The Aspie Teacher

Source ~ My Autistic Soul

Autistic Burnout : A Guide

What is Autisic Burnout?

When an autistic person is in burnout, it means that they are experiencing extreme mental, physical, and/or sensory exhaustion.

This exhaustion can stem from a variety of places, especially from masking, and can lead to an even larger variety of symptoms.

It can last a few hours or several years

It can be the result of a slow build-up or it can hit suddenly

The effects of burnout (especially loss of skills) are more likely to be permanent if the burnout has lasted several years

It is more common in adolescents and adults

It is different than neurotypical burnout and regular depression

It affects every area of your life

It requires more time to recover

What Causes Autistic Burnout?

Masking

Too high of expectations

Lack of support

High intensity interactions (concert, party)

Prolonged interaction (school, work)

Sensory overload

Suppressing autistic traits

Operating beyond capacity

Not being able to recover from or cope with stress at the beginning signs

Change

What are the Signs of Autistic Burnout?

Anxiety

Increased shutdowns or meltdowns

Depression

Suicidal ideation

Little to no motivation

Loss of interest

Loss of basic skills

Exhaustion

Increased executive dysfunction

Difficulties with memory, communicating or sleep

Easily triggered/overstimulated

Headaches/migraines

You may seem "more autistic"

Difficulties in making decisions

Low attention span

How to Prevent/Cope with Autistics Burnout

Accommodations (in work, school, and everyday life)

Say no

Find community (on social media or in person)

Take breaks (often)

Let autistic traits breathe

Get rid of expectations

Therapy (especially for prolonged burnout)

Leave, even if it seems rude

Engage in simple self-care

Learn to manage energy

Stim

Ask for help

Rest

Set boundaries

Put yourself first

Identify your triggers

Autistic burnout is largely fueled by having to navigate a world that was not made for us. And so, burnout is nearly inevitable for autistics.

Burnout is exhausting, overwhelming and scary. It is something a lot of is deal with on a daily basis without even realising what it is. It has become our normal way of existing.

Recovering from, preventing, and coping with burnout is not a quick and easy fix. It is a lifetime process of taking care of and being gentle with ourselves. Which is hard, my dudes, not gonna lie.

EIGHTEEN MILLION DOLLARS!!! For something that doesn't improve the lives of autistic people, and never will!!!

Their current genetic research problem is called "MSSNG." Pronounced "missing."

Uh. I'm sure this doesn't have a deeply ableist meaning linked to the pervasive idea that autistic kids have been "stolen" from their parents and need to be cured. Yeah.

Even the research that has anything whatfuckingsoever to do with actual autistic people who are alive is bullshit:

From an article about trauma and its intersection with autism...

1 (one) (O N E) out of 456 (four hundred fifty six) intervention articles focused on "mental health and well-being" as a goal.

"Promotion of normal development" "reduction of rigidity" "elimination of nonspecific maladaptive behaviors" "alleviation of family distress" found to be the most common goals in clinical treatment plans for addressing autism.

6. ADHD/autistic person tried to imitate Correct Social Cue but didn't quite do it Correctly, and now the person they were interacting with thinks they were being dismissive and condescending instead of the reluctant-but-accepting they were trying for.

7. ADHD/autistic person couldn't spare the brainpower to identify their emotional state until they burst into tears for no discernable reason. They didn't even feel the need to cry and still don't, but their body won't stop. This results in the other person becoming convinced the ADHD/autistic person is trying to guilt-trip them, which in turn guilt-trips the ADHD/autistic person for not being able to stop crying on demand.

8. ADHD/autistic person physically couldn't stop themself from internalizing a vaguely-negative comment, and then couldn't focus on anything but the comment. When the others nearby try to regain their attention, they likely won't be able to without losing patience, which makes everybody's moods worse once the ADHD/autistic person can see them.

I have each students pretend they got hurt and need a band-aid. Children love band-aids. I ask the first one where they are hurt. If he says his finger, I put the band-aid on his finger. Then I ask the second one where they are hurt. No matter what that child says, I put the band-aid on their finger exactly like the first child. I keep doing that through the whole class. No matter where they say their pretend injury is, I do the same thing I did with the first one.

After they all have band-aids in the same spot, I ask if that actually helped any of them other than the first child. I say, “Well, I helped all of you the same! You all have one band-aid!” And they’ll try to get me to understand that they were hurt somewhere else. I act like I’m just now understanding it. Then I explain, “There might be moments this year where some of you get different things because you need them differently, just like you needed a band-aid in a different spot.” 

who were more interested in special interests/hyperfixations than grade school subjects. who, at best, worked for a reward or punishment or liked seeing friends at school.

ADHD is living in a constant state of sleep deprivation as we try to fit our lives around a 9-5 work/school schedule not designed for us as our circadian rhythm kicks in much, much later than neurotypical peoples, making us natural night owls.

ADHD privilege is forever feeling overwhelmed and like you’re never achieving anything, because unlike neurotypicals, you don’t get a hit of dopamine for doing simple tasks like folding laundry or remembering to take care of yourself. You’re not bad, lazy or worthless. You’re literally not getting enough dopamine fo your brain to work.

ADHD privilege is having our meds be extremely hard to get because neurotypical people who don’t need the same chemical brain support as we do abuse them the shit out of them then claim they’re bad. And no, reliance on a medication that helps you is not addiction, you are not weak or failing because you need meds. Also side note: addiction is a mental illness and it’d be super swell if people could stop demonizing it and using it as justication to deny people help!!!

These can include things like reward systems or using timers, like I mentioned in the notes of this post. Or you can look at books like:  Driven to Distraction by Dr. Edward Hallowell,   Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD by Susan Pinsky, which I have found to be immensely helpful. Another firmly loved book by the ADHD community is You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?! by Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo. At present, I am currently reading René Brooks (fabulous ADHD advocate on Twitter, highly recommend following them) collection of books and workbooks that she has for sale on her website. The ‘Clean up the Trash’ bundle is great cause it has a really in depth look at how to clean your home (and stay on top of things) from the perspective of someone who has ADHD, as well as offering a second book on how to deal with toxic people, and how they affect people with ADHD, and how to deal with them. I’m about halfway through, but the cleaning house advice is by itself, worth it for me as I use it and Pinsky’s method to cobble together a working system that also accommodates my physical disabilities. 

The ADDitude website (x) also has frequently helpful articles and resources on what you can do to better help yourself. Even if you don’t have ADHD, a lot of the things we do help executive dysfunction, which overlaps a lot of other mental health disorders.

If you do want to seek out a diagnosis on your own, you can take a look at this self report test, and us it to approach a therapist or psychologist, letting them know what your concerns are, and what you need help with. ADHD specialists do exist, although many of them aim their focus toward children/teens. Adult ADHD specialists are becoming a thing, but very slowly. (Most of them are also therapists with ADHD, who are realizing how traumatic and harmful it can be going through life thinking you’re lazy, stupid and crazy) The ADDitude website has some resources for that also. I find a lot of helpful things on that website tbh.

Echolalia, monotone voices, stuttered speech, slurred speech, labored breathing between words and sentences, mechanical AAC voices,  AAC or sign users who consider those to be their voices, selectively mute voices, disorganized speech, speech with vocal tics, speech considered to be of “inappropriate volume”, speech with vocal stims, all disabled voices and the ways they present

1. I would initially think "what the fuck" and be distracted from the anxiety. (Correct.)

2. The cold of the ice would shock my system, bringing me back to the physical world and reality, drawing my focus to the cold in my mouth, and keep my brain away from thinking "I'm panicking, I must be dying." (Correct.)

When you go into fight or flight mode, non-crucial body functions stop working so you have more energy to do what you need to do to survive (oooor to spiral into a panic attack). By forcing yourself to make saliva it helps calm you down because since fight or flight is an all or nothing response, they can’t happen at the same time.

Anxiety is an emotional thing BUT there are feedback systems in place in your body that pay attention to physical states as well, which is why you then experience raised heart rate and so on when anxious. Eliminate or confuse one feedback system? Reduce anxiety.

Like, I don’t think it comes from a place of malice. I’d even go as far as to guess that there are some autistic writers behind it, who just really want to impart to people (especially kids/teens) that they should really give autistic people a chance. Especially when there’s evidence to say that the most helpful thing you can do for autistic people is educate the people around them, not try to teach the autistic person neurotypical social skills.

But, like, it’s incredibly jarring as an autistic person to be put into the framing of the neurotypical protagonist, while the narrative essentially says “yes, it’s totally understandable that you find this person annoying and frustrating” for the first part of the arc.

I wouldn’t mind as much if we had more representation that didn’t do this, but it’s how the majority of narratives on TV/in film about autistic people work.

Or the autistic person was just so oblivious that they didn’t realise people were being mean, which means that no one was actually hurt by any of it!

I don’t use the household TV, so I only watch the occasional things online in the background while I work.

So, right now, I am watching one weekly show (Stargirl) and the last thing I watched before that was the final season of She-Ra on Netflix.

Here are some of the things I do:

I hate washing my hands with soaps, but just force myself to when necessary. Prior to the pandemic I’d mostly rinse my hands rather than use soap and I never used sanitiser, but now I will wash my hands properly even if I dislike doing so.

I only wash my hands when necessary. If I’m at home, and I know that the area cannot have been contaminated, I would just rinse my hands rather than wash them outside of my shower.

I also try to avoid needing to wash/rinse my hands. I try not to touch things that might be sticky, or dirty, or use something as a barrier to handle them. 

I sniff everything first, and try to use products that I enjoy the smell of (few and far between but when I find them I’ll stick with them). If I have to use a soap I dislike the smell of, I’ll use a minimal amount of soap, and rinse a lot to get rid of as much of the smell as possible. I’ve used shower gel or shampoo to wash my hands if the smell is preferable to the soap before. Obviously this might not be practical under the current circumstances.

I try to keep busy if I have to use sanitiser. I’ll use the minimal amount, then find ways to distract myself until the ‘icky’ feeling passes.

I dislike the feeling on my hands, but if you are okay with it, the sensory input might help combat the feeling of the soap if you use a flannel or sponge to scrub your hands. There are also apparently products you can buy, like scrubbers that have inbuilt bars of soap, so you don’t have to touch the actual soap.