On Burnout - Article

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I hope it gets some likes. It amazes me that the psychiatric community is relatively silent on burnout, and I think that silence is somehow not accidental. They get paid by drug companies per prescription for prescribing things like SSRIs for depression, so perhaps that is part of the reason. Or perhaps I am too cynical about their self-interest being greater than "first do no harm".

Burnout affects the soul, in my view anyway, and I see the soul as the very core of the deepest being of a person, not in the religious sense. Very few psychiatrists have ever considered the soul worthy of any attention at all, only the surface "symptoms". There are some notable exceptions, like James Hillman, and to a lesser extent, M Scott Peck, who wrote the very important book "People of the Lie".

Good on you SF. You are braver than me.

If I were on fb I would give it a like.

I agree that a burnout takes you to a very broken down place. In a strange way it reminds me of breaking down soldiers and reprogramming them. I went into my burnout feeling shame about my differences and after learning about AS and how my brain works I decided that I wanted to change that belief. I decided that the way I behave is how I’m supposed to behave and there is nothing to be ashamed of. I think in a state of burnout you can make these changes in yourself faster than at other times.

Last weekend I visited my mom and some old friends and the old me would have been absolutely exhausted just from dealing with the airport and flight. Now that I’m not trying to hide my slowness in responding to people and not trying to pretend that I want to interact with strangers like NTs do I got through the weekend and was just a bit tired. I was also a lot more decisive about my needs instead of just going along with what other people want. I decided I wouldn’t be awkward about how I behave or respond and if the person I was interacting with wanted to be awkward about it that was their problem. I came out of the whole experience much happier than I normally would.

I think the burnout has forced me to take better care of myself too. I used to ignore my anxiety and sensory issues until I imploded and now I let them build in me and take steps to deal with it as it’s happening. I got really overstimulated at one point in my trip and used someone’s suggestion of doing math in my head to calm myself. It totally worked for me. Math as a safe place, things most NTs will never understand.