Autistic burnout question

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Has anyone ever done a study on what happens to an autistic brain while burning out?

I ask because I have been burning out for too long. While I am still recovering. I thought it would be helpful if I understood more about what actually happens while you are in autistic burnout.

I don’t know but at a guess it will be high dopamine levels due to ongoing stress from being in a prolonged high anxiety situation.

I have a journaling space that I go to when I get burnt out. I listed all the things that help such as eating sweets, listening to rain soundtracks etc.

The older I get, the more confident I get, and I find it easier to calm down quickly. I basically do not have meltdowns anymore. I have lots of clarity in my… older age. It’s great.

Jane Mantzalas is doing her PHD thesis on "Characterising Autistic Burnout and its Underlying Mechanisms" , not sure if it's been published yet. You can read her other publications HERE but it might not be exactly what you are looking for. Burnout is under researched

I don't know however I think it's not unlike neurotypical burnout in that there is no timeline where you should be feeling better, everyone's situation is unique and unfortunately it's also a reality that some people might not ever recover to quite what they were before. As time goes by, you always get older too which affects energy levels and the recovery process can naturally slow down if you've had burnout before or if you are still struggling with stress management or have co-morbidities that affect your health.

All I can say that helps is to keep stress to as close to zero as possible. The more someone tries to do and be "normal" the longer it takes to recover. I think it is similar to if you ever had the flu with a fever. It will take as long as it takes, and you can be sure that if you try to hurry and do too many things before you are healed, you will usually end up feeling sicker and having to take even more days to rest and recover. All I can advise anyone from my own experiences is to try to be patient and clear your calendar as much as you possibly can, even some fun things might have to go for a bit.

I am personally currently in burnout, 2 years in, and slowly getting a bit better but I expect it might still take another year. I've had burnout once or twice before but this is the longest I've had to recover. It isn't really surprising though, because I was more stressed than ever and had frequent huge meltdowns and lots of bullying and other personal problems and life changes all at the same time. (Could also be affected by having covid).

If your symptoms last for a long while it's good to go get a check-in at the doctor's though, just to rule out it's not related to something else. Long-form exhaustion can also be from stuff like heart or glandular issues, anemia or other deficiencies (common with restrictive eating that is common with AS people).

Hope you feel better soon

What I learned from my OT is that the limbic system which is responsible for memories, emotions, motivation, learning, and self-preservation, gets overtaxed from years of sensory-social overwhelm and trauma. The limbic system is part of the autonomic nervous system and that regulates our stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which in turn control our heart rate and preparedness for battle (the will to live).

When we're in that state of hyper-vigilance for a long time either through self-monitoring, anxiety, rumination, or masking, and demand exceeds capacity, our stress hormones become dysfunctional. We become hypo- or sometimes hypersensitive to stimuli because it's so exhausting to process. That fatigue can affect everything from sleep to hunger, thirst, sexual arousal, and the ability to self-soothe, because our nervous system is connected to every cell in our bodies (all five senses plus digestion, respiration, blood pressure, and cognition or mood). We become more agitated and more tired, causing a vicious circle effect.

Most of us end up exhausted and we avoid sensory-social stimuli as a means of self-preservation. Then we feel vulnerable because our bodies know they aren't safe when we aren't hyper-vigilant.

That's why we feel like we can't or shouldn't go on.

I actually suffered a clinical nervous breakdown about 20 years ago. My adrenal system collapsed from chronic stress / exhaustion, causing me to faint. I was hospitalised because it caused my heart to stop, and nearly killed me. I needed treatment with an Endocrinologist to regulate my cortisol and other stress hormones.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/a ... 7-cortisol

Do you have an OT?

So much of that makes sense in the link. Not sure what to do as I am trying to avoid all things medical as they stress me... But many things slot into place from that link.

Have had several to the point where for several years on and off I have hardly or not been able to work or do anything much while in recovery, and each time I had thought I was recovered and tried working again (Low hours part time work as no way could I do any more without quickly crashing) I would soon end up in another burnout/breakdown and I noticed that each event hit me noticably harder than the one before, and as the common thing was "You are not trying hard enough", "Ignore it and it will go away" etc etc by those who have not been through it trying to offer advice and thinking that by offering more work or trying to pressurize me into doing things for them as to them "Getting back to doing as much as I can is the answer" caused me far more harm than good and even now, I hit anxiety when others are doing things around me and I am not? I am on "Edge" constantly because I am not able to have days where I can relax and recover as I know they try and help, but it is because no one understands and therefore pushes their pre-concieved ideas that I am being "Rusty" and need to try to force myself back into physical shape. (I have been trying to force myself on ad off for years which has resulted in major burnouts, as if I slacked off like others would naturally do when they did too much then I would have saved myself from mentally crashing out and breaking down, but because I kept pushing and pushing myself I ended up in a mess which took ages and ages and ages to recover from).
Recovery: Destress with everything. I have tried to give away or let go of at silly prices most of what I own that is of value in the past because it was on my mind that it may deteriate because I could not attend to it, and the knowing that I had it and could not keep it nice if it needed anything doing to it brought me stress, so I let go of house for half its value, campervan bought secondhand for £3000 and sold for a few hundred, Classic 1965 car bought for £3000 which its value was going up and up sold for £600 and within a year was worth £8000... Sold it cheap because I was pestered into selling it because I had no "Fight in me mentally to say no" (Same as house sold for half its value etc)...
Let go of good job after first known burnout but may have had a kinda burnout in a job before.

One goes from being successful to poor due to these burnout events, but wealth is not important. Ones health is so my advice is to offload all one can. Anything that causes stress.

I had burnout last week I think. I don't call it autistic burnout though because I read in a magazine aimed at NT women that burnout is common.

I had to go home from work and just go to bed because I felt mentally exhausted from life. I think I was just exhausted of worrying and worrying, that I had to phone the doctor. She ordered me to avoid watching or reading any current news, whether it's fake or not, but I don't think it's really helped that much as sometimes I can't always avoid stumbling across news.

I don't mean to correct you, it could be burnout if I misunderstand, but from burnout you probably wouldn't get better in a week, so I would suggest that word for it might be something else, like meltdown? Burnout usually takes a year to several years to recover from, from mild burnout takes at least 3months to a year. It's not really an event like a meltdown, where you can bounce back, burnout is just accumulation from years of stress (years of meltdowns). To me it almost feels like I'm missing an organ, just so deeply exhausted. It's hard to explain, but if you're not sure if you're burned out then you probably are not because it's an impenetrable wall you can't miss when you hit it.

Don't mean to sound condesending meltdowns are just horrible too. The worst part about burnout is you get them a lot easier and each one makes it more likely to get a new one so you have to be real careful to try to keep peace and find back to that positive mind.

Last edited by Trachea on 31 Aug 2022, 4:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

I did mention to avoid the news. It does make a difference.

We have not watched TV for a few weeks as I chucked an old style TV which hardly worked. Forgot it was used to reset the satalite system we use to amplify the TV signal so we can get the normal freeview as freeview takes signal from the dish I believe and amplifies it so we have been without TV but have watced DVD's instead and have not really missed it.

Last edited by Mountain Goat on 31 Aug 2022, 5:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

No you're not condescending. I wasn't too sure what burnout meant. It might have been a mixture of PMT, seasonal depression, insomnia and anxiety of current events all mixed into one that made me feel like I was heading towards a nervous breakdown. I had to take a couple of days off work, I just couldn't get through the days. I needed to rest up.

It's been 20 years since my adrenal breakdown.
Unfortunately I had young kids then, as a single parent.
I couldn't stop working or stop being extremely busy.
I didn't give my body time to heal.

Then my violent trauma experience occurred (7 years).
That added CPTSD to the mix.

I've been in full-time autistic burnout for ten years now.
I left work and went on Long Term Disability for Trauma.
As soon as I left work I had a major stroke from stress.
I haven't had to work or do anything but rest since then.
I retired in June and I won't ever work again.

These ten years of self-care have barely made a dent in my fatigue.
I still feel as tired and "burnt out" as the day I left work.

I'm not trying to scare anyone about the dangers of burnout.
It's a real thing though, and it can be debilitating.

Thanks for the replies. I will look at the links when I can. Some of what I already checked out real quick looks interesting. My head is still a bit slow today. But I am doing better than I have all month.

I am still recovering after losing my abilities in early 2019, to just over a month ago. I was only diagnosed with autism nearly 8 years ago. I never fully understood what autistic burnout was until I had lost my abilities for over a year. You can read about the problems that come with being autistic, but not fully understand what they mean until you go through it hard enough to figure them out. Just like an autistic, to learn things the hard way!

This last loss of ability was due to an extreme heatwave we had in my area early this month. Not due to other mental stress. The summer will be on it's way out soon. So I don't expect that to happen again this summer. As long as I can keep my stress levels down. I believe I will fully recover.

I found a great workout called Qi gong. It is a moving meditation practice. The meditation helps to calm you, the movement helps me to keep from becoming bored. It has helped my breathing as well (asthma).

Yes, it is very debilitating. My senses and sensory processing issues got so bad that I couldn't tell how hot my food was, kept burning my mouth back in 2020. Water didn't feel right anymore. I couldn't take a shower, only quick baths, because the water didn't feel the way it should have. It was scary as hell. Even after I found out that I was suffering from autistic burnout. It has taken about two years to recover to a point where I can sleep. The most extreme feelings are gone now. But I still struggle with little things. I believe that things will keep getting better, since I have felt myself recovering for 2 years now. But if I don't do so fully. I will just have to adjust my life to a new normal I guess.

Take care. Autistic burnout that lasts years is crazy debilitating.

Glad you are doing better.