Constantly exhausted - autism? anxiety? burnout?

Hi I’m new here.
I’m autistic and have luckily got a job though anxiety and burnout have been affecting me for a while, long enough that it’s now started to affect my work-life. I work as a typist and my bosses are very understanding, they know about my diagnosis and have been supportive of that and my mental health but it’s a worry if they’ll continue to be supportive. I’m working from part-time from home but have been finding this just as exhausting and at times stressful.

Is the exhaustion to do with being autistic?
I’ve been suffering with this since I was at school and have found it to be worsening the older I’m getting. The exhaustion intensified after I got my job. For a couple of months I worked really well, getting tired throughout the day but coping. When I got in from work I would just collapse on my bed and sleep through to the next day. In November 24 I found I no longer had the energy to get through the day, I was too tired and have since had to work from home but even that is proving too much for me now.

My mum is so supportive and understanding of my autism, my dad not-so-much, he tries I think but can be very pressuring and that’s difficult to cope with. I heard from Lana – one of my bosses – this morning just checking up on me, I thought that was really nice of her just to check up. She hardly mentioned work and seemed to genuinely be asking after me. I still struggle to process when people are nice and want to offer support like that.

Sorry my point of this is to ask is there anything I can do to get over this exhaustion?
I have no skills or talents, my writing is literally all I can do and I was practically given this job straight away. If I lose it I don’t think I’ll find anything else, nothing I’m really good at and enjoy doing anyway.
But the exhaustion is crushing. I’ve been to the GP and they ran bloods looking for iron problems etc…Found nothing, all is well physically but nearly all the time I’m tired and feel one degree under.

Really need help on how to deal with this please.

Parents
  • Hi and welcome to the community!

    I'm sorry to hear that you're struggling. We're not allowed to give medical advice here. However, based on the potential causes that you've asked about, you might find the suggested strategies in these resources helpful - perhaps directly, and/or as a basis for a further discussion with your GP about accessing appropriate types of support. 

    In respect of burnout, there's some great advice here from a neurodivergent author, who's also a clinician and autism advocate. Her new autism burnout workbook is due out early next month (April), but this online advice - and optional paid downloads - might be helpful in the meantime:

    Autistic Burnout Recovery: How to Build a Recovery Plan

    I'm also a big fan of this book of hers, which is the first one that I bought following my diagnosis. The content for each idea is fairly brief, but I found that helpful (vs feeling overwhelmed by an overly long and wordy book) and it introduced me to various strategies that I've found to be effective:

    Self-Care for Autistic People: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Unmask!

    You might also find the strategies suggested in these NAS resources helpful:

    NAS - Autistic fatigue and burnout

    NAS - Anxiety

  • Thank you! Pray
    I've been referred for my assessment not confirmed autism - should have said that in my OP but unable to edit it unfortunately. I do need to go back to my GP for a follow up appt and any other help she might be able to offer. I've been under a lot of stress again lately, all this waiting for my assessment is awful I just hope I am autistic after all this waiting. I feel so confident I am but a small part of me worries I'm mistaken.

    Thank you for the links. I'll read through them now. The anxiety page will be helpful, I previously tried meds for this but the meds side effects were too bad to continue using them.

Reply
  • Thank you! Pray
    I've been referred for my assessment not confirmed autism - should have said that in my OP but unable to edit it unfortunately. I do need to go back to my GP for a follow up appt and any other help she might be able to offer. I've been under a lot of stress again lately, all this waiting for my assessment is awful I just hope I am autistic after all this waiting. I feel so confident I am but a small part of me worries I'm mistaken.

    Thank you for the links. I'll read through them now. The anxiety page will be helpful, I previously tried meds for this but the meds side effects were too bad to continue using them.

Children