Meltdowns

Welcome to the Explainer Section of our website! Here, you’ll find a collection of short and engaging explanations designed to help people with disabilities reduce the emotional labor of self-advocacy.

What Are Autistic Meltdowns?

Many of us have a stereotype in our head about what meltdowns are. The fact is, this stereotype misrepresents the information we should have about meltdowns. Like panic attacks, meltdowns are not part of a diagnosis. They come with a diagnosis when a person has had too many of their boundaries violated.

Unlike panic attacks, you cannot teach an Autistic person out of the causes of a meltdown. The only way to prevent them is to make sure the person is in an environment that is healthy for them to be in.

What Are They?

One More Time: Meltdowns do not have to be part of Autism. They are a distress response from the consequences of a disabling environment.

Autistic children are often taught compliance because accommodating factors like sensory needs is “difficult”. If too much builds up, the Autistic individual can experience a meltdown. Meltdowns look different for everyone.

The Bucket Metaphor

This example is adapted from @autisminsightsandme: The same activity can inconsistently lead to a meltdown. Why?

Meltdowns are like an overflowing bucket.

• Some activities drain the bucket, making us feel better.
  • Stimming
  • Meditating
• Some experiences put pressure on us and fill the bucket up.
  • Stress
  • Unpleasant sensory experiences
  • Masking our neurodivergent traits

Some things we enjoy can also fill up the bucket, but if too much is added to our bucket too quickly, we can experience a meltdown.

They Feel Like

• Traumatic
• Exhausting
• Embarrassing

… and largely completely unpreventable if the individual, as is often the case, does not have control of their environment.

Prevent Meltdowns

• Make the workplace or classroom a safe place to request reasonable accommodations.
• Take accommodation requests seriously.
• Destigmatize and educate those around you about meltdowns.

How to Respond to Meltdowns

• Allow the individual to leave the activity and self care.
• If you have one in place, enact the plan created together earlier.
• Respond with empathy and understanding, rather than shaming the individual for having to endure extreme distress.

Remember that meltdowns do not have to be part of Autism if an individual has access to a lifestyle where their environment takes their needs seriously.