Aspergers and Burnout

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Ojani:

Thank you for your posts. I'm too emotional to deal with the second one right now, but I can work on the first.

BTW, I made it all the way to my planned early retirement from corporate law at age 50 (well, with the aid of anti-depressants). I was not diagnosed with Asperger's until this May, at age 63. I'm wondering whether anyone knows of any "PTSD" type treatment for burnout.

Very relevant topic and I recognise a great deal of the experiences written about.

I was in the burnout phase a month ago and, after talking with a close friend, took my own advice to go off sick for a week. Although this didn't "cure" anything I knew I had booked 2 weeks leave 4 days after I went back so had another period to recuperate and rest.

During this time I spoke with my wife very honestly and she is supportive of my decision to start planning to take my NHS pension in 3 years when I am 60. This will allow me to do odd-jobs initially (possibly in partnership with the close friend above) but I am now actively planning what else I could do just to keep me fed.

What I want to do is spend far more time experiencing the natural and shamanic world that I glimpse around me; the thing that gives me joy and meaning.

I refuse to die bitter that I may have "missed" something...

Burnout can involve high levels of stress and some experiences can "imprint" leading to PTSD-type symptoms.
I have used NLP and Human Givens Therapy "Rewind" techniques successfully

GarTog

Thanks, I will look those up.

Any other successful strategies? Recently diagnosed because burnout has brought forth my hfa tendancies that I was able to hide easier in my past even though I never thought of myself as hfa. I get it now as I have played the chameleon role thinking that was normal all along. Now I am struggling as the chameleon facade is on shaky ground and I feel lost in space when it cones to what is real emotion vs what I have learned to be expected responses. Thus things are falling apart.

Any thoughts?

i guess this post i wrote the other day is relevant:

viewtopic.php?t=327610&start=15#p7265137

Although I am undiagnosed, I have an Aspie son which gives me a 1 in 3 chance of being HFA/Aspie myself. Many adults seem to have slipped through the net. I achieved much until what is described as burnout hit me. There followed a period of decline and poor executive function decisions which in hindsite seem ludicrous. The ruthless and unempathetic nature of NT's becomes very apparent when you have burnout from dealing with them. I now wonder if my own father was on the spectrum since he was remote but brilliantly creative in writing whilst suffering from depression, disliked his teaching job enough to give it up to become a truck driver. (Note the impulsiveness). Relationships for me have been a nightmare. I have also found that learning by copying has been good while the inability to copy has caused me some problems career wise. I get enmeshed in following my interests and studying topics to find answers. I worked in the NHS and found some great people in my dept. I now wonder if some were also on the spectrum.

I have had burnout in hobbies and once in a job. As a new tournament chess player I (deserveably) started out with a low rating (used to compare players, and "seed" them in tournaments). If I did well, great, but if I didn't, so what? As I got better, losses still hurt but winning was not as much of a high. Frequently I played because it was "expected/required" of me. Finally, while waiting for the next to last round of a one day tournanent to finish (a last round win would have meant a share of 2nd) I was extremely uptight. Finally I got the thought, "Chess is a recreation and you are not enjoying yourself. Why are you here?" I dropped out, sold or gave away most of my chess books, and cut way back on how much I played.

Another hobby was similar: irritants bothered me more and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as when I started. Adios.