Highly variable functionality

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How do those of you who oscillate from functioning well to not at all manage? How to predict, how to create a life around such variability? I am trying to learn this for myself.

I'm planning to save a lot of money. When I can't function enough to work, I'll live off my savings. I might also look for medications that will temporarily force me to function.

If I wasn't able to work, I'd be in big, big trouble.

how so, kraftiekortie?

I have a decent amount of debt.

Student loan, especially.

This is part of the reason I'm pursuing the path I am around autism and other things - so I can manage if I go into one of these periods of nonfunction without going back to my parents or getting into trouble. I make sure I never get into anything with a contract I can't get out of, especially a contract requiring an income - no car loans, home loans, etc. Then if it happens and I can't work (haven't worked for two years now due to that and other health problems, for example) I don't have the financial pressure. I am also making things workable if I have to go off grid, if I can't afford my rent or deal with flatmates or whatever.
I am also forcing people (myself included) to acknowledge autism more with me, because I know it's when I'm hyper high functioning and pushing way too hard that I break down and lose all my abilities - it's like I switch to "low functioning" and it takes a long time to build back up. To prevent this from happening, I have to be more careful and force others to be careful not to get me into that position. I'm hoping that by staying away fom it, I won't go nonfunctional. This is my version of meltdown/stutdown, so if you get this sort of thing, regulating not getting to the point to trigger it may be helpful.
I believe you have to have an "out" if functioning becomes a problem, and some areas of your life where it's ok to be as autistic as you want and not have to put up the front - maybe living alone, going hiking, maybe with a neurodiverse group, maybe therapy, etc.

I have a similar problem. If I push, push, push my boundaries, I end up not able to do much more than sit on the couch and read (my happy place) for days on end (not hours, days, sometimes weeks). Nothing happens around that if I get there. I have been evaluated for depression and BiPolar disorder because I once thought the fluctuating 'moods' were indicative of the cycling behavior, but a keen therapists recognized the extremely high level of anxiety I had. She explained that the body can only operate at that type of level for so long before it crashes or shuts down. (I have GOT to get that report).

I've not learned a perfect coping mechanism, but I've tried to restructure my life so that I'm not pushing my boundaries, but rather able to see them sitting calmly in the distance. If I approach them more than from a respectful distance, it becomes too easy to cross over them, and then I get burned out. My husband has finally learned what happens if I continue to pursue 'normal' when I have crossed my threshold, and he tends to back me off of whatever is consuming me. But the last two times it happened, I ended up in the ER with migraines (which is my fun reaction to stress overload). The last time sent me through 3 days of hearing, seeing, smelling and feeling everything to a very painful level.

I've learned to allow myself rest times built into my tasks if I know that I'll be doing something stressful. I'm new at this tactic though, so I'm learning slowly. So far, when I do it, it has been working.