Burnout

Sometimes, after a stressful situation that caused sensory overload or meltdown, it causes my mind and my body to stop working. So much so that it causes me to experience a little thing called Autistic Burnout.
Autistic Burnout(or also known as Regression) is something that is often misunderstood and again, it’s actually a very important topic that needs to be covered so that people can truly understand the effects it has on people on the Spectrum, including myself. I say this all of the time, not everyone on the Spectrum is the same so not everyone experiences Autistic Burnout. I experience it very mildly on a regular day but it comes in full blast after an event that caused me to go into sensory overload and/or have a meltdown..
So allow me to explain what Autistic Burnout is. Autistic Burnout can happen at any time in a person’s life. Doesn’t matter the age. Most of the time, it occurs during times of major transition in a person’s life such as puberty because the person is experiencing major changes and one of the traits a person with ASD can have is to actually hate change. Stress can also be a main trigger.
When it comes to Burnout in children, the child can often loose some of their vocabulary. Other children experiencing Burnout might resort to communicating using physical gestures because in some situations, it can cause a person to go non-verbal even if they are verbal. Children might also stop responding to their name if it’s called or looking at people’s faces.
Adults going through Autistic Burnout may be able to communicate their experiences in a way that children aren’t able to.
Some of the symptoms of Autistic Burnout in adults are:
1. They may become sensitive to lights, sounds, scratchy clothing etc (similar to sensory overload).
2. Exhaustion, both physical and emotional. This can stop people going through Autistic Burnout from taking part in tasks that require self-care. Even just hopping in the shower or taking care of your face can be a struggle and unfortunately, this is a struggle I tend to experience when I’m going through it.
3. Difficulty in making decisions. This is a trait that some people on the Spectrum experience regardless of whether or not they’re going through Autistic Burnout or not.
4. Speech issues such as forgetting words or just not having the physical ability to speak at all. For me, it’s forgetting what I’m about to say mid-sentence or trailing off but again, it can be different for everyone. I also go non-verbal in very severe situations.
5. Reduced social skills and displaying more of the stereotypical autistic body language and speech patterns that pretty much everyone knows.
6. Memory issues such as memory loss (For me, I experience a lot of short-term memory loss).

There can be many causes for Autistic Burnout. It could be that the person going through it is experiencing a huge change or transition in their life or they’ve been pushing and overworking themselves. I think I’ve mentioned stimming in previous blogs. To put it in a nutshell, some people on the Spectrum use stimming as a coping mechanism. But unfortunately, for some people, their form of stimming might not be enough to help them. Burnout can be a really scary thing to experience and it can be a scary thing for the people around you to experience you going through it as well but, as hard as it can be, it does pass.
I am no stranger to Burnout. I’ve been experiencing it since I was younger. However, I never knew what it was until recently. My first experience with Burnout that I actually remember was when I was around six or seven. Now, you must know that I’ve never been good at maths. It’s something I always struggled with. I remember when we were doing maths one day in class, we were learning how to carry the number in addition and it just wasn’t making sense to me. It took me the entire class to figure out and by the time I got home and got my homework done, I just wanted to lie down all day and watch TV. That was my earliest memory.
In secondary school, the pressure of exams often got the best of me and it would cause me to get Burnout. Especially during the Junior Cert and Leaving Cert as I was being put under unnecessary pressure by teachers to do well in my exams WHILE I’m trying to plan the unforeseeable future. Other things happened during my final year of secondary school that caused me to shut down completely too but they were the main things.
When I was in college, I used to get Burnout if I was under too much pressure with assignments or if I had to do a presentation that was going for a high mark. Luckily, that wasn’t often and more recently, I get it from masking and putting too much effort into socializing.
It’s like this, we all work our body to the bone at some point. We’re all going to get tired and some of us are more tired than others. You don’t know what a person is going through or what they’ve had to go through, so if you have a family member or friend on the Spectrum that needs to take a rest, let them. Don’t chastise them. They can’t help it.
And to those of you that are experiencing Burnout at the moment or have experienced it before, just remember, it passes. Take some time alone, have that nap you were thinking about having, whatever it takes to get you back to being your normal happy self, do it! Don’t worry about what anyone else has to say.