Running with Autism Blog 12

Meltdowns

Yesterday I had another meltdown. It’s a very common occurrence for people with autism to experience meltdowns and they don’t stop as you get older. In my view they get more difficult as you get older because you are expected to behave in certain ways yet having a meltdown breaks societies expectations of how an older person should behave and this can cause additional problems both for the person having the meltdown and for those around them. I run to help me deal with my meltdowns and I ran yesterday. It was a tough run because I wasn’t feeling up to it, experiencing a meltdown takes a lot out of you mentally and physically, but I went and ran because it is a far better option than drinking all day and making things worse both for yourself and for those around you. I did go to the club for a drink and had some more at home on my own and today I have woken feeling calm and relaxed having got over another meltdown and dealt with it far better than I have done in the past. Another meltdown has come and gone and I’m shattered from it. Today is all about resting both mind and body and getting ready for tomorrow when I’m running again. They’ll be another meltdown, I don’t know when and I don’t know how bad it will be but I do know it will happen sometime.