Just one word - STRESS!
That's what causes them & that's then what they cause.
Currently (Mon 08/06) Anneliese is having a meltdown (she's 5) which has lasted approx 10mins so far, crying, screaming, shouting, kicking, hitting out... Need I go on?!
Continued Fri 15th June:
Now she had a fair few of these episodes but she didn't really have many 'toddler tantrums' so I guess she's just a little behind (well I am hoping really) lol!
Our middle child Hermione doesn't do meltdowns but as she is a budding actress she tends to be a complete drama queen if something sets her off, this in itself too causes problems...
Take last night (14/06) for example: the scenario... Hermione went to the freezer (in the garage) to get choc ices after dinner, she needed to get 2 dark & 2 milk.
Well, she came bck in the house & Cameron ended up with milk instead of dark, she'd only got 1 dark she got upset cause Cameron was shouting how he wanted dark & through the tears, crying, mushed up choc ice we deciphered that on picking a box up all the choc ices had fell out of 1...
Not learning from this, the sake thing happened with the other box so both milk & dark choc ices were muddled in the freezer drawer - so she had no idea which was milk & which was dark!
But drama queen, this was a very dramatic display & she ended up dribbling choc ice & had snail trails from her nose, the choc ice was melting in her hand & well, to us it was comical, which in turn added fuel to the fire causing more hilarity to us (but of course not Hermione).
I had to compose myself & diffuse the situation, to calm her down. But it was funny!
Cameron on the other hand has plenty of meltdowns (due to his ASD) & well they are painful to me in many ways...
Not physically (although have been & potentially still could be) but mentally, emotionally & they're also very draining on me too.
His meltdowns can last anything from 10 minutes (if we're lucky) to an hour or occasionally just over! As he's bigger & stronger than Anneliese these meltdowns are noisey!
His voice is very aggressive, he slams doors, he kicks the wall in his room, shouts, screams, crys, bangs things, throws things - it's all fun!!!
We try to avoid these episodes but sometimes they're unavoidable & the silliest little thing will set him off which then upsets the whole balance of the house, sparks fly & tempers raise all over, as inevitably a meltdown causes delays whether we're about to eat, go to bed, go out etc, etc - they cause more problems,, thus putting me in turmoil inside!
My brain is on overload as I get upset, cross & angry a lot of the time cause its causing hold ups, I then try to understand why the meltdown has happened, I feel upset as I don't always fully understand why things have upset Cameron so much & as I already said this is very draining, cause I feel helpless a lot of the time.
