Worst Burnout Ever

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At the moment I am currently having CBT. And yesterday I had my session and I was alright although I did discuss things in my memory that might trigger some of my anxiety episodes.

After the session. I went home and in the afternoon I felt extremely tired so I tried to sleep for a bit and it only helped to a point but by the evening. What I experienced was scary. My flat/apartment is on a main road so there is constant traffic all the time. I am used to the noise of the traffic now. But all of a sudden the traffic seemed to get louder and louder then at the same time everything seemed to get brighter and brighter that my head was hurting.

I went to lay on my bed and as I was laying there I kept rolling around and humming. Took myself back out of bed and tried to watch TV but couldn’t focus. Also my speech I could say words properly. I finally went to bed and slept through.

This morning I feel a lot better although I had a slight depressive episode.

But that was the scariest or one of the most scariest experiences I have had.

Sounds like you had an intense time. You are really lucky. That is a normal episode for me. I get that way every couple of weeks if I am not careful.

When I had my big burnout, it lasted for about three weeks. I also never fully recovered.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience, and glad that you are feeling better now. I've had similar burnouts/shutdowns following the emotional intensity of CBT sessions in the past; they're every bit as bad as the ones caused by sensory or social overload, and have often caught up with me some time after the session has ended. It's not unusual for anyone to feel emotionally drained after a counselling session, but for autistic people there may be this additional danger of it simply overloading us.

I would definitely speak with your counsellor about this the next time that you see them, as it sounds like they might be trying to progress too quickly, and that you need more time to discuss each remembered episode with the counsellor rather than quickly moving on and leaving you with too much on your mind after the session. I have had both "regular" CBT and, following my diagnosis, autism-specific counselling, and I found that having my autistic traits taken into account made a big difference. It can be easy to assume that, once given a new angle to look at a problem from, we can deduce the rest for ourselves; but where my alexithymic traits and social impairments became involved, I found it much more effective to work through each problem in detail with the counsellor rather than having "exercises" to take home with me, which would often just lead to me getting trapped in a loop of ruminating about ambiguities that I couldn't resolve (and so eventually overloading my brain.)

I have found that CBT has been an effective treatment for my mental health problems, but I am convinced that the methods need adapting to suit the traits of autistic patients. I hope that you can work with your counsellor to make the experience more manageable for you.

Feeling flooded by light and sound, or other sensations, suggests that your inhibitory or sensory-gating circuits were not working correctly. I do believe it is probably related to the CBT, but I wouldn't quit doing it. I agree with Trogluddite that you should discuss this with your counselor. Even if you can't find an autism-experienced therapist, possibly showing Trog's post, and telling the therapist some of the autism traits you have and asking for modifications in the CBT, could be all you need to do.

Good luck to you. I hope you are feeling back to normal.

When I called for an appointment a while ago as I was on a waiting list. I had to do a phone assessment I did make extremely clear about ASD so they taken that into concideration which is a good thing.

Yesterday was very intense I have had burnout to a degree before but this was worst I ever had it. I am continuing as it is only 8 sessions in total. As I only work voluntarily and even with that I get to do the days I want to do. So I have made it a plan that on the days I have CBT I go straight home after and rest especially after yesterday. Don’t really like the idea of having a Butnout or even a Meltdown out in public rather it be in the confines of my own home.