Hi, my name is Stephanie and today I wanted to share with you about autistic
meltdowns and shutdowns. Now, if you watched my interview with My ASD Journey
on his channel, you may have noticed that he asked me about what I would call a
meltdown. And I had two different terms that I personally used: a meltdown and a
shutdown. Now, this was just from my personal perspective and assumption, so
I'm going to give you what I've assumed it is before I go into what the internet
is saying it is. So, what I thought of as a meltdown was basically any time that I
was losing control and acting out. So, that would be like screaming or hitting
or just things that are kind of, like, violent and outward and I don't
necessarily have a lot of control over. It's like an impulse and it kind of
happens. This might seem kind of like a tantrum to a parent, except for instead
of throwing a fit in order to get something or have their way, an autistic
person having a meltdown is not doing it to manipulate and they're also not
really doing it out of their own will. But it's happening outside of their will
because they are overloaded. They can't handle what's going on. So, then we get to
shut down. For me that would be almost kind of like depression, but not quite.
It's where, like, the world is being shut out. You can't always respond to external
stimuli, but a lot of times there's still a lot going on in here. For me, to get
through the day, a lot of times I could be task-focused so that way all I had to
think about was that one thing and I could get through the day and other
times I couldn't even do that. Like, I couldn't even do simple things and it
was just like shutting everyone and everything out. It almost feels like I'm
cold to the world. In search of what a meltdown and a shutdown technically are,
I did find a source that said that a meltdown is basically any time that you
lose real control, whether that is an inward or outward response. So that would
be like the shutdown response of not really
being able to maybe speak or interact with the world or the outward response
where, you know, you might see some very violent things or loud things or
something like that. However, as I continued to search, I did find other
sources that described meltdowns and shutdowns as separate things due to the
fact that one is inward and one is outward, but they are both characterized
by a lack of really ability to control what's happening. So, at the end of the
day, a meltdown or a shutdown is really the time when an autistic person, or
person with Asperger's, is triggered beyond their tolerance. Basically, I have
a pretty good tolerance for even the things that really trigger me, like
sounds and visual things that are, like, too much, physical sensations and stuff
like that. But when those things pile up as well as social situations and stuff
like that, there's just times where I can't handle it anymore and it's just ...
something happens. Whether it's a meltdown outward or a shutdown inward, a
lot for me is a shutdown before I ever get to a meltdown, but they've both
occurred. What I think is important for you to know, though, is that both
meltdowns and shutdowns are, again, not something used to manipulate and it's
also not something that you should mock or make fun of or anything like that. It
is out of the person's control when this occurs. They can't help it. It's not to
throw a fit. It's not to ignore you or make you feel bad. It's just happening
because their system, their body, cannot handle it anymore and they need to do
something to bring things back into balance. And meltdowns and shutdowns can
be pretty extreme. For meltdowns, this can be, you know, physically hitting
themselves or someone else, screaming, those sorts of things that seem really
scary and violent, and then there are shutdowns that make people unable to
move their bodies at all, or just unable to speak. For me, sometimes, that's just
going monotone and having a difficulty getting words out. Some people can't even
respond to their name being called for, like, several
times, stuff like that. So it can be pretty extreme when we're triggered over
our tolerance. However, I would encourage you not to be afraid of these things
because that alone can make things worse. And to know that it's just, it's just a
thing that happens and we can learn from when those meltdowns and shutdowns
happen and see what led up to that point and start to try to identify what
triggers those things so that we can avoid them as much as possible. But
there are going to be days that they happen and again it's not in your
control or the person with autism or asperger's control and sometimes people
just need some space and sometimes people just need things to to stop for a
little bit. So, I hope that you enjoyed this video. If you did, go ahead and give
it a thumbs up and let me know what your thoughts are in the comments below. If
this helped you understand anything more about meltdowns and shutdowns, or if
you've had them or anything like that, just let me know in the comments below
and if you haven't already, please do subscribe. I upload it to this channel
every Thursday at 4 p.m. Central Standard Time, so if you don't want to
miss an upload, go ahead and hit that subscribe button. I hope that you're
having a wonderful week and I hope you'll see me in my next video. Bye!