Autistic burnout can last for hours, days, weeks, months, and some years. LIfe's chronic agitations and duties aren't always manageable without some level of support from friends, family, and workmates. In instances where none of such people are available, therapy should be considered.
You can recover from burnout by understanding your own personal stress triggers, ways of lowering your stress levels and adapting your life so that your needs are met. Sometimes you might need help to get other people and/ or organisations to make reasonable adjustments for you.
Autistic people in burnout describe feeling exhausted and depleted. As if all of their internal reserves have been used up. These symptoms are not better explained by being physically unwell, malnourished, or having engaged in excessive exercise.
Summary: Autistic Burnout Symptoms
Autistic burnout can look like many things, but most commonly, it shows itself as extreme exhaustion, increased sensory sensitives, loss of executive functioning skills, decreased ability to manage emotions, difficulty adapting to change, and depression.
Autistic traits can amplify the conditions that lead to burnout, and burnout can cause these traits to worsen. They may become unable to speak or care for themselves, and struggle with short-term memory. This harms their ability to perform well at jobs, in school or at home.
Some autistic people experience it as an overwhelming sense of physical exhaustion. They may have more difficulty managing their emotions than usual and be prone to outbursts of sadness or anger. Burnout may manifest as intense anxiety or contribute to depression or suicidal behavior.
Autistic burnout vs autistic shutdown
A meltdown or shutdown is an immediate reaction to stimuli, while burnout is more of an ongoing state.
Many autistic people will show signs of distress before having a meltdown, which is sometimes referred to as the “rumble stage”. They may start to exhibit signs of anxiety such as pacing, seek reassurance through repetitive questioning or physical signs such as rocking or becoming very still.
So far, researchers have learned that periods of autistic burnout can last a long time (weeks, months, or years) and that some people never fully recover.
Autistic burnout is the “intense physical, mental or emotional exhaustion” that many autistic individuals experience at some point. It can often be accompanied by a temporary loss of skills. That means that something the person could do fine before might now be difficult or impossible for them to do.
What does an 'autism meltdown' look like? Some signs that a loved one is having or nearing a meltdown may include: being irritable, which can include shouting or physical aggression. fidgeting or stimming more (repetitive movements or noises)
Since burnout affects people differently, recovery time hinges on how a person experiences work-related exhaustion. Because of this variation, recovery time can take anywhere from a few weeks to several years.
Children with ASD are more likely to be bullied than children without disabilities, and repeated bullying can produce trauma. Other potentially traumatic experiences include neglect and witnessing violence. Symptoms of trauma can include losing sleep or having flashbacks or anxiety about the experience.
While someone with occupational burnout will feel chronically stressed due to the pressures of their work, someone with autistic burnout will feel chronically stressed due to the pressures of living and working in a neurotypical world, life stress and coping with social and sensory stressors.
Meltdowns and shutdowns are extremely common, especially in the autistic and neurodivergent community. Meltdowns are a physical reaction to overstimulation surrounding auditory overload, visual overload, and sensory overload in general. Meltdowns can also occur from the extreme exhaustion that comes from masking.
PHYSICAL ACCOMMODATIONS (STIMULUS MANAGEMENT)
Such accommodations typically include such noise-cancelling headphones, along with more workplace-specific measures like comfortable lighting (i.e., non-fluorescent) and avoidance of strong scents/fragrances.
A few days ago, I woke up with flu-like symptoms: headache, fatigue, muscle aches, and nausea. No, I didn't have Covid. Unfortunately, these symptoms are commonplace for me. They're part of a phenomenon known as Autistic Burnout.
In the autistic brain, the brain reduced connectivity, known as hypoconnectivity, allows weakly connected regions to drift apart, with sulci forming between them.” Research has shown the deeper theses sulcal pits are, the more language production is affected.
Due to the behavioural, information processing and sensory aspects of their diagnosis, many people on the autism spectrum often prefer familiar environments with a predictable routine. Restricted and repetitive interests, sensory processing differences and heightened anxiety can make even small changes stressful.
During a meltdown, we found that most autistics described feeling overwhelmed by information, senses, and social and emotional stress. They often felt extreme emotions, such as anger, sadness, and fear, and had trouble with thinking and memory during the meltdown.
Burnout also enlarges the amygdala, which governs our fight-flight-freeze response and threat perception. The result? We become more “primitive” since the brain circuits for fear, irritability and threat perception are stronger.
Burnout doesn't go away on its own; rather, it will get worse unless you address the underlying issues causing it. If you ignore burnout, it will only cause you further harm down the line, so it's important that you begin recovery as soon as possible.