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Struggling to cope with burn out

Ren

Hello, I’m Ren and I’m new here. I hope you are doing well. I just wanted to ask some advice from other autistic adults who may have experienced something similar to me or have insights about autistic burn outs/burn out cycles. Apologies in advance for a long post and thank you so much for reading. 

I have been in a burn out cycle for many years and it’s something I can’t seem to get out of. The burn outs have lessened in frequency over the past year as I’ve been trying very hard to be kind and accommodating to myself.

A burn out started 3 days ago and I’m really struggling. I hate feeling like this and not being able to do the things I usually enjoy. Even activities such as lego, knitting and watching my comfort tv shows are too overstimulating for me when I’m burnt out. These are usually my soothing techniques to help me regulate myself.
The trouble is, when I listen to my symptoms telling me to just lie down and rest- all I’m left with are distressing thoughts, feelings of inadequacy, bad memories etc. For this reason, despite my overstimulation to sounds and sights, I put on my comfort tv show. I guess my question is how do I accommodate my burn out symptoms whilst not falling into the hole of intrusive thoughts? I’ve only had 2 meltdowns in the past 3 days which is nice, but I am feeling physically horrible and mentally drained. 

My other question is about how I can potentially even get out of this cycle? I am currently unemployed, living with my parents and getting a lot of external support (ie.therapy and care from my parents). When I’m not burnt out I mostly only do activities I enjoy/involve some level of self care. 
But even with this level of accommodation I am allowing myself, I am still getting burnt out. I really want to work towards getting a job in something I will enjoy but surely if I’m getting burnt out from doing so little, it will get worse if I have a job. I have previously done a lot with my life, I’ve been employed, travelled etc and proceeded to have long lasting, regular burn outs that were a lot worse than my current ones.

Please let me know if you have had a similar experience or if you have any advice on either of these issues. 
Thank you very much, i hope your day is going well. 

Parents

  • Look at my masking post and see how many you are doing.

    Look closely at how you feel. What makes you stressed. What makes it better. It will take time.

    Write stuff down, you won't remember. Then look for patterns. Record what you ate, how you slept, what you did, what you were thinking about, etc. You can use heart rate and strength as a proxy for stress if you can't tell. Certain things if I think them, before I even feel something my heart beat changes. The nervous system can be fast.

    You are going to have to change some things. Work on breathing and trying to be calm. You need to reduce stress.

    The mind will keep searching previous episodes, memories on a loop, looking for a solution. Since burnouts are associated with stress and often things going wrong, these are not good memories.

    Maybe the TV is the problem. Can you read or do puzzles, or something without a screen. If you need company use the radio.

  • in reply to Stuart333

    Thank you for replying. I have read your masking post and it resonates a great deal with me. I’ll start a spreadsheet/journal to monitor the things you mentioned in your reply. Thank you again for your help.

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