Burnout

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Hi! I have been extremely burnt out the past year and it's not getting any better. I ended uo in a psychiatric hospital for 3 months in march because of this. Does anyone know how to get out of this? How do people live well with autism? I need help.

If what happened to me was burnout, my only way to cope was to get rid of all possible responsibilities that I could.

I'd also like to know how people live well with autism.

I agree with mountain goat. The only thing that has helped me has been taking many steps backward and simplifying my life so i could slowly, very, very slowly build myself back up. I know this is not easy or at times even possible, but you have to find ways of being kind to yourself. Self compassion is the key to being healthy. If I cannot manage to do all the things I believe I should, then perhaps I can have enough self care to give myself a break and stop judging myself by the NT rules.

Some people on the spectrum thrive and others don't. Some allistic thrive while others don't as well, though being on the spectrum will add to the stresses that life can send.

I believe that be one on the spectum or not, when one hits burnoutnor breakdown one needs to look after oneself. To be honest, if it hits hard one is forced to!

One thing I did not do because I really didn't know how to go about it as I did not know what I was going through and how to explain it is to seek help. You already know it is burnout so you can say that in asking for help.

One needs constructive help in that when one is going through it or recovering from it, the very last thing one wants is to see more people, but if there is a benefits system, one really needs it during times like these.
When I look back on my life, about 80% of the time when I have been on benefits (In the past where I have been "Looking for work but not looking"), it has come after some sort if crash and I needed that window of time for me to recover before I am ready to tackle a job again. I was never able to explain this as I did not really know myself except that I knew I was not ready for work. It is hard to explain to anyone who has not experienced a mental burnout or a breakdown of sorts and one has had to quit ones job etc., but not be able to put it into words to explain why so one lies to give an explination because one has no words to explain, as one really does not know what was going on when it happens, unless one has found out about autism or one has managed to convince a doctor one is going through something that one can't explain.

Now I am in my late 40's and have discovered that I am not alone in this and that the mental is connected to the physical etc, etc, and that by asking others, I have learned about myself, that I can now try to explain to others. It really is not easy to put it into words so in the past I didn't. I couldn't. I wanted to but I couldn't.

So you are already a giant step ahead in knowing what it is that you are going through.

Now that you know it is time to give yourself some damage limitation.

If you have un-neccesary appointments cancel them. If you are able (And one may need to see ones doctor for this) being on sick is needed, or at the very least cancel all overtime if one is in work, and ask to work part time if you can. Anything to limit your committments until you have recovered.

In the past I quit a very good well paid job and sold my house to rid myself of mortgage and other bills after hitting a burnout. I had to. I had to survive. My mental health is worth far more than my posessions. I lost a lot. My pension. My income. My classic car. My camper. My house. My job. My career. My future as it was back then.
But I survived.

I survived.

I honestly would not have survived had I not given it all up.

I’ve felt the same way since August. In asking God what could be wrong I’ve seen the term burnout and autistic burnout come up frequently so I looked it up and it’s got my name written all over it. I’ve been obsessing over a cartoon character and angels the whole time too. But I’ve been failing my hygienes, stopped brushing my teeth, stopped reading my Bible, struggle with addiction especially when mourning or upset. I’m even backsliding in religion BIG time. I’ve been loosing trust in others a lot including God. I’ve stopped doing art on a regular basis and stopped working at the cafepress website and stopped working on my comic temporarily (not permanently) since I’ve got so much on my plate right now. It’s even difficult to take care of my guinea pig right now. I’m not very enthusiastic about trying to make myself have good days, I only focus on “making it through” my anxiety and depression as well as OCD and intrusive thoughts are through the roof and I can’t stop obsessing over this cartoon character which takes up a majority of my focus and I’m extremely empathetic for her. I need the same stuff as the OP here as well

yes, this worked for me too. I stopped trying to live up to the expectations of others and found new simple ways to do the things of every day living, found new ways to do the things the most important to me, and to heck with what other people wanted of me, asked or demanded of me. I learned how to say not, how to get rid of the things that were the worst for me or hardest and substituted things that worked well. It will take a lot of time to sort it out if you are used to living on other's terms and focusing on what others think you "should" do and "should" be like. Best wishes.

Thank you guys so much for the responses! I am really grateful and will try to take some of your advices

I hope you are doing ok. You will recover.

Have felt the same for the past seven since my mum passed from pancreatic-area cancer (today is the anniversary). A good bit of it is depression and anxiety as the common co-morbidities but to a heightened degree than I ever had prior. Did well at uni (commuter student. I lasted all of one night in the dorm) in a career field that is now all but dead, fell off the proverbial cliff after grad, and have never had a job beyond some tutoring 4 hours a week for an ASD teen (father is a friend of a friend) for a few years until the pandemic & he graduated. Starting or completing anything is a monumental endeavor. I can barely stand to leave the house for basic needs.

There was a graphic posted on the Michael McCreary Funny You Don’t Look Autistic FB page a while back about autistic burnout. I’ll try to upload here (edit: nope), but the gist is that few outside of the autistic community really recognize it as a Thing. And it’s like if people don’t even know about, recognize, or believe it how are we to get help and understanding?

I think you may just need a change of environment for a while (or completely) and try and create a structure. Also you may need to try get some counselling.

Not sure if this helps.

The key is structure, since some of us work well with structure.