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Tantrum
``Want" Directed
Goal/Control driven
Audience to perform
Checks engagement
Protective mechanisms
Resolves if goal is accomplished
Age: 1-5 years
Autistic Meltdown
Overstressed/Overwhelmed
Reactive mechanism
Continues without attention
Safety may be compromised
Fatigue
Not goal dependent
May require assistance to regain
control.
Age: through adulthood
See, when I get overwhelmed, curl up in
a corner, cry, shake, and pretty much don't acknowledge your
existence/want you to leave me alone, and if you do leave me alone, I
keep crying and shaking just as much as when you stay with me, that's
not a tantrum. That's a meltdown.
When I'm overtired, coming down off
sensory overload, have been triggered by song lyrics, and then find
out that I wont be getting food until after the time when I would
normally want to be asleep, so I curl up the corner of the hotel room
and start to cry, choosing the corner I did as the one where I
figured my roommate would be the LEAST likely to notice, that's not a
tantrum. That's not culture shock either- none of those had anything
to do with the culture of India. That's a meltdown.
Having gone to the professor after
getting myself back under control and asking for help doesn't
retroactively turn the meltdown into a tantrum. If it were a tantrum,
I'd have had it in front of whoever I wanted help from and continued
until I got it. Instead, I knew it was coming, got myself OUT, had it
as privately as I could, and then went to deal with the causes once I
was rational again. I have no illusions that I'm rational during a
meltdown.
As far as dangerous goes, some of us
have dangerous meltdowns, and some of us don't. The worst you're
going to get out of me is a rant about whatever caused the meltdown
spluttered out between the tears and the gasps. (Normal crying has
long since stopped giving me breathing problems, but meltdowns still
make my breathing a little weird. Not dangerous weird, but I am out
of breath.) I could also be rocking/shaking, which also aren't
dangerous.
And fixing the problem won't end the
meltdown. It takes away the cause, but I'm still melted down, and I
still need to get myself back under control. It's not an immediate
off switch. (Note that I'm often well away from the trigger by the
time I actually melt down. I'm pretty good at delaying meltdowns, but
if it's coming, it's coming.)
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