Newly diagnosed, wondering about burnout.

My personal experiences with autistic burnout have involved me being put in an environment where I felt like I had to mask my struggles to the extent that the struggle is too much for me. When it got to that stage, it resulted in burnout where I completed just shutdown and couldn't go to school for some months until I recovered. Autistic burnout is basically autistic shutdown but after a long period of time of struggling and masking.

My original diagnosis was by a friend who has asperger's. & he recommended me to take the online test.

Neurotypical isn't the name I'd call them. "The enemy that must be over come" maybe, not teh term Neurotypical was invented elsewhere.

If you are an autist and you hold down a job, you is a "professional Autist" in my book!

And if Sashas's behaviour is any indication of family genetics, then maybe not all the tests are created by NT's... 

Sorry if I ruffled your feathers by referring to the concept of "Bhuddism Solves All" but it is a textbook example of advice given from a good heart which clearly won't suit the majority of the  Audience. I'm sorry it was yours, but the forceful ness of it's delivery and what appeared to be your passionate defence of it as the best of ways, made it come to mind. There was a lot of deleting and editing going on at one point, which makes it impossible for me to go back and check whether my opinion as I formed it at the time, was correct.

I happen to feel that if we all lived proper Christian lives modelled on the exemplar provided by Jesus Christ and recorded as accurately as we are going to get in the gospels (Unless the aliens cough up the video of the crucifixion they are rumoured to have shown eisenhower, in on particularly fun E.T. C.T. I read once) we'd all be a heck of a lot happier and "better adjusted". - but I also know it takes a fair while of trying to live a Christian life, before you get good enough at it for the benefits to be obvious, which will make my message unhelpful to the way many people live these days, so that isn't the first advice I'd give, or approach I'd suggest to dealing with a specific problem. 

So I tend to try and give the short sharp solutions that I know will give near instant relief, and do not require the audience to completely redefine their way of life, or even read a book befoe they can implement it..

Not that I think my approach is better for everyone, but it is a different approach to yours,and the stuff I do WORKS & a lot of it has had many decades of refinement and experimentation behind it, which gives me cause to think it is worth sharing. I personally like short simple solutions to complex problems.  

Knowing that my approach is likely to appear oppositional to your own, and seeing the tension develop on the Bhuddism thread, I attempted to "friend you" and tried to make it clear that I hoped we'd be able to discuss our differences more in private than spend ages composing snippy replies (which really ain't good for the karma, even I know that!). 

You chose to both not reply, and shortly afterwards in a post on the "Autism son arrested by police thread that was later edited out, but of which I have retained a copy) to incite another member to submit an abuse report against me after one of my less complimentary reviews of police service delivery, from my own and not anecdotal experience.

aidie

the police, implement the law decided by the people all around you.

English Society creates the Laws and employs  the English police to implement them not me. I live in a different country.

Trying to victimise me and JamesHS is the wrong approach and against the rules of this forum.

JameHS comments where helpful, clear,  and knowledgeable and he has every right to make them without victimisation

JameHS please feel free to use More > report as abusive. 

That  "do not victimise me" statement alongside of inciting others to take action against a perceived aggressor, is a little unnerving to be frank, (and not a good psychological indicator, at least in the sort of books I've read whilst trying to sort my own problems out, using the DIY approach I favour) and I am now considering whether extending the hand of friendship was a very naiive act on my part... 

I've never been accused of abuse on a forum before, and I am glad the admin did not find me guilty of it, but did NOT enjoy the seven full days of waiting to find out, thank you whoever submitted it against me and at least one other member of that thread. I am glad that all our postings stand to show that all of the public is not completely fooled by the propaganda. Some of us have horrific stories of abuse to be told, and it's good that the early attempt to silence us did not hold. 

I offered you a private channel to air any grievances you might have rather than try and be an "internet nemesis" to me. To be honest, I've done the "Internet nemesis" game an awful lot, when it has been forced on me on alternative physics type forums, where there are an awful lot of aggressive types, and it's really not as much fun for the Audience as the "players" think. And the effort that the players waste in generating and focusing on the negative side of the experience, you NEVER GET BACK. 

And there will be someone reading this screed right now, who will form a firm opinion that I (or you) are an idiot, and when we DO post a really helpful and useful post that THEY could benefit from, it may well get ignored, because they've seen us writing and acting poorly.

I'm fairly happy to leave the forum if we really can't co-exist in a pleasant and friendly manner whilst holding very different opinions, because I really don't need to come here and have my posts pecked at, be defamed (I'm not "abusive" by any stretch of the imagination, so that's probably the actual legal definition of defaming someone) or in fact, have that "personal injury dance" at all. 

It's not what I came here to do.

I came here to help as many people cope with the condition I have recently discovered I have, by sharing as many of the "protocols" (for want of a better word that have.served me very well, when I was fighting an invisible albatross. Stuff that has taken me decades to figure out, if passed on could save some of these people some really horrible experiences I reckoned. I try to keep it light hearted and inject a bit of humour or even obvious absurdity into my posts, because, otherwise this could all just be excessively serious. 

Lastly, but of the greatest importance, we are all being taught to accept ideological intolerance as normal. We are all being full time programmed  to "Reject Fake News" which really means "Do NOT listen to any other news but ours". Not being able to tolerate someone else holding & voicing an opinion contrary to the mainstream one, is "all the rage nowadays", so I don't hold you entirely personally responsible for wishing to silence the dissent that erupted on the "Autistic Son" thread, but I am calling you out on it, otherwise I'd never be able to put it in the past myself. And I've not yet shared all that I have to share.     

I've experienced burnout, but I don't know if it was solely autistic burnout and/or something else. I was not aware of being on the spectrum at the time, but since learning about that, it seems likely that my sensory and social challenges contributed hugely.

When I was burned out I couldn't switch off at all, but then I was living in an insanely busy area, with crazy work pressures, and high sensory (if that's a term?!) commute. I had nothing left at the end of the day. Yet I couldn't sleep. Then if I slept, I couldn't wake. But any medical tests showed I was healthy.

If it were me experiencing what you describe (and remembering that we could be very different, so this may or may not be useful for you) then I would wonder if there are too many plates spinning at once. I would search each area of my world to see if I could let some plates fall, so I could focus only on the most important for a little while - the ones that are my foundation. I couldn't guess which ones these would be for you. 

As for hobbies - I'm doing pretty well right now and still struggle to engage with hobbies I know I love and can get lost in. It's really interesting to see other see the same. For me, there needs to be some kind of useful purpose. One of my hobbies is art and I can be totally engaged and even excelling in art when the purpose is as simple as a gift for someone in particular. Those have been my best pieces. If I could only engage in art just for me, I know I'd feel more relaxation and enjoyment. I just need to find that motivator once more... Art began as my way of exploring my world, expressing my passions and even expressing feelings I couldn't show in the real world. When I started feeling less motivation for art I really worried about it. But perhaps this is a normal part of being - that the motivation will ebb and flow.... maybe new hobbies will replace old ones, maybe they're just not needed at the moment.

Other than that, be kind to yourself. You may not understand what you're feeling, but commend yourself for noticing it, exploring it and seeking support.

I think when demands exceed capacity anyone can get burnt out but for people on the spectrum, there's a lower threshold. I ended up reading this last night, it's got some different perspectives of accounts of burnout. 

https://boren.blog/2017/01/26/autistic-burnout-the-cost-of-coping-and-passing/

You're spot on. I feel as though that much has happened in such a short space of time that I've been unable to process things and it's zapped my battery a bit. The loss of motivation and mental drain is more than likely a result of that. 

I  don't feel as though it's as a result of depression, it's something I've encountered in the past but have been reasonably good at at managing. It's more as a result of jugging too much like you said, but I'm juggling atlas stones and not tennis balls.

Dating and work are also proving really difficult at the moment. I honestly think that my motivation comes in waves, especially with work and dating, if there's a specific piece of design work I get allocated, or there's someone I'm speaking to who's bubbly and chatty then things flow a lot smoother. I think having the diagnosis and not taking some time to process it has taken the wind out of my sails a bit. 

all the aspie tests are created by  Neurotypicals  (the label  u call them)  !  so u need to bin your test results if u dont trust Neurotypicals .

Did a Neurotypical diagnose you ?

who are these professional autists ?  

yes i agree GPs are far from perfect

Are you also struggling with the dating and work or just the drawing?  Maybe you are bored of your hobbies.  I have to go to hobby classes to motivate me, I would never bother to do those activities normally.  Maybe talking on here will be your new hobby - learning about others - a bit of psychology for you.  Don't be too hard on yourself about not achieving products like drawings all the time.

The problem aidie, with seeking help from a professional in my experience is that most of them are Neurotypical and hence treating a condition they know very little about, except what they have read. We of course can read too..

It's easy to ascribe semi-supernatural powers to "experts" and allow them a disproportionate amount of control over your life. I allowed a G.P. once to prescribe me a mind altering drug that when I took it instantly turned me into someone even worse. Since he was denying the reality of my experience, I had to take matters into my own hands at that point, and against his advice I discontinued the drug, and sought a more constructive solution to my issues. I've nothing against professionals when they get it right, they are  good thing, but when they lead you wrong, and you go along with it because they are, well, "professionals", your faith in their expertise can lead you terminally astray.

At least here with a large pool of "professional Autists" there's a better chance of finding someone who has had exactly your problem and found a full or partial solution. And we aren't being paid to help, so the advice is, either going to be of the "Bhuddism solves everything" nature, or the "if I take a Holland and Barret vitamin B12 1000uG tablet the evening before I go to bed, I don't fall asleep in front of the TV the day after, nature. And if you are lucky someone else will chip in with "be careful with Vitamin B13 some people say it makes them irritable advice. And the seeker can take their choice. 

Talking to your GP even, can be a two edged sword. The suggestion to take an online Asperger's test came not form a professional but an observant Aspie friend... My G.P told me I was "far too articulate to have Autism" until I insisting on having the adult Autism assessment..  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HE-Q3jMJ38 helped me i know you didn't speak about depression but this was an insightful video

hi,

its horrible losing your motivation it happens to me on and off like a wave.

here are symptoms of autistic burnout. second one down is for adults and from NAS

www.coraphysicaltherapy.com/.../ 

www.autism.org.uk/.../autistic-adults

be careful picking, up advice here, as everyone here is non - professional

Talk to your GP if you thing anything really bad happening

I'd say signs are more personal, internal and connected to what's happening in your life now.

First of all I would stop juggling and do everything separately.

Loss of motivation is a sign of depression whether it's clinical or not, it doesn't have to be something big to depress you and depression in common among people on The Autism Spectrum.  

To try and regain motivation see which of your priorities is most important and push yourself step by step to accomplish that one. So choose an activity, do it for as little as 5 minutes several times then when you feel able to push yourself beyond 5 minutes to 7 minutes and keep working your way upwards step by step.