Autistic Burnout

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I would like to know if any of you have experienced autistic burnout. I experienced it almost 1 1/2 years ago and still haven't been able to work. I have helped my wife with her business, but it's been pretty much on my schedule. In my previous manufacturing job (which I held for 13 years) all I could do at the end of the day was come home and stare at the floor for hours. My father fell ill and I was off work for several weeks. When it was time for me to return to work, I couldn't and made the decision to quit. I'm afraid that I have nothing left to re-enter the workforce.

Never experienced it myself but all I can say for now is don't let the barrage of rhetoric against people like you from governments and media outlets get you down.

I have burnout or some related anxiety, stress and/or depression-related crisis every year on average. Every 2-3 years I have a more serious problem that leads to some fairly self-destructive behaviour and commonly leads to resignation and looking for a new job. I am fortunate in that I have a very genial disposition that seems to score well in interview situations so I don't have too much trouble finding employment.

I am now tired of the continual crackups so I am actively working on the causes. Part of that process was formal ASD/Aspergers diagnosis in recent times. Another part of that process (which is really a voluntary acceleration of a process that was occurring previously despite my own ignorance/denialism) is the disposal of a number of life goals and aspirations that are totally inappropriate for me. I had collected a number of aspirations on the basis of what society appeared to want from me i.e the goals were merely accessories of the neuro-typical camouflage that I had assembled over the years.

Dumping all of the inappropriate goals and aspiration and realising my true pathway/s has been a huge freeing of my soul.

I'm not sure if this qualifies.

I've rarely had a job that lasted very long. I was with one employer 8 years, but we got along well (big plus), it was a very casual environment, and while I wanted something better, the economic reality of a lack of jobs in general kept me focused on not moving on without something to move on to.

I'm now doing something I hate. I plan to quit, but no matter how stressed I get, I keep reminding myself that I prefer to NOT be unemployed. It dawned on me that the last so-called "good job" I had that I didn't like, 6-7 months was my breaking point before I wanted out.

Overall, the longest I ever had a job was around 2 years before the one job that ran 8 years. Unless I love what I'm doing, I seem to burn out fast.

i too have been in the same job for 13 years... (well 13 in august...) i'm starting to feel it because they keep putting me on the FRONT LINES...meaning, the front desk/receptionist. every day i just come home and sit in my room most of the night. my family can't seem to understand that i need the shelter of my room. and it's been taking too long for the ASD resources to kick in and get me into a more suitable position.

Any time I have a job I get to feeling trapped and start staring out the window wishing I was free to go wherever I please. The last time I got hired somewhere I started feeling that way just before they let me go. I only lasted 2 weeks. I was behaving oddly, I don't know if I secretly wanted to get fired or I was just stressed about the new position. I knew they had a meeting about me, I'm not that stupid, and they cut me loose the next day. That's the last time I had a job at that was 2004. I had my son and was a stay at home mom not too long after that. Now, I've been out of the workforce so long I can't even get called for an interview. I went back to college but I still won't have any job history to put on my resume when I graduate. I'm hoping I can work from home because I really don't want to be trapped in an office again. You have to be too social for too long.

I'm in the midst of it right now, or something similar to it at any rate. I'm pursuing the career of my dreams and yet lately (due to a lot of stressors in my personal life as well as work/school-related stuff) I've been extremely stressed out, tired, and irritable. I've also been acting a lot more autistic (not actually diagnosed yet, but it's the best term I can use to describe my behavior) to the point where others have begun to notice. It's unfortunate because I really enjoy what I'm doing and don't want to mess it up, but it seems like I'm headed straight down the road to getting myself in trouble.

As far as getting it under control, I've started counseling and am in the process of getting an official diagnosis. I've also realized that trying to push myself to get things done that I'm getting behind on is futile and will only cause me to become even more stressed, so I've allowed myself to slow down a little bit. I also have a very supportive adviser, who I am very grateful for, who knows a bit about my current predicament and has been very willing to work with me and help cover for me somewhat.

I just finished an accelerated environmental Science class. I probably am burned out; it's been a day and a half since I finished my last test and I still have not had energy to get out of bed. I still do my usual rituals and routines, but most of the day I just rest and sleep. Last night i had to knock myself out with 1 mg melatonin because we lost half our power. It took the utility company until 3 am to completely restore power to the building. Now i have to recover. I have 4 medical appointments, including my regular groups, next week, and 1 appointment with my supported education specialist. I forgot to mention my RCIA as well. So i have a full week coming up and I don't even have energy to get out of bed right now.

Burned out a long time ago

I burned out more than once at university but somehow made it out without quitting. It was very hard.

The worst instance was later when I burned out for a year. The end of that was a highly dark episode where I just completely lost it...like every moment felt "fight or die." It was most unpleasant and it was a generalized state.

I evolved from that, but in a certain sense I feel like I've never truly recovered. I've always felt a bit more "broken" after going through it. I'm much more prone to dark, intrusive thoughts. It's harder to feel relaxed in general. My threshold for stress is lower and I freak out with less stimulus than before.

I've been going through this for the past 4 years, and it's only in the last 6 months that I seem to be getting some of my frmer level of functionality back. Looking back, I think I had a similar experience in my teenage years--but then thete was no diagnosis and no concept of an autism spectrum, so no one could understand how I went from being a prodigy to being barely functional, seemingly overnight.

Not sure to be honest. Are autistic burn outs temporary?

I have no idea if I am dealing with depression or anxiety or a burnout. But then I get over it and am back to "normal" again.