Struggling badly

Yeah spent my working life like this in the main.  Loved what I did but couldn't bend my head around why it was that other people seemed to do the same job AND have a life; a long list of places they'd been, meals with family, hobbies they'd had time for AND have done all the shopping, housework AND look fresh as daisies on Monday morning.  Weekends when my lad was with his Dad, I'd frequently get through the door Friday night and fall onto the bed fully dressed to wake up 10:00am on Saturday still totally drained.

Then I discovered I am Autistic. Hmmmm.... 

This kind of exhaustion can and does lead to burn out.  

Does your employer know you are Autistic?  Are there things that could taken some of exhaustion out of your working life or your travel there.  You don't tell us what you do, so what that could look like might take some thinking about.  

In later years, I've realised how much travel on public transport for four hours a day in a crowded sensory nightmare was draining me more than anything else.  The COVID both gave me back four literal hours and spared me half of the exhaustion.  The other things was the awareness of how much the social aspects of the working environment and keeping up with the information input in meetings was taking out of me.  That improved with the move online also.

Of course if you aren't in an office job or do something where face to face is necessary, that might be harder, but there still might be things that can be done.  If it's possible, it sounds like a chat with the boss or the OH department would be ideal.

Yeah spent my working life like this in the main.  Loved what I did but couldn't bend my head around why it was that other people seemed to do the same job AND have a life; a long list of places they'd been, meals with family, hobbies they'd had time for AND have done all the shopping, housework AND look fresh as daisies on Monday morning.  Weekends when my lad was with his Dad, I'd frequently get through the door Friday night and fall onto the bed fully dressed to wake up 10:00am on Saturday still totally drained.

Then I discovered I am Autistic. Hmmmm.... 

This kind of exhaustion can and does lead to burn out.  

Does your employer know you are Autistic?  Are there things that could taken some of exhaustion out of your working life or your travel there.  You don't tell us what you do, so what that could look like might take some thinking about.  

In later years, I've realised how much travel on public transport for four hours a day in a crowded sensory nightmare was draining me more than anything else.  The COVID both gave me back four literal hours and spared me half of the exhaustion.  The other things was the awareness of how much the social aspects of the working environment and keeping up with the information input in meetings was taking out of me.  That improved with the move online also.

Of course if you aren't in an office job or do something where face to face is necessary, that might be harder, but there still might be things that can be done.  If it's possible, it sounds like a chat with the boss or the OH department would be ideal.