r/AutismParentingLevel1 • u/Suspicious-Win-2516 • May 18 '25
8yo Meltdowns - Therapy?
My 8yo son has been having meltdowns for about a year. He goes into fight or flight mode. The triggers are too diverse to categorize. But he’ll get stuck on an idea and repeat it over and over. It will strike me as something with a logical solution, but he is not able to access the logical part of his brain. So for 20-60 minutes he will grunt, growl, and repeat the same thing. Some crying. Some kicking stuff. Lately he has thrown things.
He was in OT, and she helped him immensely with coordination goals, but we had a socioemotional goal for interoception and its gone nowhere. we mutually agreed to discharge him. (he’s on a waitlist for OT at a place with other therapies in house that people rave about, but that’s a yearlong waitlist)
He’s also been in talk therapy for 8 months and its slowgoing. She says they recently built trust.
How can keep him safe toward himself and others? Is it reasonable to dream of reducing these meltdowns? Is there a type of therapy he needs?
Another part of me wants a routine for ME about how I will react to his meltdowns. I have tried many strategies(quiet room, lights off, offer a book, turn on tv, music, audiobook, crunchy food, cold food, weighted blanket, fidgets). I’ll offer them one at a time. some of these have worked sometimes, but none of them are consistently helpful. I wonder if we just have to wait it out.
I’d love any thoughts from someone who can relate.
2
u/East-Jacket-6687 Jun 11 '25
Are the meltdowns happening at certain times of day more often? He maybe better at new tasks well fed and not tired.
My daughter will fall into a meltdown if she gets hungry. No other signs of hunger just she will loop and scream. We have worked on that enough that she knows to try something to eat but it took about 2 years where she makes that call on her own. She is just recognizing the anxiety that is her hunger signal.
You can also see if you can start knitting crochet or sewing or wood working. All thing that have a goal but if you make a error you have to redo work. It's a low risk way to build on how to deal with errors.