I still don't properly understand burnout but this video helped tremendously. It's Kieran Rose. My burnout was contributed to by the fact I thought perpetual exhaustion was normal. It isn't. 

The medical and mental health world need to catch up with what autistic burnout is. Incorrect "treatment" further exacerbates the problem. Rest and recuperation is what is needed. 

m.youtube.com/watch

Hi and welcome. I'm glad you found this community, I'm a newbie here, but it already feels homely to me with accepting and good folk.

Burnout is hard work. When I first had burnout it felt like I had the flu, I was exhausted, body aches all over and even the simplest thing took it out of me. I literally spent all day in bed, getting out of bed to use the toilet took so much energy and strength. I proceeded to go to the GP and they ran tests, turned out to be nothing serious, but they also noticed my social awkwardness, my lack of eye contact and that I didn't like how bright her office was...

She suggested I get assessed for autism and the rest, as they often say, is history...

It's been comforting and quite eye opening researching things online and seeing that I'm not the only one who suffered with burnout and has over sensitivity to brightness and find it challenging going out. For a long time I thought I was the only one.

I'm grateful that this community is in place. It's already helping me.

Hello and welcome.

It was burnout that set me on my journey to autism diagnosis. First I was diagnosed with exhaustion, then depression and it was only after 2.5 years that I was finally diagnosed with autism.

So I’ve had three years of chronic burnout. Sometimes disabling enough that I had to take several weeks of work at a time.

I’m still suffering from it but it is not as bad as it has been. With a little more energy and hope building, I now plan to attempt what I am led to believe is the only real way to defeat autistic burnout: re-engaging with my special interests, which I have neglected for the last three years.

If anyone has any other advice I’ll be very interested to read it too!

Hello 91136, I am Number.

Welcome to this place.

Burnout, for me, has proved cyclical in nature.  None of them have been pleasant, and the "Mega burnout" that I experienced took (like Isperg reports) years to recover from and I did not return to previously enjoyed levels of functionality.  Learning that these "episodes" of my life actually have a recognised explanation and are "quite normal" has been one of the most wonderful thing about learning of my autism.

I hope you can stick around, enjoy this place sometimes, but mainly mine it (and us current cohort) to make you feel less alone in this world and that there are MANY people a lot like you here.

Kind regards

Number.

Welcome to the forum 91136,

Ah yes, autistic burnout, I was getting that for years before my diagnosis without knowing what it was.  I don't have any useful tips for dealing with it, but knowledge and understanding helps makes things a bit easier.

I hope you find your visits to the forum friendly and fruitful.

Ben

For me, three years later... 

finding it difficult to recover skills and activity levels...