Autistic burnout is a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion, or even collapse. It’s brought about by trying to do too much, or endure too much, or cope with too much over an extended period of time. Basically, it’s when the demands on an individual exceed their capacity. Eventually, the reserves of energy and willpower are depleted.

Burnout manifests in different ways from individual to individual. The early stages of burnout often involve:

• Headaches and muscle tension
• Disrupted sleep patterns
• Increased irritability and inability to control emotions
• Feeling overwhelmed, cynical, frustrated
• No longer feeling fulfilled by activities that were previously enjoyable
• Lack of motivation

If left unaddressed, burnout can develop into:

• Loss of skills – the individual is no longer able to do things they could previously
• Lack of self-care
• Loss of language – the individual loses their ability to use spoken words
  More frequent and extreme meltdowns
• An increase in ‘autistic’ characteristics, such as increased stimming and loss of social skills
• Physical collapse

Taking time out to recharge and recover and support to overcome burnout. If managed early, the time taken to do this can be a few days or weeks. If allowed to escalate, it might take months for some individuals.

Many autistics learn to schedule regular down-time each week or fortnight, in which they remove themselves from sources of stress, such as sustained social interaction, sensory overload, or having too many responsibilities, so they can recharge so as to avoid spiralling into burnout.

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