2ukenkerl wrote:
Danielismyname wrote:
O, I don't have "meltdowns" (lashing out at others and/or the environment due to being overwhelmed); I have its polar opposite of withdrawing into myself.
I didn't toe walk either.
Well, what I call a meltdown is NEVER really violent. I usually don't even raise my voice. I often DO appear to withdraw into myself. Outside of the lashing out, with me at least, what I call a meltdown matches what others seem to call a meltdown.
I think from reading topics about this that most people here on WP call shutdowns meltdowns. I don't know why that is.
I do not know to which others you refer, but I'm just going to write the following anyway.
Shutdowns include shutting down functioning, loosing the ability to keep up with the situation. The same as with meltdowns.
But with shutdowns, it's in a way that is directed to the inside without lashing out, exploding in anger loudly or even in forms of violence.
Crying silently in a corner, mentally withdrawing from the environment, feeling confused/lost but incapable of expressing that by the according actions and displaying an overall lacking response to outward stimuli is a possible form of a shutdown.
A meltdown is more like trashing the place, yelling, displaying hyperactive movement, running away, become extremely agitated, expressing anger in recognised or unrecognised forms.
Shutdowns seem to go with an immediate tiredness and a general loss of energy and ability to display responsiveness.
I have meltdowns. I can't, for example, go silent, curl up and cry in a corner, need to retreat into a silent room or become dull, unresponsive and unusually quiet. I explode.
Something that happened today, and actually has happened fairly often, is that I'll start with meltdown, then for a time it's more like a shutdown, where I'm not talking, looking at anybody, curled up, then after a certain amount of triggers, I would meltdown again. Shouting, self-injury, lots of movement. Today it happened when I was in the car on the freeway, after my mom unexpectedly started going to a different place than had been planned.
17 Aug 2008, 2:32 am
