Published on 12, July, 2020
Good evening.
m
My recently ex partner has not so long ago been diagnosed with autism.
Fairly soon afterwards, she went into what for me can best be described as a total shut down of the life she knew, and in part started to do other / different things to her norm.
She pretty much shut down on communication with myself, had no interest in our relationship, and had pretty much no signs of compassion or care for her world around her.
I’m aware that the news of being told autism is what she has (rather than what has been 20+ years of living as if she was solely a rapid cycle bipolar sufferer) been a shock to the core of her system and beliefs.
With this all being new to me and my ex partner, I don’t have a great understanding of how autism affects someone.
It has been suggested my now ex partner could of experienced an autistic burnout.
If so, what is that like for her? Is there anyone on here that might be able to explain at all?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance.
Ian
Hi Ian, one thing that came to mind is that it can be very helpful to use some signs / hand gestures to communicate instead of trying to engage in conversation. Just smiling and waving can make a huge difference, I think. In my experience, sensory strain is very strange and can be felt in the body, often leading to muscle tension. It can also become harder to hear and speak, to the point of going non-verbal for a while, and hand gestures can become very useful to interact without relying on language processing. Noise-cancelling headphones, earplugs and hearing aids that dampen background noise can also help.