I want life to stop

Lights, sounds, smells, everything is extra intolerable lately. I cant seem to make myself do stuff, I cant make decisions. I feel tired and am getting headaches. Words are harder. I keep almost having meltdown/shutdowns (just today I felt like a meltdown every 30min). Im exhausted 

I want it all to stop, I want to take a break from everything but I cant. I have homework, I have school, on friday we have an assembly which I always get overwhelmed at but im scared ill have a full on meltdown because I seem to not even be able to handle everyday stimuli so how could I survive a room with hundreds of students with everyone screaming to get hyped for stupid turnabout dance 

I started feeling like rubbish for a couple weeks but then the last 3 days have been absolutly unbearable. Why is life so hard

Took me 21min to type this (not even that long of a post...)

Parents
  • Everything you describe is listed as one of the characteristics of autistic burnout listed in this document:

    https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/117253/pdf/

    • Fatigue, extreme exhaustion
    • Increased sensitivity to sensory input
    • Loss of skills such as functional memory
    • Increasing meltdowns and shutdowns
    • Stop talking
    • Headaches and migraines

    It isn't going to get any better while you continue to be put under extreme pressure in an unsuitable environment on a daily basis. Something needs to change and you desperately need the kind of adjustments and accommodations described in the post by Natalie above.

    I did just fine with the other 10 years of school, so id probably just be making it up or being lazy.

    Burnout has a cumulative impact, so all of those 10 years have built up to the point where you are no longer able to function effectively and mask. It is very real and you're not being lazy. Anyone who may think that is completely invalidating your experience of the world.

    As this article explains, you're currently in survival mode. The only way out of that is getting the support you need combined with having the demands placed on you reduced.

    https://www.barrierstoeducation.co.uk/burnout

  • If it is burnout, it says it can last months. If I do have all this for months then how will I pass school? 

  • Yes as the article says it can take months to recover and heal. However it is important to recognise that this process of recovery cannot start until the cause of the burnout is addressed.

    As I see it you are at a very important crossroads. If you continue on your current path your burnout could become much more extreme and result in you being unable to function and dropping out completely. 

    There is another way. You can get the help you need to address the causes of the problems and reduce demands on you. That way you are able to continue your education and importantly start the recovery process.

    If you can't talk to your parents or teachers, which is very understandable, then write everything down for them. You communicate very well on here and autistic people can typically find it much easier to communicate in writing. 

    There are ways of learning other than at school. I recall your post on here a few weeks ago about how much more productive you were at completing assignments at home. In that post you had a lot of very good ideas and a good understanding of how you work most effectively.

    https://community.autism.org.uk/f/miscellaneous-and-chat/35503/good-week

    Maybe some sort of hybrid approach would work for you, whereby you only need to attend on certain days or for the most important lessons. All of the adjustments mentioned in Natalie's post above could be things you could ask for to make the school environment more tolerable. Good luck!

Reply
  • Yes as the article says it can take months to recover and heal. However it is important to recognise that this process of recovery cannot start until the cause of the burnout is addressed.

    As I see it you are at a very important crossroads. If you continue on your current path your burnout could become much more extreme and result in you being unable to function and dropping out completely. 

    There is another way. You can get the help you need to address the causes of the problems and reduce demands on you. That way you are able to continue your education and importantly start the recovery process.

    If you can't talk to your parents or teachers, which is very understandable, then write everything down for them. You communicate very well on here and autistic people can typically find it much easier to communicate in writing. 

    There are ways of learning other than at school. I recall your post on here a few weeks ago about how much more productive you were at completing assignments at home. In that post you had a lot of very good ideas and a good understanding of how you work most effectively.

    https://community.autism.org.uk/f/miscellaneous-and-chat/35503/good-week

    Maybe some sort of hybrid approach would work for you, whereby you only need to attend on certain days or for the most important lessons. All of the adjustments mentioned in Natalie's post above could be things you could ask for to make the school environment more tolerable. Good luck!

Children
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