Anyone heard of Autistic Fatigue and Burnout?

Post Reply New Topic

Hello, i recently have discovered that some people in the Autism Charity circles are using the term
"Autistic Fatigue" and "Autistic Burnout"

anyone else encountered these terms?...

I don't see "autistic fatigue" used as often, but I've seen "autistic burnout" used more and more. I went through a prolonged burnout a year or so ago, and have been trying to avoid going in one again.

A couple links about "autistic fatigue" and "autistic burnout":
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-gu ... tic-adults
https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/autis ... explained/

Not used in an official sense, although autistic people can suffer fatigue or burnout and they are often used in the community.

Can someone explain what exactly it is? I've heard the term autistic burnout quite a bit but I've never really seen it explained.

Here's an article that helped me understand what "autistic burnout" is when I had first heard about it.

https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/autis ... explained/

Oh wow! So I pretty much experience burn out to some degree everyday. I had no idea that's what was really what is happening. I've always just thought of it as a some sort of sensory overload, but the article you linked puts it into a different perspective for me. Thanks for linking it!

https://boren.blog/2017/01/26/autistic- ... d-passing/

Here's another good article. Burnout is a serious and debilitating reality, usually from years of sensory and social stressors which we've either masked, or been unable to tolerate.

As we age, it's only natural that our nervous system gets tired. One day in an autistic mind is probably more exhausting than months in an NT mind, because we overprocess so much stimuli and we ruminate on stressors far longer than what's healthy. Few of us have the coping skills, self-advocacy, or support network to help us when we're overburdened.

I've been in burnout for several years, and I don't expect it to end. I changed my lifestyle significantly and I don't interact with anyone / anything outside of my home unless absolutely necessary.

I am still recovering from the last one I had in september 2019.
I want to recover but it takes time. I had a few other burnouts before that since 2007.
Each one I hit was worse then the one before. The last one scared me because I almost lost the ability to walk.

I think that the burnout thing likely happens more to us, is that we, as people with ASD,
are less likely to be material achievers and so less likely to escalate up the corporate ladder
and so are less likely to ever improve our material circumstances to the stage where we can
put our feet up and relax and so are more likely to be trapped at the bottom of material ladder,
and forced to endure the stresses that come with the territory.

We are also most likely to not be able to afford extensive luxury holidays to use for respite.
So it is like we are moths trapped in a jar for societies sadistic entertainment.

sorry, i digress. interesting to hear about others experiences.
I believe i suffer from autistic sensory overload / fatigue / burnout on a daily basis.
And which causes periodic burnouts, where i have to stay in and recoup.

Looking back on my life, there is a pattern of behaviour that is the same.
But in the 80s i had no idea what i suffered from, nor did anyone else.

It was only till fairly recent, that they even introduced Living benefits to the people of the island that i live,
despite it being a place that made multi-millions or perhaps even billions on the back of the finance industry.

But there ya go, you know what they say about the wealthy and their money. They didn't get it by giving it away!...

I hadn't heard of "autistic burnout/fatigue" but, clearly, as the NAS says, burnout and fatigue can happen to anyone. At least in pre-pandemic times, it was probably more likely to happen to us, because of all the social stresses and pressures of normal life, that the non-autistic society imposes on us. That said, we are also more able to continue working long after everyone else has become fatigued or lost their concentration and burnt out on a task. Whilst the pandemic and lockdown have been unsettling, for example for children whose routines in going to school have been changed and curtailed at short notice, and perhaps unsettling for longer for autistic children due to the quick change and little notice to be able to plan in advance, I have found that lockdown has been overall has been extremely beneficial to my mental health. A much more peaceful and quieter life, free from many of the interruptions of other people that unsettle and upset everything that I have planned out because I really did know better than they did, whereas they merely (and wrongly) believe they know better. I feel I am now being dragged out of the lockdown at dizzying speed, proposed to end lockdown within a few months, to go back to normal - of course it turns out to be non-autistic people's so-called normality.

In the pandemic, it seems that it has been non-autistic people that have found it hard to cope, with them becoming fatigued with lockdown after just a few eight or nine months and simply lacking the staying power for the easiest lockdown yet, lockdown number 3. I am, it turns out, complete opposite to 'everyone else' as someone else (non-autistic) found lockdown 3 the worst of all. I do not know why people thought the pandemic would be over within a few months, as I was prepared for a full five years of stay-at-home at the very start, at lockdown 2 I was prepared for ten years and now I feel I could easily do 15. Supposedly "everyone" was fatigued and fed up of the pandemic by autumn last year - but I was not.

I have seen non-autistic people's seeming inability to cope (and their constant complaints now of damage to their mental health, suddenly when the boot is now on the other foot, mental health becomes a huge issue whilst they ignored it for over a decade and failed to recognised and then ignored the mental health difficulties that their society and their normal activities caused to me, which lockdown has vastly improved). I have found their seeming inability to cope, as the pandemic and lockdown help put paid to their only obsessive interest - socialising and social contact - bemusing and hilarious to watch (in schadenfraude no doubt), as they now complain of being unable to organise childcare at a moment's notice when the schools suddenly went back - what? why the problem? I thought you were supposed to be able to cope with change - and their non-autistic child's apparent need for a routine (on getting back to school when they are now closed) - suddenly non-autistic people need a routine - it was supposed to be us that can't cope without one - as well their protestations about all the "uncertainty" - well, so what, deal with it - *life* is uncertain and you should be prepared for all plans and any events to be cancelled with little or no notice just like I am in advance and therefore I am able to cope.

Non-autistic people also seem to hold views that have no foundation and to make a large number of incorrect assumptions regularly, things that no-one could ever believe such as the vaccine means they can immediately relax and their need to comfort themselves by emotion in lies, as well as needing meaningless and unnecessary social rituals such as holding hands and hugging that have fundamental and functional meaning to them. I guess my apparent instinctive reaction to holding hands when I was first told to shake someone's hands at infants' school decades ago turns out may have been right all along - I thought it horrible to be shaking someone's clammy hands that would, I suspect my gut feeling about it and something innate in me, was that it would be dirty and could harbour all sorts of viruses and diseases (...it turned out my original instinct was now probably right all along). I've never really liked it, though obviously I would shake hands on meeting, and hugging me is often like hugging a piece of wood.

So we now have non-autistic people unable to cope - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... reaking-up - with them having "pandemic burnout" - a strange concept to me as the more lockdown goes on, the more energised I seem to become (and I don't get bored at the 'same four walls' as I am able to do several specialist interests without interruption and therefore I don't have a moment where there is nothing to do - I have never stopped to watch the walls or watch paint dry (although that might be vaguely interesting, for a few moments)). Now, it turns out, when non-autistic people can't pursue their special interest, socialising, they become upset. So it wasn't just about autistic people but we've seen how they like it, or don't, when the tables are turned and the virus attacks and curtails the fundamental thing in their lives by being the thing with which it spreads. As above article we also see non-autistic people's penchant for breaking rules and their seeming inability to last the course with a pandemic. They need emotional things such as "hope", which I don't need to have or not need to have - I am entirely neutral and objective on the matter - but they apparently needed hope that Christmas would be normal to see them through to it as the only thing they looked to all year (I was terrified at the thought of other people mixing over Christmas as I was in effect forced to go out for medical appointment early in the New Year after the case rates will rise and make it more dangerous in the outside world to do so) - in my schadenfraude, enjoying the disruption that the virus causes when it puts paid to events and forces businesses to close, I enjoy it when their hopes are dashed and as a result it has generally seen me easily through lockdown with my mental health vastly improved.

I've noticed this with the last couple of burnouts I've had. The one I'm going in feels a lot worse than the last one and it's frustrating. It's probably because I didn't really get to recover fully, and have even more social and executive function demands.

Shutdowns are where ones body and mind shut down they can come in partial form where some of ones systems shut down like ones balance and ones ability to do things etc.
Full shutdowns one is on the floor and unable to move and ones vision goes... Ones hearing...Not sure what happens to ones hearing as I get loud tinitus, but when I recover I can clearly hear people talking and know it is in English but not make any sense of it until months afterwards...

Burnout is different. Very high anxiety. Regular shutdowns. Strings of partial shutdowns one after the next after the next. Hardly any sleep at night. When I had a job (The last few burnouts left me quit my job or only able to take on temporary part time low hours jobs when I was able to work... As I did not know anyting about what autism was and did not know it was called burnout, I was unable to go or explain to doctors and not able to sign onto look for work so the recovery times were long periods of having no income, and when I did work I was on very low wages as I could not cope with doing many hours a day... Thankfully the last burnout I knew what it was called and also was able to get help via my local autism team who have been soo helpful. Even though I have not been assessed yet).
During the last burnout I was forgetting obvious things. I was once standing in the middle of a car park and not knowing what to do for a short while as I had forgotten how to walk. I had to manually work it out in my mind how to walk and I remember it coming to me that I had to put one foot forward but it was a bit of a leap of faith as I could not think what comes next. Thankfully though I was a bit like Bambi taking its first few steps, I was able to walk. I had several moments like that during the time I hit burnout.

Hitting burnout is not instant for me. It happens over weeks and builds up and up and up like a repeating cycle of fatigue, anxiety, stress, repeating shutdowns, lack of sleep, racing thoughts, ones mind can start jumping back and fore in time... (Not easy to explain).

I've now found a further article about burnout and fatigue, of the type that people generally (people not on the spectrum) now seem to be suffering when their specialist interest is curtailed and society has had to change so that it doesn't quite fit in with them: https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/covid ... 59219.html

"After months of uncertainty , we finally have a rough plan for lifting lockdown restrictions. It’s a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel for many people [they need a light at the end of a tunnel, something to provide hope for them to look forward to], who can finally work after months of lost income, see family and friends [Oh no, I will be forced to see people I don't really want to see - and I don't have any friends anyway so I am fine with that one] and make plans that don’t involve a Zoom call. [I've still never learned how to use a Zoom call as it is a blindspot of mine, so have been able to live perfectly well away from others or with a quick phone call every three months to keep me sane, and if I had Zoom it would probably be identical to me to being physically present, whilst non-autistics need the physical presence of others and, for them, Zoom calls are not the same.]

Although it’s good news [no it is not - it is bad news], we still have a long way to go before normal life [that is non-autistic's "normal"*] resumes. And for many, life under lockdown has already taken its toll. Psychologists are reporting a rise in “pandemic fatigue” and burnout as many people find the current phase of restrictions harder, with more people feeling exhausted, stressed and unable to cope.

[I have no idea how there could be any fatigue as the restrictions are very easy - you simply stay at home and don't go out! What could be easier than that?]

..."When people experience this kind of unpredictability, uncertainty and the need to apply and adapt to constantly different situations,..." Ah, again. I thought non-autistic people were adept at adapting to constantly different situations, the ability to multi-task. Clearly it now turns out they are not . When the tables turn and all of a sudden it is unpredictable for them, with their social contact reduced (and now getting back to it prioritised by non-autistic politicians that will allow unnecessary things like meeting over coffees that are necessary for them, will probably see the virus spread again, even with vaccines, especially as many people doing so may be younger people many of whom will not be vaccinated yet - but they need this for their mental health as they can't cope with a pandemic and stay the distance indoors to see it down at low levels).

"Whether you’re a home-worker feeling isolated or a parent homeschooling their child, it has been a trying time for everyone." No it hasn't - it has not been a trying time for me (overall), it has been quite easy. They make assumptions that are incorrect - that "everyone" will experience a trying time, based on their own experiences I imagine from a non-autistic perspective. I have never felt isolated or alone during the lockdown. I am isolated and alone. I have never felt isolated or alone. Once again, I am excluded by the term "everyone". It is great being excluded (in other words, not!)!

*Presumably including all the inequalities and injustices that Covid has shone a light onto - why would anyone want to get back to those, unless it is that they benefit from them? Normal life, pre-pandemic, included people having to use foodbanks - non-autistic people want to get back to normal life/normality - clearly, as usual, they haven't thoroughly thought it through! Normal wasn't bad, when you could visit the shops without the risk of catching a virus - I haven't been to one since last March as nothing can be made safe for me, I don't miss them and wouldn't mind either way so it would be alright if "normal" came back but wasn't so rushing me around, pillar to post and stressful. So I have no objection in itself to everything normal. However, I don't want normal, I want normal minus the inequalities and injustices.

Last edited by ScottyD on 26 Feb 2021, 5:45 pm, edited 4 times in total.

That happened to me with the last three burnouts. Because I had to work to pay the next years car insurance and MOT and Tax, and I had no income while recovering, I started a new part time job after only a year or six months when I was not ready (As though I started to recover I was not really ready as when one feels right again, one has to at least double that time before one even thinks about taking on the life one had. When I hit burnout in 2007 it meant I lost a good job and a knock on effect that I lost my house, my classic car and a camper which I loved, and other things that I had to sell for next to nothing compared to how much I had bought them for just to stay afloat so hitting burnout for me was way beyond just physical/mental. It changed the whole direction of my life from success to poverty (Though God has always provided)).

Now what I have read that many call burnout where they have had a stressful day at work and they come home and need the rest of the day to recover and are not able to do much... Well. That normally was part of my daily life! Sometimes I had periods where I was on top of things where I did not find it that way, but other times it was daily until eventually I would have a week off as a holiday where I would just potter around doing not a lot to refresh and recover.
Day outings I do recover with as driving along miles of country roads often relaxes me so that would help.

It is wierd because the tiredness was mental though it does effect the physical, though I did not know what was going on because I could not seperate mental from physical back then....

Sorry. I do not know for sure if what I call burnout is burnout or if it has anything to do wit autism because I have not been assessed yet. Be aware of this. Thanks.