-Hi, my name is Stephanie and I was diagnosed with autism at age 23.
I've already shared a lot of my story with you on this channel and I also
shared with you about autism meltdowns, but a lot of you were really interested
in this and I thought I would reach out to some other YouTubers who
are also on the spectrum. So, without any further ado, here is what it is like to
have a meltdown from the perspective of many different people on the autism
spectrum. -For me, personally, a meltdown can happen over a multitude of things
happening over the course of a week or a few days. You know, if there's a lot of
things going on and, you know, I just reach my peak of just I can't do this
anymore. Then it can result in a meltdown for me. -Growing up, I did have a hard time
communicating with others and usually when I was agitated or sad, a lot of
that would be expressed through tears. It happened fairly often to the point where
I was called a crybaby when I was younger and to the point where I also
was considered a shy, quiet kid who was different. I know now that when I would
meltdown, whether it was at home or in a public space, that a lot of the time I
really was just trying to express my voice verbally in trying to communicate
with others, but I didn't have the easiest time doing so. And at times, that
was very difficult to mediate, only because I wasn't around environments all
the time that were accommodating and comforting to my needs, and also because
I found routine to be a daily struggle for me. -Feels like rage. Feels like
something out of The Twilight Zone. Normally, I'm very happy, very haha, very
outgoing, very... and then there are some cases when I get upset. When things kind
of go [growls] and it just, I mean, it's just scary, to be honest. -So, a meltdown to me is where like
my senses and everything I know around me that I interact with the world gets
so overwhelming that it just becomes this eruption of emotion. Like, I've kept
it, kept it, and kept it, but then all of a sudden, there's too much going on. It's
like being in a busy store with like a million people
running past you and there's just lights and sounds and people and smells and,
like, you just feel hot and gross and then you just kick back and it just
melts down. That, to me, is how I experience a meltdown and it's not good. -And during
a meltdown, I just become really agitated. I become really frustrated with myself and I just can't function. If
you ask me to do something during a meltdown-y phase, I just can't handle
it. I just can't do the thing that you're asking me to do, because my head is just
like, it's kind of like when you put mashed potato in a microwave and for
some reason the mashed potato just explodes all over the microwave. That's
my head during a meltdown. It's just everything's everywhere. There's no
correlation to anything. It's all of a mess. -But I do know that where I am
currently is truly because I've made strides to help alleviate that for
myself. Now, as a young adult, through practice, I'm able to bottle up a lot of
my emotions, no matter what it is, and just find a way to release it in a
comfortable space. And usually, I would try to go back to my room or just to
another safe place to hopefully cry or vent to myself about whatever's going on,
which is really great. [light sarcasm] I find that when I'm able to release the sort of meltdown,
it does help me decompress, to reflect, and just to relax. Just on where I am
currently and to understand more about the aspects that I'm frustrated with to help
make them better. Most the time, I do find myself going back to being productive
again or trying to find ways to distract from how I was previously feeling and I
do have an amazing support system of people in my life right now that I'm
able to talk to you about anything. At the end of the day, I do find the
meltdowns have allowed me to release certain emotions when I felt unable to.
Even though it could be a circulation of emotions to the point where it just
gets extremely overwhelming and sometimes annoying. I do find that
sharing that aspect of myself is one of the bigger reasons why I share that
I'm autistic, so that way people around me are able to understand more of who I
am. -Thank you so much to everybody who participated in this collaboration. I am
actually going to link everyone's channels below. So, everyone who appeared
in this video, check them all out if you're interested in autism content, which
you likely are if you're on this channel. I really highly encourage you to check
everyone out who participated. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and
all of that. I hope that you guys, as viewers, hopefully, you kind of gained a
better understanding of what a meltdown is like for different people and maybe
you could identify with that yourself. So, if you enjoyed this video, go ahead and
hit the thumbs up. Like this and subscribe to all of these people.
They're really great, helping spread awareness and share their stories, and so
hopefully you'll subscribe to them. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you're
having a wonderful week, and I'll see you in my next video. Bye!