Never ending burnout

Hi. I'm really sorry you are struggling. I can share a bit of my own experience and I hope that might help you a little. 

I suffered from consecutive autistic burnouts all my life without knowing that this is what they were. I only got diagnosed last year, and I'm now 50. I don't want to worry you even more, but it gets worse with age because stress and anxiety can also affect your physical health. But in your case, you are still young and hopefully you can learn to manage your burnouts and find something that works for you. 

I'm still going through a trial and error phase, but I can share some things that have been helping me: 

• Alone time: as much and as often as you can possibly get
• Meditation: there is scientific evidence that meditation has huge benefits in managing stress and anxiety. The trick is, you can't just do it as and when you need it. It has to be consistent, you need do it regularly to avoid burnout, not just when your having one.
• Therapy: having someone to talk about it helps. It can help you trouble shoot certain things. But I have enough experience with therapists now to know that you can't waste your time with the wrong ones. It's a very subjective thing that happens, you need to somehow 'click' with the mental health professional, feel comfortable enough with them to be able to just let the conversation flow. If something doesn't feel quite right, don't insist. Look for somebody else.
• Nature walks: if that's your thing. It doesn't really work for me, I can't walk just for the sake of it without a goal or destination. So I've been doing city breaks instead, walking to museums, galleries, that type of thing while at the same time trying to avoid crowds. It can be tricky. 
• Change of environment. This is the trickiest one, but sometimes it is possible. It's kind of obvious, to avoid burnout, get away from the thing that causes burnout in the first place. To me, I've been considering a career change, but unfortunately I have a family to think about and I cannot just give up my job. My family is another cause of burnout, so we've agreed on regular 'time away' for me and it has been helping.

I hope that helps.

Good morning x.

Thank you so much for sharing your helpful tips for dealing with burnout. I’m so sorry you suffered with this so much over most of your life, that must have been awful for you at times. I’m glad you have found this community too and I hope you can find tips to help you further, and meet like-minded people.
I joined the site yesterday and have already met so many people who really "Get" it and am overwhelmed in a good way by all of the support. Suddenly things look a lot brighter than they did this time yesterday.

aeldron said:

I'm still going through a trial and error phase, but I can share some things that have been helping me

Thank you! I hope it all works for you!!
I will definitely try all from your list, I am already on a waiting list for therapy, but I don't know how long it will be. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for sooner rather than later. Immersing myself in nature is something I can try to do as well. I live in the country side and nature walks are more less on my doorstep, so if I can build up the energy this is something I might give a go.

If I take my camera I can mix photography in to this too.

Meditation is something I hear so much about - mostly Good things - and I still haven’t got round to trying this but I do feel it’s something I need to do sooner rather than later. Because of anxiety and probably the Autism I always putting things off, but then, I never end up doing them. It’s so frustrating!! Lol.
I’ve seen a lot of different meditation classes and teachings on YT so I think I need to try and choose one and then see how I get on from there.

Thanks again for all your help and support with this. I really do appreciate it all!

Have a great Sunday xx.

Good morning x.

Thank you so much for sharing your helpful tips for dealing with burnout. I’m so sorry you suffered with this so much over most of your life, that must have been awful for you at times. I’m glad you have found this community too and I hope you can find tips to help you further, and meet like-minded people.
I joined the site yesterday and have already met so many people who really "Get" it and am overwhelmed in a good way by all of the support. Suddenly things look a lot brighter than they did this time yesterday.

aeldron said:

I'm still going through a trial and error phase, but I can share some things that have been helping me

Thank you! I hope it all works for you!!
I will definitely try all from your list, I am already on a waiting list for therapy, but I don't know how long it will be. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for sooner rather than later. Immersing myself in nature is something I can try to do as well. I live in the country side and nature walks are more less on my doorstep, so if I can build up the energy this is something I might give a go.

If I take my camera I can mix photography in to this too.

Meditation is something I hear so much about - mostly Good things - and I still haven’t got round to trying this but I do feel it’s something I need to do sooner rather than later. Because of anxiety and probably the Autism I always putting things off, but then, I never end up doing them. It’s so frustrating!! Lol.
I’ve seen a lot of different meditation classes and teachings on YT so I think I need to try and choose one and then see how I get on from there.

Thanks again for all your help and support with this. I really do appreciate it all!

Have a great Sunday xx.

In regards to meditation, I don't know if it's the same for you but I hate classes. Neurotypical people like the social aspects of that, doing an activity together feels nice to them. In my case I just find it awkward and uncomfortable because I don't like doing small talk with strangers.

The good news is that meditation is something you can do entirely on your own. There are many different apps you can try to learn more about it, and once you've learned the techniques you don't even need the apps.

I use Headspace and I can recommend that. You can start with 5-10 minutes a day to get into the habit. It's all about consistency.