Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
50’s diagnosis in the acceptance phase.
I’ve been reading about ASD burnout where it can be so bad it ends in selective mutism. I’m a relatively successful businessman and scared of this, my family would suffer as all the information is literally inside my head. I could/am put/putting systems in place (and currently in the process of this).
The downside of my ASD is I’m also incredibly high functioning and I’m not convinced anyone else would have the capacity to take over and cope even with systems in place.
This is the scary part - I know I’m burning out and maybe have a few years left (weird I know this) before I crash and burn and will need to retire/part retire.
How real is the risk of non returnable ASD burnout? The thought of hitting that at retirement (more like ASD enforced retirement) secretly fills me with joy and sadness. The joys would be the peace I’ve never had, the downside is not caring about my loved ones and significant others and I know I’d be selfish to protect myself - it actually brings me to tears when I think about this. us it a real risk or just non aspies research shite? Tia x
My personal opinion is that the brain/mind is plastic, even the autistic version, and that very little is irrecoverable from, given time. Also some types of work-related stress are more damaging than others. For 24 years I was a full-time research scientist; producing results, coping with the inevitable failures, writing grant proposals etc. is stressful. I could have coped with that stress until I was 65 or older, quite easily. However, the grant money finally failed to be renewed - not that our performance or output dipped at all - so I moved sideways into managing scientific facilities in a research institute. The stress of providing services for many people and dealing with other people's problems was a type of stress that I found much more erosive of my mental wellbeing. As a result, when offered early retirement at 59, I took it without a second thought.