A meltdown happens when an autistic person is overwhelmed and cannot get the overwhelming things to stop.
It is not a sign of personal weakness or bad character. Lots of times autistic people have meltdowns because we are working hard at things that are very important but very difficult and uncomfortable.
When a meltdown begins, the trick is to disengage. Get yourself alone. Get yourself calmed down. Get yourself safe.
If you are working with an autistic person, you want to try to learn to disengage before the meltdown begins. Once it does, you will not be able to finish the lesson or the bath, anyway. Your goal will need to be to get the autistic person to regulate himself or herself.
If you are an autistic person working on frustrating things, you also want to learn to disengage before the meltdown begins. We can learn to pay attention to signals our bodies give us when we are losing control. We can learn the things that calm us. We can work on finding ways to tell other people that we need them to back off that they can hear and not be hurt by.
An autistic person who is in meltdown is not usually able to listen to reason. Any correction, no matter how gentle, is likely to be perceived as an attack.
Meltdowns are physically and emotionally exhausting, sometimes for days afterward.
The only way to keep them from happening is carefully manage stress.
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