Low moods and confusion at the end of every day

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I'm not sure why this happens without fail every evening, but I find myself feeling anxious and upset. I wonder if it's because I get so absorbed in all the stuff I have to do during the day that when I have to stop to preserve energy for tomorrow, I get a drop in my mood or something? Maybe it's because of my problems in coping with change, and probably also my complete lacking of a sense of time, along with not knowing when to stop with activities and interests.

My anxiety is at the lowest it's ever been overall, but I seem to have this happen regularly at the end of every day. Maybe I just feel like I have all these things I need or want to get done and I don't understand how much time each should take or even feel time pass as I go through the day, resulting in feeling a bit messed up in the evenings? I'm not sure I'm making sense but I wonder if anyone here gets what I'm saying and whether you've dealt with something similar? I'm making great progress with my life since starting occupational therapy and I hope this can be dealt with too...

Hi

I get this too, I find that its like I spend my days with my game face on because I have to socialize and remember everything that I need to do in order to do this, and then at the end of day, I am knackered and burnt out and then the depression comes, as I wonder how long I can do this for. Partly though, I find that at least it comes at night where after a while I can sleep through it, rather than have it all day every day.

At the moment, I dont have a solution. But good luck and if you want to pm me then you are more than welcome!

I believe this is common.

Where as during the day you're busy doing things that keep your brain occupied on other things, at the end of the day is when you get to reflect on what has happened during the day, or on your life as a whole - so you may well get overly anxious about things such as your life in general if anything is upsetting you, or on what has occurred during the day if there was anything that didn't quite go according to plan. It may be that you've got burn-out to a degree, you've spent all day trying to function as an NT and socialising, so at the end of the day you may feel exhausted and emotionally raw, which may be contributing to the problem too. It may help you to write down anything that comes to mind during this time, putting it down on paper or on your computer screen may get it out of your head and may help you look at things in a way that allows you to address certain issues causing your anxiety.

It may be that you're suffering Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or something similar - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder
This is generally to do with a feeling of depression during the winter months, however it can effect people all year round at night because of the darkness. I would hazard a guess that this may be more common in people with AS/ASD because of sensory issues, we're more prone to depression and we're especially prone to delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) and other circadian rhythm disorders as a result of our lowered melatonin levels and general sleeping problems.

I mention SAD specifically because what you describe is similar to what I experience going into the winter months, as soon as evening hits my mood suddenly takes a nose-dive and my anxiety acts-up - it does only effect me going into winter months, but I have met people who get symptoms like all year round.

Double post.

I wonder if emotional exhaustion is related to or causing it. Is it possible that it is taking so much energy to get through the day because lights, noises, people, etc are exhausting to be around and you might physically be awake but emotionally be exhausted.

Can you give yourself some time alone in a quiet area in the middle of the day? Maybe you can get some rest.

Even if it is not from being so tired from the effects of the day, if you took a break to assess if you are anxious in the middle of the day (and not just not feeling it from being busy), you could deal with it if you are, and then have more energy to get through the day.

Just some things that help me at times. I'm not saying it will help you at all.

I hope things get better for you.

I wonder about SAD, the weather here has become much more summery all of a sudden so night time is suddenly way darker than daytime and that could be dropping my mood. I also do feel the need for more sleep lately which could indicate exhaustion and the low moods could be miniature meltdowns, so I could just be overdoing it during the day. And then the stuff I think about... It usually includes stuff I didn't get done and beating myself up over it even though I know I'm a bit limited in what I can get done in a day compared to most people around me, so I should be more forgiving - but I guess I just keep getting confused all the time about when to stop and take breaks... and also I get too easily absorbed into things so if I stop to have a break I'll get absorbed in fun relaxing activities and the break will turn into a whole chunk of my day being taken over, whereas I react badly to pulling myself out of a short break and getting back into the stuff I need to do.

So I suppose it's a combination... I'm having trouble with this balancing act, and probably also reacting too much to the greater contrast between day and night...