Extreme exhaustion.

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I had to deal with the same hell in school. So I know how you feel.

Thanks all. I'm going to bed now as olanzapine is kicking in.

School was hell, agreed with you and sorry to hear you went through that as well.

Rest Well! Things will look better in the morn!!

I get really exhausted but I know it's due to the anti-depressants I'm taking. I have a very physical job and it often exhausts me. Sometimes I feel like taking a rest, but I'm so scared there might be a camera hidden in the room and then I'd get fired if I was found sitting down when I'm supposed to be working. I haven't been caught so far, but I work in a care home and I've heard that they might start putting up cameras in all the care homes in the UK because of the abuse that has gone on in some care homes. That is understandable, but also annoying when you feel as exhausted as I do and sometimes need to sit down. The trouble is, being only 24, I don't get any sympathy because people say ''you're only young....'' I can see their point, but really I do feel a weakness go through me and I feel like I want to go to sleep, and I know it is a side effect from anti-depressants. I do drink caffeine but that just makes me even more tired, believe it or not!

I usually look forward to a nap in the afternoon when I come home from work, which is why I hate it when my brother has got a friend or cousin round, because I can hear activity going on, which agitates me, and prevents me from relaxing properly and having a nap. I can't have a nap with earplugs because I go completely out cold and don't wake up 'til another 3 hours, which is way to long to have a nap for, and then I wake up all groggy. I prefer to have a nap with the telly on, because voices on the telly relax me and I only sleep for about half an hour or forty minutes when the telly is on, which is just right because it doesn't affect my body clock, and I get a good night's sleep too.

I need a period of 3 hours to decompress every day. I get tired a lot. Sensory overload. This is normal for Aspies, so we need to protect ourselves by scheduling time outs each day.

I get extreme tiredness during double lectures or 4 hour labs at uni. Sadly there is nowhere I can sleep. Taking regular time outs is wise. I need to do that myself. There is a disability IT room at the uni which I can retreat to.

That long sleep helped (almost 11 hours!)

I've decided that today will be an isolation / neuronal reorganisation day. I have no commitments today so I will sit at home all day reading and playing computer games.

I do worry about when I go back to uni properly in October. My ability to withstand sensory input and pressure has decreased.

Don't listen to them. You do what works best for you. Like I tell people sometimes who try to tell me I NEED to do something, "All I NEED to do is be black and die." The people who are insisting that you NEED to speak nave no clue at all what speaking does to you. They have no frame of reference. Speaking is not like eating, drinking, sleeping or going to the bathroom. If you stop any of those things you will have disastrous consequences. If you stop communicating verbally you might inconvenience your friends. Big difference. If you want to and need to stop speaking and if you want to use ways of communicating that work better for you that is your right and no one else has the right to tell you you can't.

Now having said that, I think it is important for you to speak sometimes, when you have the energy to do it even it is just a little bit when you choose to. The reason is simply that you don't want to actually lose the ability to speak so you want to practice just a tiny bit on a regular basis whenever you are up to it. But other than that go silent.

True. Thanks ^ that makes a lot of sense.

I have emailed my support worker about this too.

Obviously I will speak when absolutely necessary, I do not want my speech centres in my brain to atrophy.

Right now I haven't spoken all day and I am calming down slowly. Soon I will be able to study.

Sorry to hear that you are going through this. It's hard, but you need to tell your friends, at a better time for you, to back off and that they are not helping at all. Explain to them that you need rest after sensory overload and what they are doing is not helping.

I have noticed that well-meaning people often say these dire things like "if you can't do X, then you'll have no life," because they think that is a form of encouragment. In fact, whatever the thing is they are talking about, millions do live without that ability, and cope, so the whole line of argument is just nonsense. Don't worry about them, just be firm with them when you are able and tell them it's not on.

Then focus on ways of reducing the stresses, if possible, when they occur and reducing the impact after the fact. You may have to adjust your schedule to have set times of focused recovery after certain lectures, etc.

This thread brings back memories of why I never got my degree--everything seemed so hard. Based on tests, essays and grades, I managed to get into both New York University and Columbia University, and am about a year's worth of credits shy of graduating, but... I used to hide in the quietest places I could find on campus--a little used area of Bobst Library at NYU and a quiet back are of the Columbia Campus over by the Casa Italiana and International Affairs Building. I thought it was as difficult for everybody, but I was somehow weak and defective...

I used to get into a state when I could hardly speak or think. A childhood friend from England came up to me when I was resting outside the main library one day in a state of sensory overload and having an asthma attack and I could not recognize him and could barely speak. I think he thought I was stoned. Take care of yourself first, then worry about friends, and work with the school disability people to find accommodations that will reduce the stress/overload if you can.

This sounds really good. I am so glad you are resting and calming down. And you can pace your studying too so that you take regular breaks and don't get overwhelmed. There are some things that you just have to put your foot down for no matter what anyone says and this is one of those things. Sometimes I have to do that too. If we are with friends and I don't have the energy to have a social interaction or to speak to them I just tell them, I can't speak to you or be with you right now and I go find a place to reset and relax. Never let anyone make you speak if you are not able to. And there is nothing they can do to make you. It's really easy. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut. They can argue all they want but their arguments will be totally one sided when you don't respond. Once they have figured out that you are just not going to open your mouth and that you are just going to ignore them completely they will have no choice but to back off.

That sounds hard, what you went through. I have a support worker for uni, without her I'd go mad and just stop attending. I'm not surprised you struggled at uni, uni is a SCARY place.

Thanks for the advice. I'll tell them to back off. I've been resting all morning and I'm just about you start easing myself back into studying for the afternoon and evening.

I love learning but uni is taking its toll on me.