can't. I've never been violent and it doesn't feel the same as when I feel angry either. I have lost my temper before in my life, but that's just not the same thing. A meltdown for me is about not being able to cope. It's about the end of what I can manage. It's like a disintegration.
Afterwards I need time in a safe quiet place to kind of put myself back together again and then help from someone I trust to guide me about how to make things right with other people again.

I don´t know, if I´ve had one. I´ve had rage, I couldn´t control and had to destroy things. I´ve made the walls crack around doors and have had a need for cooling down alone a couple of hours, - as a teen and young adult, but the other descriptions? Don´t know about them.

I have fled noise and people in panic. I have sometimes lost sense of body.
I have been so nervous, that my senses sort of mixed up and I ran into doors, went the wrong way, knocked over chairs and things.
It was clearly a fight-and mostly flight response.

Would any of that be meltdowns - or simply anger and anxiety?

I was violent as a kid and teen, but I'm unsure if these were meltdowns or just a bad temper.