"Burnout" is definitely a broad term. If you're on the spectrum, you likely recognize this term, but it's often a term pretty much everyone uses, especially in the workplace. But for neurodivergent people, it's a whole different experience, which a whole lot of people who aren't neurodivergent don't truly understand, and the impact it can have on one's health.
The term "burnout" is used quite a lot. It can be due to workplace stress or simply a creative block from working too hard. This is the most common term for burnout used by most people these days. People that are on the spectrum (specifically autistic) often use this term, but the meaning of this term doesn't translate one-to-one with how most neurotypical people see it. Despite both of those states having a negative impact on someone's mental health, they are indeed not the same and differ quite greatly from one another.
Autistic burnout "Specifically" often refers to an autistic person in a state of mental burnout, which easily can be noted as a similar state of ordinary fatigue, but they are not the same. This often happens due to the sensory factors of someone being constantly pushed beyond their limits either every couple of days or every single day, which is a common scenario we often face due to the loud and even unpredictable nature of our environment, making burnout extremely common in most circumstances.
The feeling—to describe it in a nutshell from someone who is autistic and has had ongoing autistic burnout lingering for over a year or two now—is definitely a feeling of your mind shutting down mentally to the point where your energy reserves are completely and utterly exhausted, and simply doing basic tasks such as talking to people, doing chores, or even engaging in activities that you often enjoy in your life are not only more draining but far less enjoyable due to this state.
Recovery can last weeks on top of weeks, or in extreme and persistent cases of environments constantly not respecting the neurodivergent person's needs, it can last for years. The length of how long it persists for is extremely variable and often depends on how far the person's needs are being neglected for and how intense they are. A few examples might be..
The intensity and the amount of times this ends up happening either on a daily or weekly basis can push your tolerance of said noises lower and lower despite how immensely draining it is in the first place, which makes burnout almost inevitable in environments where little to no support is granted, and most people who aren't on the spectrum are aware of how extreme of an impact this can be and why it's important to take it seriously.
Autistic burnout is not the same as being depressed, though the state of burnout could very well lead to it, as it's simply an immense feeling of being mentally exhausted to the point where you can hardly do anything, or anything at all. A few symptoms or signs that you may be feeling burnout as well could be
There are ways to potentially avoid stepping into 'burnout' territory if the uncomfortable scenario you often face are required to face on your end and are unavoidable otherwise, which is simply resting. But again, if your also on the spectrum like I am, you are probably fully aware that while rest moments and days off can help, for the majority of people, they likely don't cut it at all and ends up probably having very little upside towards recovery, which leads to recovering from autistic burnout being an absolute hurdle for pretty much most people who do have it!
We often have to at least talk to someone or even smile throughout our day-to-day job in order to get certain things done, which bit by bit increases the time it takes to recover, making "rest periods" throughout the day and those occurring at home barely make a dent towards feeling better, making the state feel like an absolute nightmare to recover from completely! This is why when you are in a state of burnout, the majority of the time, your energy simply feels like a car that has crashed and, despite tinkering with it, is unable to start and work properly until maybe you take some serious time to get it repaired. Even so, if the damage is severe enough, it may not be a swift recovery.
The term "Spoon theory" is a term basically describing how individuals with chronic illiness often end up facing challenges in their day-to-day lives due to their condition, which eats up at their energy levels quite a bit more than the average person does, which leads to their mental energy depletion quite rapidly if a task is mentally straining to them because of their condition (Such as for example, on their leg or hip). This term often uses the concept of "spoons" being how much energy you have to take on the day before stepping into the territory of possible burnout. (For example if you assume a normal person without chronic injuries has 10 spoons on starting a normal day, you can assume the person with chronic conditions that makes life challenging for them has 5 or 6 spoons starting out)
Overall, this can mean that the depletion of mental energy or "spoons" in this case is a lot higher than for someone who isn't neurodivergent or have chronic injuries they have to deal with it.
If you're a neurodivergent person and are in a scenario either at home or at work where your needs, sensory-wise are constantly not being respected, either intentionally or not, burnout is often an inevitable path if dealt with long enough. There are things that you can do that could minimize the strain on your mental health and energy reserves. Such as
As you can see, despite there being a few tools out there that can help us, not many of them can be very effective, and we unfortunately cannot expect every single person we come across to respect these simple sensory needs, so we often have to go out of our way ourselves to help manage towards at least a better or semi-better comfortable experience. In fact, I am feeling this exact feeling of burnout just as I'm writing this post for you. This is exactly why I’m building Spoons — an autism-first energy tracker that makes our energy patterns visible, so we can understand and plan around them. It’s not about fixing or curing, let alone making assumptions about how WE feel, but about finally having a tool that reflects our reality.
Thanks for reading! <3
