Burnout & Physiological symptoms

Hi,

 Still struggling to understand myself, burnout is something I have struggled with, or at least I think it's that. Happened for me really badly when there was a lot of family drama heavy social stuff going on for me. For me I just ceased to function properly, I didn't know what it was then, or that it was Autism related, I just ceased to function, I couldn't explain to people. I said a lot of things like "I'm just not firing on all cylinders at the moment" or "my batteries have just run out" I would often shake, my hands would frequently go numb, I had chest pains. Though I kept masking this, unsure why, long bad habits probably. Mentally I just couldn't, I could function logically, but not really feel much of anything except exhaustion and the desperate need for a break, I think I probably looked very blank, I kept trying to retreat to get space for myself. My then partner I think decided I didn't care, I told him I was struggling but I don't think he could hear me because I couldn't show it. Just couldn't. I kept moving it was literally life or death for people I cared about so I kept forcing myself on, kept making me worse, I got less and less able to even think of logically I was just exhausted, desperately needed everything to stop for a while. I still can't explain it well but I have found an article that describes things better than I am able:

http://www.theautisticadvocate.com/2018/05/an-autistic-burnout.html?m=1

That really helped me with it, to understand. It didn't stop for me even past that point carried on for several months but I did get through. And I am trying to leanr to try to make sure to take the time when needed and what that means for me. I am sure you can get through too, I am sorry your struggling, I hope things get easier for you in whatever your journey is

I just had a little browse of the article and straight away these words stood out to me ~ ‘Autistic Burnout is an integral part of the life of an Autistic person ....’ ~ this is simply not true and the more this is written, the more autistic people will believe it and simply accept the burnouts as part of life or at the most, they may try to lessen them or their impact. But the truth is, burnout is not an integral part of the life of an autistic person. Yes, we burn out and frequently until finally, we realise that we only burn out when we’re trying to fit in. When we stop trying to fit in we stop burning out because we live and enjoy our lives according to us. So burnouts are only integral to a person’s life if they are trying to force themselves to be somebody they’re not and trying to live in a world that’s not set up for them. 

Burnouts are an intergal part of every human, sonin thst respect I disagree BlueRay. I think the point is that those of us on the spectrum and trying to live normally are more prone to them due to the effort of fitting in.

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

Yes, I think you're right Cassandra, I think we are agreeing, to a point. Like you, my objection to the article and others like it are that there is an underlying assumption that we are somehow 'less than' and in this article in particular, it gives the impression that burnouts are simply a part of the autistic person's life and this is like a mind suggestion and can become poisonous. 

I actually love my burnouts. They're not all fun and games and this one has been particularly disabling but it's also been the most beneficial. To me, they're not really burnouts, the symptoms, that can be described as a burnout are simply as a result of my amazing, truly fabulous, out of this world, intelligent, self healing body, doing its thing to heal

I kind of object to the article for the same reason. It's certainly at risk of making an overgeneralisation with statements like 'Extreme burnout comes fairly regularly during an Autistic's life' when autistic people are so diverse.

You both seem to be agreeing that we are at greater risk of burn out than typicals, and that may be related to trying to live a neurotypical life. Sorry if I'm misrepresenting anyone. It's just that there's disagreement over whether it should be considered 'integral'. Could you say that a human being has an 'integral' risk of illiteracy? Whether that risk is actualised depends on whether or not they receive an education.

I might just object to the word 'burnout' because it's imprecise to me. The article distinguishes two very different types of 'burnout' (and actually just the other day a typical friend described themselves as operating 'in safe mode' as in the article). I think I'd get a clearer impression from older expressions like 'stress', 'overwork', 'depression', 'fatigue' and so on.

So, physical symptoms? Fatigue is a physical symptom itself. I find lack of sleep and consequently a headache usually accompanies it, and that is my usual state of being. Slowness is sometimes seen as a physical symptom. Intermittent poor digestion (or IBS or colitis) is often sometimes seen as psychosomatic. I personally would relate 'extreme burnout' as mentioned in the article to being depressed, and there for me, 'somatisation' of emotions is important, Other people have different experiences, but for me depression is 'somatised' as a pain in the heart, or lungs, or head or throat.

Handi-andis says that burnouts are an integral part of every human being, meaning, they can’t be avoided, they’re part of life. He said this because I said, that burnouts are not an integral part of me. And they’re not. If I push myself beyond my capacity, because my body is a self healing mechanism, one of the things it does is to shut down certain parts of the body, or cause pain or something to get my attention. But the pain and the shut downs are only a symptom of the healing process. They’re not a ‘thing’ but certain symptoms can be group together and for ease of communication, they can be called something, such as a burn out. If you know yourself and you’re true to yourself, you won’t ever burn out because you won’t push yourself beyond your capacity because that would be self harm, and when you know yourself and accept yourself, you won’t harm yourself so you won’t burn out. So yeah, just as you said, follow your heart. However, (I’m learning!!), I realise that not everybody thinks like me and if Handi-andis believes that burnouts are an integral part of life, then they will be, for him. Because as Henry Ford said, if you think you can you can, and if you think you can’t you can’t, either way you’ll be right. 

Handi-andis says that burnouts are an integral part of every human being, meaning, they can’t be avoided, they’re part of life. He said this because I said, that burnouts are not an integral part of me. And they’re not. If I push myself beyond my capacity, because my body is a self healing mechanism, one of the things it does is to shut down certain parts of the body, or cause pain or something to get my attention. But the pain and the shut downs are only a symptom of the healing process. They’re not a ‘thing’ but certain symptoms can be group together and for ease of communication, they can be called something, such as a burn out. If you know yourself and you’re true to yourself, you won’t ever burn out because you won’t push yourself beyond your capacity because that would be self harm, and when you know yourself and accept yourself, you won’t harm yourself so you won’t burn out. So yeah, just as you said, follow your heart. However, (I’m learning!!), I realise that not everybody thinks like me and if Handi-andis believes that burnouts are an integral part of life, then they will be, for him. Because as Henry Ford said, if you think you can you can, and if you think you can’t you can’t, either way you’ll be right. 

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

Yes, I think you're right Cassandra, I think we are agreeing, to a point. Like you, my objection to the article and others like it are that there is an underlying assumption that we are somehow 'less than' and in this article in particular, it gives the impression that burnouts are simply a part of the autistic person's life and this is like a mind suggestion and can become poisonous. 

I actually love my burnouts. They're not all fun and games and this one has been particularly disabling but it's also been the most beneficial. To me, they're not really burnouts, the symptoms, that can be described as a burnout are simply as a result of my amazing, truly fabulous, out of this world, intelligent, self healing body, doing its thing to heal

I kind of object to the article for the same reason. It's certainly at risk of making an overgeneralisation with statements like 'Extreme burnout comes fairly regularly during an Autistic's life' when autistic people are so diverse.

You both seem to be agreeing that we are at greater risk of burn out than typicals, and that may be related to trying to live a neurotypical life. Sorry if I'm misrepresenting anyone. It's just that there's disagreement over whether it should be considered 'integral'. Could you say that a human being has an 'integral' risk of illiteracy? Whether that risk is actualised depends on whether or not they receive an education.

I might just object to the word 'burnout' because it's imprecise to me. The article distinguishes two very different types of 'burnout' (and actually just the other day a typical friend described themselves as operating 'in safe mode' as in the article). I think I'd get a clearer impression from older expressions like 'stress', 'overwork', 'depression', 'fatigue' and so on.

So, physical symptoms? Fatigue is a physical symptom itself. I find lack of sleep and consequently a headache usually accompanies it, and that is my usual state of being. Slowness is sometimes seen as a physical symptom. Intermittent poor digestion (or IBS or colitis) is often sometimes seen as psychosomatic. I personally would relate 'extreme burnout' as mentioned in the article to being depressed, and there for me, 'somatisation' of emotions is important, Other people have different experiences, but for me depression is 'somatised' as a pain in the heart, or lungs, or head or throat.