 Hello everybody welcome back to another video on the channel as bird is growth today I'm coming to you from sunny Manchester. Yes indeed. The gods have blessed. They have blessed me today. They have Granted me a small amount of sunshine on my arm because I'm too lazy to go outside anyway Topic of today's video is Autistic meltdowns. What are they? Why do they occur? What triggers them? How can we explain it in a way that neurotypicals understand video sequence initiate So Meltdowns you may have heard of them from those many memes that I saw Skirting about around Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. I'm very much a fan of them. I think they're funny They're not great though because Although they are funny for other people. They're not they're not that fun for us I'm not saying that they are fun for a lot of people. That's a terrible way of starting the video Meltdowns let's go to a good old source of information the website of autism.org.uk they describe a meltdown as an intense Response to overwhelming situations happens when someone is completely overwhelmed by a current situation and Temporarily loses behavioral control. This control can be expressed verbally shouting crying, etc But they can also be expressed physically through kicking lashing out biting Or in both ways now this is a good overview definition to start off with I Realized that meltdowns quite often get Misconstrued with temper tantrums, especially in children the typical example of this is you know in supermarkets Very overwhelming place for an autistic person Especially a kid. There is a lot of instances where kids on the autistic spectrum have meltdowns in public and other people You know sort of misconstrued that as being a temper tantrum And in adults, it's a little bit different There's more of a aspect of withdrawal Definitely an aspect of anxiety But also a tendency to have a lot of negative emotions which are Exacerbated by the meltdown or after the meltdown But I'll go into that so firstly the triggers of a meltdown social interaction Especially periods of time where you're around a lot of people and you don't have any escape from that situation such as gatherings or groups or Concerts or festivals somewhere where you sort of locked in and there's no escape to sort of calm down and chill out and withdraw That is one of the you know the first ways that anxiety can be spiked second is Sensory aspects so autistic people generally have a different what's called a sensory profile to other people This means that we have a lot of hyper and hyposensitivities Whether it be visual, auditory, touch Balance It's very different for each autistic person But there is a tendency to be quite hypersensitive to noise and lights So any environments where there's a lot of noise and a lot of floodlights Such as a supermarket It's not a great place for an autistic person. Those those environments can exacerbate the anxiety and cause a meltdown lastly is general stress general stressors something that everyone struggles with and feels stressed about such as work for example, if you're working and you can't get something perfect or Or you don't fit your routine you will feel stressed and you'll keep Doing it and doing it again because you don't notice that you're stressed and then suddenly Kabloom you have a meltdown now. What makes autistic people Sceptible to meltdowns and why are they called meltdowns? What's the difference? So let's go into the first point first meltdowns occur for a few reasons and one of the main reasons is Lack of ability to emotional emotionally regulate in general most kids struggle with this So they have a lot more meltdowns and they they can't handle their emotions as much which is kind of general for most kids Hence the temper tantrums and stuff that happen with non-autistic kids, but when it comes to autistic people we have a very hard time Perceiving our own emotions sort of categorizing them and putting them into a box But we also have a difficulty in noticing that they're there For example, if this was, you know, the bottom of the stress scale bottom of the anxiety scale Where if it sort of got around mid-range We'd sort of have a gut feeling that we're not feeling too too good We feel stressed a little bit, but we don't we sort of brush it to one side because Perception of that emotion is is very weak and it can keep going So we'll we'll keep doing something that stresses us out Keep doing it keep doing it thinking that we can cope with it and then boom it hits us and we are You know, we have a meltdown a lot of autistic adults can Regulate their emotions But I think the main thing is is that we find it hard to Understand when when our emotions are rising. It's very difficult for us to understand the only way that I can Perceive my own emotions or perceive my anxiety rising up by checking how much How uncomfortable My legs feel and how how much sort of nervous energy I have in my legs And that is usually a good tell for me for a lot of people. It can be very difficult It's a very sort of trial and error process because not everybody is the same But I think for a lot of people the first Sensations of anxiety come from physical sensations changes in our body heart rate blood pressure Stuff like that stuff that you wouldn't really be able to measure but also the physical sensations So that is a that is probably one of the ways that makes Adults different to kids because we we do have the ability to emotionally regulate. It's just it's not always It's not always right and we don't always do it correctly and it we have faults, you know it It occurs sometimes in our life now. I'm going to take you through the process of the meltdown I've talked to you about the initial stage of Anxiety rising not being able to tell that it's there until it's too late once we can tell that it's there We sort of go into this Different state where we were furiously trying to calm ourselves down and this can happen through stimming stimming is sort of those repetitive unusual actions where an Autistic person will move their body to calm themselves down It's not always physical could be verbal depending on the person and these will get it more intense as the approach and meltdown Some people pace some people withdraw Some people just you know just go completely quiet and not interact with people which is probably a good thing to do And if we don't sort of calm ourselves down in the next like two or three minutes It's likely that we'll have a meltdown and the first thing that happens when you have a meltdown is just this intense wave of Panic some anxiety just feeling Helpless, that's a good way to describe it. You just feel absolutely Helpless, you can't stop it. So you'll have all those Panic attack really like symptoms You could hyperventilate You'll likely be overthinking at a speed So fast, you know like a thousand miles per hour your brain's constantly thinking in loops and Trying to figure out how to get yourself out of this situation doesn't work a Lot of the time and you actually can't really remember what what's happened in your brain because Soon as you you have a thought You know you're onto something else and you can't keep up with it. This can manifest in the verbal Communication difficulties that occur while having a meltdown the person will find it very difficult to Express what they feel express what they want and transfer their their thoughts into speech that it's you know partly understandable there are a lot of Verbal delays so if you ask someone something when they're having a meltdown They usually take a long time to process it because they have to process it and then Produce a reply and it's increasingly difficult when we have a meltdown. So we will stay in this sort of self-perpetuating state of anxiety panic inducing anxiety and We will stay like this for Around about 30 minutes to an hour depending on the person when when the actual meltdown starts to die off We were again some of our cognitive ability. We you know we Were able to verbally communicate better Not not quite to the degree that we were before the meltdown But a little bit better than the meltdown and we can also get some you know negative feelings and thoughts the biggest thing is Feeling bad about yourself. You feel like you're on top of yourself and you are you're not a kid You are grown up. You have responsibilities When you have a meltdown it makes you feel like you shouldn't have done any of this You have a lot of negative thoughts about the fact that you are Draining people's energy. You're draining people's time. Nobody wants to deal with you in this situation despite all this, you know other friends wanting to help and it makes you feel really bad about yourself and it makes you feel like you're You're a weight on everybody's back and you should leave and nobody cares about you very intense And those feelings can last for about You know to the end of the day really and maybe to the next day If it's in a situation where you don't really know the people who have seen you having a meltdown you can Tend to want to avoid Meeting all people again You can take you can take a big toll to your self-esteem after have to having something like this because nobody wants to feel out of control and That's basically for all intents and purposes one meltdown is so for anybody who is Trying to help someone having a meltdown. There are a few things that you can do the first thing it's just be there and Reassure them that you want to help them. They're not wasting in wasting your energy wasting your time You understand that it's a hard thing. You don't you don't think they're being childish Just tell them, you know the truth Tell them that the that you want to stand and you're here and whatever you need you will try to help them That's the first thing second thing is We're gonna be very Inable to Understand other social cues such as like facial expressions and tone of voice So even if someone is speaking, you know in very care careful voice, you know Like I want to help you and very calm and the smile and they're smiling a little bit You know that they're concerned. We weren't really pick up that that's the case in those situations We're able to understand it when we're when we're not having a meltdown, but our brain is so full of Overthinking and terrible thoughts about ourselves that we we just can't admit that You know, someone is being nice and they actually genuinely want to help so if you Exaggerate your facial expressions. So if you smile and you say it's okay and you Put a calm voice on that can help immensely In those situations just to reassure the person that they are not doing any harm to anybody and that they Shouldn't feel a bad about having a meltdown last thing that you can do is Take them out of the situation probably should have put that first But take them out of the the stressful situation just say alright. I can tell you stressed just come with me It's okay like we'll we'll go somewhere that's a bit more relaxed and quiet and then You probably have to wait around as I said around 30 minutes to an hour Maybe a little bit longer just for them to to get over the you know The negative feelings about the experience but in general they will start to sort of Seem a bit brighter and you know They may be quite withdrawn from social interaction for the rest of you know The day or the night if you're if you're meeting up with them, but they will they will get better and they'll probably just try and relax and Gather their thoughts about the experience for the rest of the night, but Long term it's not going to affect them that much if you are an autistic person yourself my SP friends Best way that you can prevent panic attacks prevent meltdowns rather You need to find some way of noticing that you're getting stressed Straight to the point. There's no way of me teaching you how to do it One tip that I can give is for myself as I've said with my legs. I can tell that I'm getting anxious Maybe try and look for some physical Sensations in your in your body that can be Indicators of stress so find what that is Learn it soon as that starts to happen take a break from a situation the very good way to deal with it probably the the best the best tip that you can get Try to work around it. Try to understand when you're feeling stressed and combat it emotional regulation second thing if you know that some environments are going to be inflammatory of your Panic is going to be panic inducing make sure you stay somewhere that has an escape route as I've said with the Concerts or festivals make sure you run, you know You're either right at the side or it's not going to be that much of a trouble for you to exit from the crowd if you need to Preparation, you know if you go in and somewhere there's a big group of people Maybe you're at the pubs with your friends and maybe there's some other people you don't know feeling a bit stressed Try and go sit in the corner usually helps quite a lot bring some noise cancelling headphones always a good shout just to sort of zone yourself out and calm down Get rid of all that background noise can be very helpful and lastly Let the people in your life that you are close to know that this thing occurs and Let them know how to help you because when you are having a meltdown if it's a sprung on them They'll just think my god. What's happened. They don't know that you're autistic It's always good to tell it's always good to tell the people that you're close to Just so that they can help you out a little bit have a little bit more understanding when it comes to meltdowns So I know it's been a long video I'm trying to keep it short as possible. Can you can you honestly believe that I have made this video three times? Already first time. I messed it up. Didn't like it started again second time Nearly got to the end someone called me broke my trainer for and I'm doing it again. So this is the third take Effort effort that I don't want it's sunny outside It's going away Anyway, I'm not gonna have a meltdown over that Hope you enjoy the video guys. Hope it helped. Let me know if it helped in the comments If you like the video make sure to like it. So then I know that you like it so I can make more of them And lastly if you want to see some more Videos by myself on a regular basis make sure to hit the subscribe button But also that little notification bell give it a little ding Just one ding not two things that'll turn off and it will give you notifications when my videos come out So they're not always that regular I'm trying to make as many as I can now now that my university's finished So yeah, that's all good all good in the hood In the spud. Thank you very much This has been Thomas Henley in a very sunny Manchester day and I hope you're feeling good if hope you think grand. I hope you're feeling happy Tell me what's going on now And I will listen to you just pause it just pause it here Anyway, hope you enjoyed the video. See you later guys