How did you get through a burnout?

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My daughter was diagnosed with ASD after a severe, year-long burnout at age 15. It's been a very bumpy, terrifying ride, but we're learning as we go. On the bright side, we've become closer as a family, I figured out I'm very on the spectrum (I'm reevaluating my whole life), and I feel like I am getting to know my daughter for real now too. Anyway, I saw other threads (very depressing) about how bad burnout was and how many times people hit rock bottom and stayed there. How many of you hit that wall (a true burnout) but also learned how to pull through, obviously with additional bumps because that will happen, but survival and eventually some peace? I don't want to hear every example of what didn't work unless you learned something positive from it.

I hit the wall of true burnout around the mid to end of 2017. I got through my burnout with medication and cognitive behavior therapy. I also joined a group called CoffeeHouse that helps with socializing. It was a hurdle at first cause I had to deal with traffic noise and didn't have headphones that blocked out the noise.
Now that I have headphones that work the burnout has pretty much gone away.

Other things I have done was some self-reflection and unloading some of the extra stuff I was doing that was causing me stress and focusing on things that I want in life.

What different people call burnout could be different from one person to the next.

What I call burnout my Mum called "Some sort of mental breakdown". The only real cure is twofold. One is to quit work, quit college or school... Quite all the responsibilities one can. I quit a well paid job and eventually sold my house for half price just to unload all responsibilities after the first burnout, and I have had a fair few since. Each time I quit work or luckily the last three I had were at the end of temporary jobs so I was close to finishing anyway.

The second thing is to do as much as possible to de-stress and relax. I know this sounds strange, but I find that driving in the countryside relaxes me, so I did this.Difficult to do when one has no income to pay for fuel etc.

I was a mental mess when I had my last few burnouts. I noticed that the first burnout I remember in 2007 was not nice, but I seemed to notice that every burnout since seemed to hit me harder then the one before?
The last burnout hit me so hard that I found walking and driving were effected ans I was glitching between masking and unmasking, which made me feel naked and vuerable so I avoided being in public places where people could look at me. It efdected my ability to cope with going in larger shops as my spacial awareness was effected, and also I panicked when I had to walk through tall narrow isles. Also, because I come across as different, store security guards pick up on this and follow me around stores which makes me panicky where I then act even moee suspicious, so I don't go back. A few stores assume I am a criminal and I am not allowed in despite the fact I have never stolen from them. I could give you a list of stores like Tescos, Morrisons etc. It reached a point when I stopped going in any large stores incase I would end up banned from them and I may need to use them one day as I didn't want to limit my future ability to shop... But there again, I reached the point where I am close to being too stressed to go in any large retail store. So if it wasn't for the smaller shops, I would be stuck (Except with this lockdown I can't handle any queues of more then about two to three people... Even my Mum has to keep to small shops since the lockdown as she can't handle the queue system and she described queueing only to find there is a one way system so she could only get a few things and did jot feel up to queueing again).

Sorry. Was on a tangent.

Something to remember. If it takes six months to feel better from a burnout, leave it a year or more before even trying to resume work or whatever else one was doing (College etc). I fould that the last three burnouts.. I thought I was completely recovered so I tried working again (As I had to go with no income as I couldn't cace signing on and I never knew what to call the burnouts back then and never knew a thing about autism, so I habe huge gaps through many years of no income and no national insurance etc), so if one starts to feel ready to get back to work, one needs more then double that time, because even though the hours were very low with inbetween rest days between each working day (Low hours part time work... Typically 4 to 5 hour shifts), and the work I had over 20 years experience in (More like 25 to 30) so I could do it with my eyes closed (Not quite), I would hit another deeper burnout each time as I was clearly not ready.

So my advice is to take it easy for at least double the time one thinks one needs if that makes sense and is possible.

I was in a position where I was seloing posessions to survive as I knew that I could not go back to work.
After the last burnout I had learned about autism and I had already managed to go on the assessment waiting list which I am still on, and if it wasn't for visiting the autism assessment people on an open day where when I realized they understood me I opened up, and they wrote to my doctor who gave me a sick note, and I had help via a charity to fill in the online form to claim foe benefit as luckily a friend of the family works for Mind (If we disn't have her as a family friend I would not have claimed! As the online claiming form system is too much for me to consider trying to fill in when I habe gone through burnout).
And also, if the staff at the local benefit office were not so understanding and supportive, I would not have continued claiming as after so many months they want to assess you and they declared me fit for work when I knew I was not ready.. So I was going to quit claiming. The staff wanted me to appeal, but I wasn't up to the stress of appealing. If it wasn't foe those staff who took some scrawly hand written notes I had written and copied them (I had written them to remind myself of certain things I wanted to say because I often clam up with mind blank in "Official" interview circumstances e.g. seeing a doctor.. Took me many attempts over 2 years to ask to be assessed foe autism by my doctor due to mind blank).
So I am now on benefits which is a lifesaver for me! I don't think I would have survived too much longer if it wasn't for the help I have had, and I know God arranged for them all to be there at the right time. Those people are such a blessing!

I will say to finish that my doctors hardly know any of the difficulties I have had as I have not been able to open up to them, and I was actually going to try but then this lockdown took place.

I just joined the community, and already it's a great help. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's really eye-opening to know that we should expect double the recovery time from whatever we currently think is reasonable. We'll do that and just take things as slow as possible after that.

I think my "burnout" was relatively mild. I got over it by quitting work (the main source of the trouble IMO) and just doing things at my own pace. I went for a year or two without the energy to do much except stay afloat, but these days I get more done. I'm still not very dynamic, but at my age I guess that's natural. I use small to moderate doses of caffeine to offset the lethargy I always have in the mornings, but no more than 500mg per day, starting with a high dose and tapering it off as the day goes on. For some reason I'm more active when I'm living with my wife. I've also never really slowed down mentally, it's much more a sense of physical exhaustion.