Burnout

I usually need to be left alone without any noise for a long time, and able to get into a repetitive routine, and get lots of sleep. If something denies me those things then the burnout continues and gets worse and I will shutdown completely. I will interpret any attempt to communicate with me as some kind of assault.

If your experiencing burnout continuous for two years without a break in between you could have Chronic fatigue syndrome which is believed to be caused by prolonged burnout, antibiotics, stress, viral infection and even auto immune disease.

you might need to take B12, iron, magnesium, omega 3, vitamin D and riboflavin. Many people on the spectrum with or without poor eating habits seem to be low on these vitimins and minerals. 

if your experience frequent headaches you might want to B12, riboflavin and omega 3. 

I suffered a burn out in 2020(dad died, mum into care home, Covid, lockdowsns etc) and I am still recovering. I have little self confidence, struggling with changing jobs and just want to retire at 52! I don't think I will ever truely recover from the burnoutas my life will never be the same. What caused your burnout, is it soemthing still ongoing?

It's good that you are recognising the signs of burnout and taking action before it progresses to a full blown burnout. I am experiencing quite severe burnout at the moment (and have as a consequence been unable to work for over a month now and have completely withdrawn into my bubble), and I now realise that I didn't recognise the signs and therefore couldn't do anything about it before I reached utter collapse (thinking back I really have no clue how I was still functioning on the surface... it seems impossible). I also had no idea that I might be autistic and that burnout was a risk. 

I hope you figure out a way to make work more manageable and to get some more downtime! I haven't figured out myself yet how to prevent burnout so sorry if this response is useless- I guess I just wanted to say that it is great that you are recognising that you are getting burnt-out so that you can put in place measures to protect yourself. 

I am still learning about Autism, wishful thinking 

You can't, Once your in a state of burnout like an autistic meltdown you have to wait it out and recover. fighting it will increase the time it takes to recover. 

The ideal professional thing would be to have an advocate assist you in a meeting with your employer and discuss workload and work expectation and reasonable adaptations' that can be in place and if need some paid time off, or use your holiday allowance to have time off. 

You do understand that there are a multitude of adaptations that your employer can make and through access to work it may cover the expenses of adaptive technology. Light adaptations and even pay for walls altered to a less offending colour within reason.