They are very different and need to be handled very differently.Ī tantrum is conscious, wilful behaviour that can be shaped with rewarding behaviours. They are not tantrums, although they may look the same. Meltdowns are no more in a person’s control than epileptic fits Most of us would rather avoid them at all costs. It is an exhausting and painful experience, and many autistic adults will tell you that despite having no control over the situation, they will still feel embarrassed and deeply ashamed, as well as utterly exhausted afterwards. Obviously, it is distressing to watch someone having a meltdown, but it is far, far more distressing for the person themselves. At this stage, all we can do is ride it out.
#Tantrum vs autistic meltdown full
By the time we are in full meltdown, we are unable to control our behaviour or emotions, and it is too late to stop the meltdown. We may cry, scream, get angry, shout, or express our pain physically by hitting out. Our buckets are overflowing uncontrollably.ĭuring a meltdown, we will not be able to process any more input whatsoever. They occur when we are completely overwhelmed by the current situation and we temporarily lose control of our behaviour.Īt this point, we have reached and exceeded capacity. Meltdowns and shutdowns are a very distressing and extreme reaction to sensory overload, change in routine, communication difficulties or anxiety. Unless we have a great deal of regular recovery time away from painful sensory stimulus, and having to process things, the bucket will overflow rapidly. The autistic person's bucket will fill much, much quicker. In addition, we also have the things that all humans must contend with - hormone fluctuations, hunger, pain, illness, stress, emotions and so on. For an autistic person, the bucket probably begins half full and never completely empties, just because of all the extra work the brain is having to do all the time, in addition to sensory sensitivities. It takes a long time to fill up and doesn't ever overflow.
(Another AutisticNess analogy coming up.)Ī non-autistic person, who is reasonably happy and healthy, begins with an empty bucket. One way to understand sensory overload is to imagine your functioning ability as a bucket. It greatly reduces a person’s capacity, draining our batteries super-fast and is a major contributing factor to reduced executive functioning, pain, distress, illness, burnout and withdrawal, as well as the topic of this page - meltdowns and shutdowns. Unfortunately, it is something which is extremely common in autism, due to our sensory differences, and for the person experiencing it, it is exhausting, painful and scary. The brain cannot process anything more and may even shut down completely. Sensory overload is when a person’s brain simply cannot cope with the amount of sensory input it is being exposed to.
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