What is it?
Autistic burnout, can be understood as a state of intense mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion experienced by many autistic individuals. It’s not simply stress or depression, but a distinct phenomenon rooted in the unique way autistic brains process and interact with the world, often exacerbated by the constant effort of navigating a neurotypical-centric society.
Perspectives I think can be useful:
- Neurological Underpinnings:
- Sensory Overload: Autistic brains often have heightened sensory sensitivity, meaning they process sensory input (sights, sounds, textures, smells) more intensely than neurotypical brains. Chronic exposure to overwhelming sensory environments without adequate recovery can lead to a buildup of neural fatigue.
- Executive Function Demands: Many autistic individuals experience differences in executive functions, such as planning, organizing, task initiation, and cognitive flexibility. Constantly expending mental energy to manage these challenges, especially in demanding environments, can deplete cognitive resources.
- Social Camouflaging/Masking: Autistic people frequently engage in “masking” or “camouflaging,” which involves consciously or subconsciously suppressing autistic traits and mimicking neurotypical social behaviors to fit in. This is an incredibly energy-intensive process, requiring constant monitoring, interpretation, and performance of social norms that may not be intuitive. The neural energy expended on masking contributes significantly to burnout.
- Allostatic Load: The continuous stress of navigating a world not designed for autistic sensory and social needs, coupled with the effort of masking, leads to a sustained activation of the stress response system. Over time, this chronic stress can result in “allostatic load”—wear and tear on the body and brain from prolonged or repeated exposure to stress, which manifests as burnout.
- Differences in Energy Regulation: There might be intrinsic differences in how autistic brains regulate energy and recover from effort. What might be mildly tiring for a neurotypical person could be profoundly exhausting for an autistic person due to different neural processing pathways.
- Neuroaffirmative Perspective:
- Not a “Disorder” but a Consequence of Mismatch: A neuroaffirmative view reframes burnout not as an inherent flaw or disorder within us, but as an outcome of chronic stress and systemic demands placed upon our autistic neurological systems in a non-autistic world. It highlights the mismatch between autistic ways of being and societal expectations, of who we are and how it doesn’t fit with the dominant social norm.
- Validation of Experience: This perspective validates the experience of burnout as real and significant, rather than dismissing it as a personal failing or lack of resilience. It acknowledges the immense effort involved in daily life for many autistic people.
- Emphasising Environmental and Social Factors: Neuroaffirmative approaches emphasise that burnout is often a consequence of ableist environments, insufficient support, and the pressure to conform. The solution is not always to “fix” the autistic person, but to modify environments, reduce demands, and promote acceptance and accommodation.
- Recognition of the Need for Autistic Space and Processing: It recognises the necessity for autistic individuals to have spaces and opportunities to unmask, stim freely, engage in their special interests, and recover in ways that are inherently comfortable and restorative to their autistic neurology.
In essence, autistic burnout is a profound exhaustion arising from the unique neurological demands and societal pressures experienced by autistic individuals. A neuroaffirmative lens validates this experience and shifts the focus from individual pathology to the complex interaction between autistic neurology and the environment. For me, it is also good to be aware that is so much more than fatigue or tiredness, that it effects us globally, in our our physical, mental, emotional and relational well being.
Here are some recommended practices that may support your recovery process:
Practice boundaries and drop unnecessary demands: Protect your time and energy by saying no to non-essential activities or commitments. It’s important to prioritize your own well-being and not take on too much.
You could explore ‘spoon theory’ which looks at managing available energy and starting to practice only using what we really have capacity for and not pushing beyond this. Reducing task switching where possible can also be useful to consider. I want to acknowledge here that dropping demands can be a privilege, if it’s available thats great, but I know its not available to everyone!
Take breaks: Make sure you’re giving yourself time to relax and recharge. This could mean setting aside time for leisure activities or just taking some short breaks throughout the day. Just lying down can give our bodies a chance to recoup some energy. Just noticing the effort we may be making in the moment, let go of any muscular or other tension, even in as small a thing as how tight you hold your toothbrush! Burn out is physiological not just psychology, your body needs rest to recover!
Find alternative ways to express yourself. Many Autists have alternative ways of expressing emotions. Writing, art, making a collage, writing a poem, dance, movement or finding music that matches your mood are just a few examples of alternative ways of expressing yourself.
Also, if you prefer to communicate in writing or record audios, let people your close to know you might do more if this than tan talking, for a while, if that feels like it releases some pressure.
Don’t let the routine go. In burnout, we may be tempted to let the routine go altogether. However, routines are soothing to our nervous systems because they tell us what to expect. It doesn’t have to be rigorous, but it will be helpful to have a few anchor points during the day. Familiarity is soothing to our nervous system, let yourself have anything familiar that feels soothing, the same movie, TV show, audio books, meals, clothes, etc etc, that you know and love!
Engage in activities that are soothing to your senses: Find gentle and soothing ways to move your body. Seek out your sensory joys!
Spend time in Nature: Nature is particularly restorative for Autistic people. If you have access, take time to go and sit by a lake, the ocean, or a beautiful meadow, or simply listen to nature songs. I find just sitting on my doorstep from where I can see a bug tree is restorative, or looking out my window at the sky.
Practice self-care: Take care of yourself by doing things that nourish and support you. This might mean getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, or practicing relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditation, rapping or any kind of movement that feels soothing or energising, depending on what you need.
Seek support: Don’t be afraid to talk to someone about how you’re feeling. This could be a therapist, counsellor, or someone you trust in the Autistic community.
Create a sensory-supportive environment: Make your living and work spaces as comfortable and supportive as possible. This might mean minimizing sensory triggers, reducing visual clutter, and creating a calm and organized environment.
Use available tools/reduce sensory input: noise cancelling or noise reducing headphones, tinted glasses, blue light filter glasses. Laying a small towel or eye cushion over your eyes while resting. Sometimes pressure with weighted blankets or pressing with your hands can feel useful.
Seek accommodations: If you’re having trouble with school or work, consider seeking accommodations like extra time for tasks or breaks. It can be helpful to work with an advocate or support professional to identify and request accommodations.
Consider big, short and longer term recovery: short term recovery is often looking at the sort of supports mentioned above. Longer term recovery might also include looking at unpacking internalised ableism, better understanding your autistic identity, your needs and preferences, exploring ‘unmasking’, exploring and understanding how you relate and how being in social and relational contact works best for you.
This is a piece of research that looked at autistic burnout and came up with some themes for recovery.
The research in brief:
Raymaker Recovery Supports
The following themes came up in Raymaker’s interviews with Autistic adults. Autistic adults identified the following themes as helpful in their burnout recovery.
Acceptance and Access to Social Support: Accessing individual and community support, peer support, attending to Autistic needs, and time spent unmasking. Advocating for and receiving reasonable accommodations.
Leaning into Autistic Strengths: Drawing on Autistic strengths and special interests.
Formal Supports: Mental health supports, time off, breaks, and the ability to socially withdraw.
Reducing Load: Reducing activities, setting boundaries, and asking for help.
Self-Advocacy and Health: Focusing on a healthy lifestyle, receiving an Autism diagnosis.
Self-Knowledge: Understanding patterns and triggers and making strategic decisions to be preventative.
Engagement with the Autistic Community: Engagement with the Autistic community can help a person name and validate their experience of burnout
Remember, there is no magic wand that’ll get you out of burn out, I wish there was, it often takes a lot of trial and error to find out what supports and changes might allow your body, nervous system and mind to come out of burn out. Creating a sustainable life, one that might be quite different to the one you’ve been living so far, creating a ‘new normal‘ for yourself, is likely to take time and will be different for everyone.
Thank you to Dr Megan Anna Neff for some of the information contained here.