Anyone ellse feel the burnout during the Christmas period?

I've been quite lucky, there's only three of us so it's been pretty chill. Mind, having said that... I've just got a but of a second wind... Dark & Stormy cocktails with  bit of a sing song in the cabin I built for the distillery in the garage...

My best present:

I feel really guilty though as it's just my immediate family and my mother in law. They're all lovely but the combined noise and randomness and shouts and relentless bids for attention attention desire to play from my son means I have only so much time I can handle it before I crack and need a break. It's so hard getting a nice balance between being polite, showing how much I do truly love and appreciate them, but also protecting myself. I keep telling myself it is just a week and then things will be back to normal.

Exactly the same. I just end up completely burnt out when I need to socialise more than once in a couple of weeks or so, it's all too intense. Then, of course, there is the added feeling of feeling like the worst person in the world because you don't want to do anything. For years I have moulded to everyone elses expectations and I just want a year for myself, where I can relax and not worry about social events. Maybe next year.

I have this all the time and right now I have retreated to the TV room and closed the door while I watch the NFL live on a low volume with low light. Am eating Stilton cheese (I have this once a year as a guilty pleasure) with crackers and some white wine. My head was about the explode after the last two days and I am on verge of a meltdown. So I feel much better now and already decompressing.

I call it "peopled out".  It's a catch 22 as I feel intensely lonely but can only handle others for so long and I yearn to be alone.  Alone but lonely because people are tiring.  Even people who I am mostly relaxed with can be tiring as I have to adapt myself to their way of things.  It's more about the sensory thing for me as people smell of multiple things - shampoo/perfume/creams/what they've been eating/deodorant/clothes washing stuff.  Each person is a wall of scent so it's overwhelming and especially at Christmas when everyone is using more personal grooming products.

I often wondered why I had to have naps after the school run.  I realised it was when I was dropping my daughter off in the playground and having to contend with the bollocks "how's the weather" chat which I hate.  I now meet my daughter out with the playground because of COVID and I am no longer as tired.  I do think it prevents me from having the opportunity of making more friends but it's an awful lot easier on me.  I'm grateful for you and everyone else posting as it's making me understand more about myself.  

I think it's good that you know what your limits are and that your family are understanding of your need to have a lie down. :-)

Like don't get me wrong I enjoy Christmas Eve seeing everyone down the local up north again and catching up there. But then we go down again Christmas morning Christmas day is usually a hole day of it until midnight then boxing day we have people round then the shoot then we go for a meal the day after that by the end of the week I feel like I could sleep for a week. Also some of family I think think I'm being rude or antisocial my mum gets it though as she's very understanding bit the rest of them are like man up have a few drinks stop being anti social or what ever and God it's draining. I enjoy being around them though as luckily I have a very nice family and they do there best to understand my autism but I'm not sure they totally get the burn out side of it. So may perseve it as rude if I go up to sleep early or put on my noise canceling headphones to drown the noise out. As they all get drunk and debate politics or religion none of those subjects I have any interest in either.

Yes. I like the time between Christmas and New Year as the chilling time.