More about the film i'm making. How should I best represent a meltdown?

[Kempy]

Hey guys. I know it's one of those subjects where everybody's going to be ranting at each other about meltdowns they had, but I've decided to include one in my film. For those of you who don't know, I am making a film about AS. I have a scene in which the main character has a meltdown as a result of being told that he will be kicked out of the air cadets for being to old. This follows after the theme that he has been there for 5 years but still feels like one of the younger cadets. After going over all of the things he had planned to do in the air cadets, he walks out and has a meltdown.

I am writing my film from my own experiences but it would be great if I could get some help representing a meltdown in the right way. What do you do before and during a meltdown? Do you pace back and forth until you finally burst?

I have AS but we are all different and I would like to represent a meltdown that people can relate to. I also need to show it as completely uncontrollable (unlike a strop!).

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[PanPaniscus]

It's slightly different for everyone. But I'll tell you what I do, I have 2 main types of "meltdown" (bleh that word annoys me, I usually say tantrum or outburst but w/e). One is my in the house meltdown and the other is going out. The going out one is a alot less outwardly expressed of course.
If I have one in the house I usually start getting upset or frustrated with something, then it escalates into shouting, crying, screaming (sometimes at the top of my lungs), just a general feeling of RAGE and I regress to being a child of about 5, not pretty stuff. On my 17th birthday my plans to go out were halted because of heavy snow, and because I had to move it and wait for the weather to pass I had the outburst of the century, I started off saying "no! no! it's today!!" then full blown screaming "IM GOING TODAY IT WAS TODAY I PLANNED IT MONTHS AGO". Then I was just going "AAAHHH AHHHH" proper screaming and when my mum tried to speak I just made the ahh noise again and saying "NOOO IT'S TODAAAAAY" and I had my hands over my face and crying like a baby and it took forever to calm down and when I did I was still feeling fragile.

OMG I hate it when I get those it's like an uncontrolable rage. Thankfully they don't happen too often.
When I'm out I don't go like that, I tend to get teary eyed and frustrated and I speak with a really snappy voice and often repeat s the same thing or say nothing at all. But that would look no good on a film because it's internal and wouldn't look good enough to dramatise.

 

[Calvert]

 I can sort of relate to Monkey. I usually just bottle up my feelings then let it all out in one go. I'm not sure I would call it a meltdown, more of a raging outburst. 

 

[superboyian]

I'm actually also similar to MONKEY apart from that I actually just keep all the feelings in until I get really depressed about it.
The only time when I scream and shout is when I feel literally completely pressured and I feel so overwhelmed, my response would be shouting.

I don't do that often now anyways since I have ways to keep relaxed.

 

[PanPaniscus]

I'm actually also similar to MONKEY apart from that I actually just keep all the feelings in until I get really depressed about it.
The only time when I scream and shout is when I feel literally completely pressured and I feel so overwhelmed, my response would be shouting.

I don't do that often now anyways since I have ways to keep relaxed.

What ways do you have to keep relaxed, any useful tips?
I could do with some of those.
I'm rubbish at regulating my emotions and keeping them under control, my emotions are always really intense and I don't know what to do with them and I react like a child would.
When I took the emotional IQ test on the category "emotional control and maintenance" I got 55 so that should give you a pretty good indication.

 

[Emor]

TBH I don't think I have full blown meltdowns.
At home if I'm really frustrated I'll pull my hair out or head bang or kick my bedroom wall but that like literally only happens a couple of times a year.
Last year when I was drinking a lot more caffeine that I now do(I was probably drinking like >250 mg a day, but now it's only like... <150 mg a day[it's still too much but meh]) I'd jump from a euphoric manic state where I'd be laughing loads and then punch my self in the face repeatedly or head bang randomly and then just start laughing again staring at my fist ... But idk if that counts as a meltdown, and I rarely did this when other people were in the house.
Sometimes I get really angry and can't bottle up anymore at school and end up telling someone to f' off or something, or if the lessons nearly over will lock my self in the toilets and calm down. This probably happens a bit under once a month tbh. In terms of swearing at people it just seems to be more frequent now more like over once a week.
I basically never am physically violent. I've only really physically attacked someone like 4 times in the 4 years of being at high school and the truth is most people would have done way more if they had to take the **** I have to take every day, imo.
Sometimes I'll cry hysterically but that's usually in my room at like 3 in the morning over something pretty stupid like an argument :/...
But yeah. TBH I don't think I have meltdowns.
EMZ=/

 

[superboyian]

What ways do you have to keep relaxed, any useful tips?
I could do with some of those.
I'm rubbish at regulating my emotions and keeping them under control, my emotions are always really intense and I don't know what to do with them and I react like a child would.
When I took the emotional IQ test on the category "emotional control and maintenance" I got 55 so that should give you a pretty good indication.

I normally just write things on paper, listen to my mp3 and go on to myself about my obsessions for me to keep relaxed, I also take a couple of deep breaths, 10 at the most...

I don't know if these solutions are going to work for you MONKEY but check it out if you do ever feel like that?


- superboyian.

 

[mikkyh]

Hmm...well one of the ones I had at school I basically just burst out crying, and started attacking bins, and then screaming out. Basically :/

 

[mikkyh]

Additonally...I was really ****ed up one day at school. I was out of time, my schedule was ****ed, etc, and I basically shouted at the receptionist "BECAUSE HE'S A PRICK, HE'S A ****ING PRICK!!!" about my science teacher and I just couldnt hold it back. I was so infuriated. I hate no one caring. Bascially it was like a JJ from skins moment. JJ "Can you just care ?" "About what ?" "About me you twat, you're all ****ing twats!!!!". He basically screamed that and then turned his back on him.

I had to go into a supermarket by myself today. I was extremely anxious, and this like 11 year old girl was apparently laughing at me. I nearly said "What you ****ing laughing at, ***** ?" but her dad was there.

 

[PanPaniscus]

Additonally...I was really ****ed up one day at school. I was out of time, my schedule was ****ed, etc, and I basically shouted at the receptionist "BECAUSE HE'S A PRICK, HE'S A ****ING PRICK!!!" about my science teacher and I just couldnt hold it back. I was so infuriated. I hate no one caring. Bascially it was like a JJ from skins moment. JJ "Can you just care ?" "About what ?" "About me you twat, you're all ****ing twats!!!!". He basically screamed that and then turned his back on him.

I had to go into a supermarket by myself today. I was extremely anxious, and this like 11 year old girl was apparently laughing at me. I nearly said "What you ****ing laughing at, ***** ?" but her dad was there.

OMG I've had moments like this at school. One time in 2007 these chavvy girls were bullying me and I was standing outside the classroom and there was a really big group of them, I didn't know what to do with myself. So I kicked a wall and screamed "**** OFF!!!!!!"
I ended up breaking my toe :thumbsdown: And 3 years later I still can't bend it all the way.

 

[Kempy]

I'll have to include at least one of these outbursts in my film, just for the fun of it!

 

[superboyian]

I'll have to include at least one of these outbursts in my film, just for the fun of it!

Is the film about an autistic person? If so, I could suggest an accident happening in the streets and someone asks him to call the police. The guy then has a meltdown from being too overwhelmed....

Is that a good idea for your film?

 

[Kempy]

I think that idea has been used in a clip about Autism. I wrote my script a couple of months ago and I am just making changes to it. You can find it at http://pk-productions.dyndns.info/Aspire.pdf

 

[Emor]

OMG I've had moments like this at school. One time in 2007 these chavvy girls were bullying me and I was standing outside the classroom and there was a really big group of them, I didn't know what to do with myself. So I kicked a wall and screamed "**** OFF!!!!!!"
I ended up breaking my toe :thumbsdown: And 3 years later I still can't bend it all the way.

Ironically something similar happened to me today.
Crossland(guy who has been winding me up for a while) had been winding me up the entire way through form and the day before etc. and I couldn't stand him and then he said, 'Emma, why don't you go in the class this way?' when I wasn't even going to class, I was going to the toilet 'cause I needed to calm down, and then I just screamed at him to **** off and then ran down to the toilets . This was in a lesson change so quite a few people saw me 'cause the corridors get flooded with people on lesson changes.
He's being nice now and said he's sorry and feels guilty ...
EMZ=]

 

[superboyian]

Ironically something similar happened to me today.
Crossland(guy who has been winding me up for a while) had been winding me up the entire way through form and the day before etc. and I couldn't stand him and then he said, 'Emma, why don't you go in the class this way?' when I wasn't even going to class, I was going to the toilet 'cause I needed to calm down, and then I just screamed at him to **** off and then ran down to the toilets . This was in a lesson change so quite a few people saw me 'cause the corridors get flooded with people on lesson changes.
He's being nice now and said he's sorry and feels guilty ...
EMZ=]

You have managed to stand your ground Emor! I guess that's a good thing? :unsure:

I think he started to be too nice in the end because he's probably was still in shock with what your reaction was like, it reminds me of when my girlfriend was in a really pee-ed off mood and basically what happened was that she had been getting so annoyed with my friend (which she wasn't talking to at the time) and I have no idea why they were even fighting? :S

All of a sudden I went to talk to her and she went and shouted at me, it was very shocking for me because at the time, I didn't know why she did that and then I started having my meltdown which is crying and shouting (which I don't really seem to do anymore).

I miss those good old school times.

 

[Emor]

TBH it just makes me look crazy as **** and have anger control issues 'cause people don't even know the story or everything's that happened to me :/...
Someone made me wait at the lockers on a bad day and I just shouted at them, 'Don't ****ing say I'm stressy because I'm impatient- why the **** should I be made to wait because you can't be bothered to move a matter of centimetres and be late for my lesson and get a detention?'(people do this ALL the time with me and I just think it's out of line but I rarely act like that) I usually wouldn't be that pissed off but in the morning people were throwing food at me(it didn't happen so frequently then), my diary had been nicked, I had been shoved into the lockers, etc. and this was only 50 minutes into the school day.
But it just made me look crazy and was completely counter-productive :/.
EMZ=]

 

[Calvert]

Ironically something similar happened to me today.
Crossland(guy who has been winding me up for a while) had been winding me up the entire way through form and the day before etc. and I couldn't stand him and then he said, 'Emma, why don't you go in the class this way?' when I wasn't even going to class, I was going to the toilet 'cause I needed to calm down, and then I just screamed at him to **** off and then ran down to the toilets . This was in a lesson change so quite a few people saw me 'cause the corridors get flooded with people on lesson changes.
He's being nice now and said he's sorry and feels guilty ...
EMZ=]

I can safely say you scared the sh*t out of him. Good going girl!   :rofl:

 

[Emor]

Awesome .
EMZ=]

 

[142857]

I don't know if what I do counts as a meltdown. Basically I cease to function, can't think straight, avoid talking to anyone, sit at my desk and draw stupid overly-complex doodles all day. Get home, eat too much, watch TV, sleep too much. Pointlessly going over and over the same things in my mind. I feel like my head is going to explode but 99% of people wouldn't have a clue that anything was wrong.

 

[BruceCM_Aspergic]

If it's supposed to be uncontrollable, lots of the egs don't quite count. If it was uncontrollable, it would make no difference where you were, who else was around. If you can delay or internalise it, that's some control, so it is controllable. I'll have to suppose you mean something else by 'controllable'?