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Learning how to prevent burnout/meltdowns/shutdowns - therapy options?

Maz

Hi everyone,

A bit of back story before I go to my request:

I turned 51 last week and 30+ yrs ago I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety and put on medication. I have tried many different anti-depressants but none have ever properly worked and I was never convinced my diagnosis was right. Then, 3 years ago I was diagnosed with ADHD and things felt 'better' and it seemed as if I might finally understand myself but over time this too didn't feel like the answer - since then I have also been diagnosed with ME and Fibromyalgia.

At the end of last year we had a specialist come into work to do a talk on autism and I remarked at the time how similar autism was to ADHD.......then several months later it clicked; it was not the similarity at all but what I was reading and hearing about autism was me. I spoke to my GP who concurred and she put me in touch with the local ASD service - after completing tons of paperwork I finally heard back last week and they believe there is a strong possibility I am autistic but I have to wait 2 years to see someone.

The biggest problem I have is being overwhelmed by everything that lead to crashed where I am out of action for weeks at a time; these last few months, after a stressful change at work, I have found it harder and harder to cope, am sleeping and eating less, am super anxious, angry and snappy all the time and endlessly tearful. This is a regular pattern for me and I expect many others here. Autistic burnout.

Over my life I have seen so many therapists/consultants/psychologist/psychiatrists but they have all been focussed on my depression because that is what they all latch on to - as I consider the occasional bout of depression a symptom of something bigger (as it now shows to be) it is no wonder this has never worked for me.

Has anyone ever used specific therapy, targetted at the ASD population that has helped them better manage their symptoms etc.? Any help will be greatly appreciated especially as I am struggling to hold off another full-blown crash right now

Thank you

Simon

Parents

  • Sounds like you're on the right lines of thinking.  Anything you need for "depression" wont be a lot of use unless any neurodivergence is held at the core of any therapy.

    As for meltdown or shut down, Luke Beardon puts it like this:  Autism + environment = outcome.  To avoid these twin experiences, it's the environment which really needs adjusting, not anything in your id.  He's written a good book: Avoiding Anxiety in Autistic Adults.  And meltdown and shut down have anxiety overload at the core.

    Some people can feel them coming and can make a little plan to get out of the way to a safe, private space when that happens, otherwise it's a case of trying to figure out what triggers them and trying to avoid or mitigate those in order to prevent them.  

    As for burnout, that's commonly confused with depression.  You can be depressed and be in burnout, or have one without the other.  Meds won't help for the burnout bit, just good old fashioned R&R.  You've pushed past your available resources to cope with demand is all and it can be pretty debilitating.  There is a page on this site about that. 

    I'm sorry you are in for such a long wait for a proper assessment, parr for the course it seems.  But you might find that understanding autism better and how that impacts on you might in and of itself help alleviate any depression.  Essentially, there's nothing fundamentally "wrong" with you, but you are wired a bit differently and need to find ways of doing stuff that is therefore a bit different and which suits you to keep mind, mood and life in balance.  

    If work changes are a cause of burnout, well it depends how comfortable you are talking to your employer about this, but it might be that they could work with you to plan change more gently and iron out uncertainties etc to lessen the stress, or else adjust your work environment a bit to kick out some of the sensory and other stressors.

Reply

  • Sounds like you're on the right lines of thinking.  Anything you need for "depression" wont be a lot of use unless any neurodivergence is held at the core of any therapy.

    As for meltdown or shut down, Luke Beardon puts it like this:  Autism + environment = outcome.  To avoid these twin experiences, it's the environment which really needs adjusting, not anything in your id.  He's written a good book: Avoiding Anxiety in Autistic Adults.  And meltdown and shut down have anxiety overload at the core.

    Some people can feel them coming and can make a little plan to get out of the way to a safe, private space when that happens, otherwise it's a case of trying to figure out what triggers them and trying to avoid or mitigate those in order to prevent them.  

    As for burnout, that's commonly confused with depression.  You can be depressed and be in burnout, or have one without the other.  Meds won't help for the burnout bit, just good old fashioned R&R.  You've pushed past your available resources to cope with demand is all and it can be pretty debilitating.  There is a page on this site about that. 

    I'm sorry you are in for such a long wait for a proper assessment, parr for the course it seems.  But you might find that understanding autism better and how that impacts on you might in and of itself help alleviate any depression.  Essentially, there's nothing fundamentally "wrong" with you, but you are wired a bit differently and need to find ways of doing stuff that is therefore a bit different and which suits you to keep mind, mood and life in balance.  

    If work changes are a cause of burnout, well it depends how comfortable you are talking to your employer about this, but it might be that they could work with you to plan change more gently and iron out uncertainties etc to lessen the stress, or else adjust your work environment a bit to kick out some of the sensory and other stressors.

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