Burnout & Physiological symptoms

I suffer from depression and PTSD (live in abusive environment), so I am use to this problem.

In general, when we experience any type of burnout (autistic or not), it is due to excess amounts of cortisol (stress hormone) which builds up in the brain (hippocampus) causing cell death and downregulation. Humans, with our 'fight or flight' protection mechanism (adrenaline, cortisol, hightened senses and peripheral vision) were evolved to only deal with stressful events in short bursts - to get out of danger, and were also never meant to live in fixed locations, but were a migrating peoples. Therefore, prolonged exposure to traumatic stressors will cause an overload of information, that the brain cannot readily process.

Autistics tend to exhbit greater sensitivity towards environmental stressors, be it visual and/or auditory, therefore all this information becomes taxing on the brain. This is made worse if the individual is also prone to neuroticism and overthinking, so that rather than finding strategies to deal with the situation, they focus on the problem, and not the solution.

So when we say 'burnout', what that really represents is: Information overload, producing elevated cortisol, that shutsdown the brains executive function.

Here are some tips on how to manage burnout, that has helped me.

• Check your vitamin levels with a blood test. I was given a suppliment of 20,000 units of Vitamin D (colecalciferol) for 7 weeks (2 tablets per week) and felt increasingly better - typically when I have burnout I experience 'foggy brain' and think and speak very slowly.
• Realise that the way you feel (mood) is corrolated with your behaviour. Are you working yourself up over an issue? Or finding a solution to deal with it?
• Find hobbies and interests to shift attention away from traumatic triggers. I immediately put on earphones and draw to block out triggers.
• If you can go for a walk or run. This has scientifically shown to stimulate and repair neuron damage and increases dopamine (runners high). If like me you have fatigue problems and weak muscles then take it slow, all that matters is that you are doing something rather than nothing.
• Avoid eating big meals, or foods high in sugar. These all lead to inflammation, which puts stress on the gut, and thusly the brain. I would recommend looking into FODMAP, it's not a diet, but a model for making bettter choices when selecting what to eat for optimal digestion.

It's a bad idea to come off SSRIs suddenly otherwise you get bad side effects. I started taking them 6 weeks ago. I was reluctant to start taking them but in the end I felt I had no choice. They've helped me because they have stopped the feelings snowballing. So now I can concentrate on getting better. I don't know if I've had aspie  burnout,  I'm self diagnosed, but it's sure felt like some sort of burnout. Which has come from not understanding my own feelings and body and just carrying on.

Our brains are not equipped to deal with modern life. We still have cavemen brains. One of the best pieces of advice I've had is to concentrate within your own four walls. Self, house, family.  Everything else comes after this. So I think you have the right mind set.

I was reluctant to take SSRIs but as society has evolved faster than humans can keep up with,  I think some of us need a helping hand in order to function in this day and age.

Ok, following my IAPT session i understood what's wrong with me.... I've burnt out again....because I haven't recovered from the last one(3 years ago). Well, that's ffffffffffed. My symptoms would be...unable to concentrate on my work , weird thoughts, my mind makes up vivid images about me graduating happily instead of letting me work...and tbh I'm starting hibernating, finding myself daydreaming while sitting at the computer rather than actively working on my goal,and my phone seems to tell me I've been walking 10 miles around the sofa daily...when i work on my arch projects I normally enter in a hyperfocus mode where nothing around me exists or makes sense in any way besides my work...this time my brain  refuses to comply with my wish to hyperfocus and get in my work mode trance.....which is not really ideal when I have a hand-in in 2 weeks....I'll ask help from the GP...i'm drained, need a break and need to defer my studies. At the last burnout, I started dissociating, felt absolutely ethereal and the world around me or myself didn't seem to feel real anymore...the world from my brain started taking over the real one. I need a mental and physical break, be4 i breakdown and start to feel again unreal in an unreal world. Mental health, kids, and my DH are in the 1st place, I need to give architecture the second place in my life for my own health. I've been recommended Exposure therapy and SSRI as my burnout shows characteristics of PTSD, I am really reluctant to SSRI especially I've seen yesterday somebody in major panic attacks after their Gp suggested they should come off them, and she did, all of a sudden, not gradually, she thought she's basically dying yesterday. Had anybody experienced any good results with such therapies? I need also to say I have not been officially diagnosed, I am on the 3 years list for it, so IAPT won't consider me aspie unless I'm diagnosed. Is there any fast way of being diagnosed, no matter how pricey? I need to get the right treatment for myself and avoid wrong treatments such as SSRI which I'm not convinced would help me.

Ok, following my IAPT session i understood what's wrong with me.... I've burnt out again....because I haven't recovered from the last one(3 years ago). Well, that's ffffffffffed. My symptoms would be...unable to concentrate on my work , weird thoughts, my mind make up vivid images about me graduating happily instead of let me work for it...and tbh I'm starting hibernating, finding myself daydreaming while sitting at the computer rather than actively working on my goal,and my phone seems to tell me i've been walking 10 miles around the sofa daily...when i work on my arch projects I normally enter in a hyperfocus mode where nothing around me exists or makes sense in any way besides my work...this time my brain  refuses to comply with my wish to hyperfocus and get in my work mode trance.....which is not really ideal when i have a hand-in in 2 weeks....I'll ask help from the GP...i'm drained, need a break and need to defer my studies. At the last severe burnout,i achieved my goal and afterwards i started dissociating, felt absolutely ethereal and the world around me or myself didn't seem to feel real anymore...the world from my head started taking over the real one. I need a mental and physical break, be4 i breakdown and start to feel again unreal in an unreal world. Mental health, kids, and my DH are on the 1st place, i need to give architecture the second place in my life for my own health. I've been recommended Exposure therapy and SSRI as my burnout shows characteristics of PTSD, i am really reluctant to SSRI especially i've seen yesterday somebody in major panick attacks after their Gp suggested they should come off them, and she did, all of a sudden, not gradually,she thought she's basically dying yesterday. Had anybody experienced any results with such therapies?Are there any demonstrated benefits of SSRI on aspie brains?  I need also to say I have not been officially diagnosed, I am on the 3 years list for it, so IAPT won't consider me aspie unless i'm diagnosed, and i don't feel high functioning anymore,but somehow i still mask it as it comes natural to me to do so.Though i feel like having a meltdown in front of my tutor, i'm crawling through trenches of inner war...and smile lovely to everybody.

Yes. I lived on giant bars of chocolate for most of my burnout. I'm a health freak and knew intuitively that what I was eating was good for me, at that time. And blood results proved I was right. I get my sugar from fruit now, but I did have some milk chocoalate for the first time in a long time recently, and it was clearly what I needed and enjoyable. 

After reading that (thank you so much for sharing) I’ve realised I’m probably in a burn out stage right now, and I’ve been completely stressing over the fact that all of my heightened autistic symptoms are showing more because I’m waiting for an assessment, so I’ve been beating myself up “is it psychosomatic” etc because every time I read something that describes it it’s literally me and I’m happy I’ve discovered it and then I’m worried I’m not going to get any help because I mask so well so might not get a diagnosis. I’ve heard horror stories where a kid went into their assessment, looked at the assessor because they made a noise when they walked in, then were immediately judged not autistic because they “made eye contact” even if they didn’t for the rest of the time! All my traits are getting worse and reading that article makes me think I’m actually in burnout as this has happened before to varying degrees, but I didn’t recognise it then as what it was, I thought I was just physically ill 

I took Lone Warriors “sudden changes” comment to be a joke about NTs, which is hilarious because let’s face it, they really don’t like sudden changes - they jump out the window at the thought of “work accommodations” or having to understand something they can’t be bothered to (and don’t even get me started on asking them to use preferred pronouns!)

Does anyone else find that they need a lot of sugar during burnouts, as if the brain needs a lot of glucose to cope 

Ditto to that.

Yeah, I didn’t have a clue what it meant, for a long time, despite people saying I was intense. I couldn’t work out what they meant, even after asking questions. 

But I understand it better now. I only really enjoy talking about my special interests (unless I’m with my friends at my autism group, interestingly)  which are also interesting to some other people as well, but they don’t go into the subject with the same level of focus/intensity that I do and do they actually want to talk about other things as well, but I don’t and they don’t research the hell out of things like I do. 

Former Member

In what ways are you ' intense'? 

I've been described as being intense by others before. 

You know what you want and you know the triggers that drain you so you’re more than half way there. 

I would, however, quit the small talk, it’s not necessary and if people don’t like it, they can simply live with their dislike. It’s surprising how much energy and how much of our brain power this uses. You run the risk of looking a bit weird or standoffish but so what, the gains outweigh the risks and most people won’t think it’s odd at all, they’ll respect your needs and comply. 

With the right support and accommodations made, you will be able to make the best of a non optimum situation which for you, sounds good enough. 

Begin observering yourself, note down the points when your anxiety rises. For example, years ago, my little boy noticed that whenever we went to the supermarket, I would be ok until we got to the freezer section. I just thought that meant I didn’t like frozen food! Lol! I didn’t realise that, that was the breaking point for me or that I found being in the supermarket super stressful, more than how most people feel when they go to the supermarket. I thought everybody hated going to the supermarket and found it as stressful and as confusing as I did! 

Begin to notice how you operate best. For example, I was always one to start a task and keep going until completion. But today I have learned that it’s much less stressful for me if I take frequent breaks when I’m doing something. You don’t have to come up with ideas yet, you can get some help with that, just start observing your energy levels etc and look for connections that you might previously have missed. 

I can see opportunities where you will definitely be able to make life better for you and less tiring. Good luck. 

I work in building with approx 500 people so it inevitable I have to make small talk with dozens of people every day. It is torture!! And my job is quite stressful so have so many burn outs a day it's exhausting. Some days I can get away with having a quiet day at my desk. My boss and colleagues know I am waiting to go for my assessment so are really good at leaving me to it. However we also have days where we take back to back phone calls, which trigger my burnouts because my main problems are noise and people!! So there's no winning!! I don't want to leave my job though I have been there since I was 18 (first proper job of almost 20 years!  Issues with change as well!!)

It’s not so much that I can do this, with my line of work, as much as I’m simply creating my life around my needs. For example, if my first career choice wouldn’t enable me to build my working life around me and my needs, then I would let that go and go for something else. I started from the ground up. For example, I know that social contact either over stimulates me or drains me, whether it’s good or bad contact and my preferred method of communication is via the written word. So I realised that my business needs to be, primarily, via the written word so I do a lot of my consultations and sessions via email, but even this stimulates or drains me so I need to work out, how many hours a day/week/month I can comfortably work without it interfering with my life and work out how much recovery time I need etc and I need to build in clear cut off points so I don’t over work myself. 

I realise I’m in a very privileged position in that the state are paying my rent just now and the benefit money I get helps to cover some of my bills, so I am able to work on rebuilding my life from the ground up without trying to earn an income at the same time. So if I’m lucky at all, it is that I had a complete breakdown/burnout which left me unable to get out of bed for months and definitely unable be able to work. So I’m very grateful that happened as it has been my platform from which to grow my new life. 

You are lucky if you can do that, in my line of work and with my present finances, it is a different kettle of fish. 

I’ll make sure my ongoing passive income streams cover all my basic needs, which isn’t a lot as I live a relatively simple life and income from my other work, which is one to one support, retreats and digital programmes are then a bonus and I’m under no pressure to make money from them. I’m building my business around me which includes periods of time where I am unable (without stress and without causing exhaustion) to do anything and I have time out slots built into my days, weeks and months as a proactive way of managing my time/energy etc 

I do run my own company but it doesn’t prevent burnouts, if anything it contributes to them as there is a minimum amount one needs to bring in each month and that target can be difficult when struggling brain wise

Except I can push myself past what is good, in the same way I can not feel pain properly. Pain just makes me tired and so I don’t recognise it. So yes, I can push myself past the burnout limit without realising. Everyone I’d different, everyone will experience some sort of burnout in their life

Yeah, I gave up on the idea of working for somebody else. I couldn’t do it without burning out and because I am not prepared to burnout ever again, I won’t be working for somebody else. As I told my work coach at the job centre, I would rather eat my food off the floor like an animal and live in the sewers like a rat, than go to work for somebody else, it is simply not in me to be able to do that. The only way I could do that is to have to endure situations that I really find intolerable and I’m not able or willing to put myself through that anymore. 

So once I get me sorted out and after I’ve sorted my house and belongings out, I will be giving my predominant focus to building my means of financial freedom. 

I totally agree. By shutting oneself off from the rest of the world I meant the 99% of the world that are NT. Unfortunately, to have gainful employment usually means having to interact with NTs most of the day, thus opening oneself up to experiencing burnout.