Autism masking and regression after mental health breakdowns

Hi and welcome to the community.

Having frequent meltdowns and shutting down socially can be signs of autistic fatigue or burnout. 

I suggest seeking support from your GP.

Alongside doing that, you might find the advice and suggested strategies in these NAS resources helpful:

NAS - Meltdowns

NAS - Autistic fatigue and burnout

NAS Professional Practice - Understanding autistic burnout

NAS - Seeking help with mental health

There's also some great (free) advice here from Dr Megan Neff - a neurodivergent author, clinician and advocate:

Autistic Burnout Recovery: How to Build a Recovery Plan

I also have this book of hers. It's very user-friendly, including lots of diagrams and worksheets:

The Autistic Burnout Workbook: Your Guide to Your Personal Recovery Plan

I hope that some of the information here is helpful.

I looked online for local free services to support either autism and mental health and was sign posted from there.

Thanks for sharing this. Whst kind of professional support do you get? The only thing that seems to be offered by my GP is NHS talking therapies but it’s not specialised for neurodivergence. I’m interested what other kind of support for adults might be available, 

Hello,

I can identify with what you are going through. Hang on in there. I too have cptsd ,many of us do unfortunately but You are not alone there are great people on here to talk to. I can give you my experience and strategies which may offer some help.

 I usually go full on shut down (which I have named the “upside down” from an programme called stranger things) every  few years or so over my life, I can feel it coming but not able to stop it. I learnt over time not to fight it.  This latest 4 year one has been tough however but it did involve Covid. 

 Having external professional support outside of family etc has helped me and maybe something to consider. Talking and being on this group has helped too. It can be exhausting and impossible to mask in these periods, maybe don’t bother trying to mask. Save your energy for you.

It was also suggested to me to go full on autistic and not suppress myself in anyway and that helped too. So I don’t restrict my stimming have a good hand flap which I call my jazz hands, rub my feet together constantly, throw my arms and body all over the place like a loon til I drop and rock whenever I need it and bumble bee breathing is a good one to try, also I have avoided people and situations that cause me problems and found positive nice things that embrace my nature, music, silence, reading, researching, soft blankets to touch, being in the dark, favourite foods, whatever takes your fancy, find anything to give you that warm feeling inside. And last of all before I end up writing you an essay, they do pass and you will come out the other side. 

Hello Tamarinda,

thank you for taking the time to offer your input :) i do believe after reading your post amongst others that it may indeed be regression and burnout. I may have to look the book up and see if it may be of use :)

Hello Nat7146

i do thank you for sharing you experience with myself. I feel I share a lot in common with those experiences and have been finding it hard for many a year. I won’t go into detail but the events occurred pretty much from primary school age till I was around 23. I had my first breakdown at around 26 and it has been a constant battle since. it may be counterintuitive, but it is reassuring to know that regression and burnout seem to be shared experiences.

with my recent experiences I thought I was finally at full breaking point and have noticed I have likely regressed like you have stated. 

I wonder if this could be autistic burnout? I am also off work right now after mental health issues and I have bought a book called ''The Autistic Burnout Workbook' which is quite helpful. I

I also have CPTSD with autism and I am currently healing from very severe traumas that compounded on top of one another. My ability to function at one point was completely decimated so I can relate to your experiences. At the peak of my burnout/breakdown everything just stopped and I became unable to look after myself at all. 

Reading about other people's experiences, it does seem a common experience for autistics with CPTSD to end up with regression of some kind, when we are overwhelmed by life circumstances. I've been lucky to have some support throughout my recovery and have now been able to regain some function back. 

From a personal perspective, the breakdowns were so severe that they forced me to re-examine every aspect of my life and start to make changes.

I hope things can improve for you soon. Regression and burnout are very difficult states to be in. I wish you well. 

I love animals and my partner and their family had rescue cats and have recently adopted two rescue cats. So I would have a cat. But I also love dogs, rabbits and would love a shrew/ferret or even a bird. 

my partner loves chihuahuas and would call it taco :) 

If you could have an animal what would it be and what would you name it?

Hello Pinkchocoholic :) thank you for your reply. Those hobbies are very much alike to to my partners! I wish I could have an animal as I know I would benefit greatly. Alas, my landlord will not allow it. 

have a wonderful day :) 

Thank you for the reply Alice :) I certainly think the resources for my partner will be really good to show and review with them :) 

I will say, I haven’t had much support in regards to my autism and do struggle greatly in my estimation. I am hoping that I can find some resources to identify my support needs :) 

Hi I like reading, doing jigsaws, diamond painting, animals (have a family dog), wordsearches, card making, playing with fidgets, cuddly toys, watching YouTube and listening to music. 

Hi Terryaki, 

Welcome to the online community, I am sorry to hear you are having a very difficult time recently. 

Whilst, we wait for more of our community to respond, you may find these pages useful: 

• If you feel you would like to talk to someone about your mental health our page can direct you to potential help: Seeking help with mental health
• If you feel you need any help when communicating with your partner you can access our guide here: Family relationships - a guide for partners of autistic people

Best wishes, 

Alice Mod

Like yourself, I have become more reclusive.  Though due to my cptsd and other mental health issues, i have always been introverted/withdrawn to an extent. 

my partner commented that my ability to hold eye contact has significantly reduced and they are leading conversations with people; where prior to my breakdowns I would take on a more confident persona to initiate conversation

Do not worry at all! I often use my own experiences to portray I understand a situation :) I was quite worried about the scenario because I feel like I am losing a lot of the skills I once had. Albeit, those are likely purely masking behaviours.                      

Do not worry at all! I often use my own experiences to portray I understand a situation :) I was quite worried about the scenario because I feel like I am losing a lot of the skills I once had. Albeit, those are likely purely masking behaviours.                      

Hello DarkElf, 

I’m sorry if this comment doesn’t help but it’s my own experience with something I feel is relatively similar.

I had a huge breakdown in summer 2023 culminating in me needing to move house. I’d say after that my socialisation, confidence and other mannerisms were impacted heavily. I got a new job (more on that later) and they were kind of disrespectful towards me at first and seemed to think I was genuinely dumb (talked down to, mocked/under the pretence of banter, which it 100% wasn’t). Of course I have no idea if it was the breakdown which messed me up or the fact a GP gave me sertraline which didn’t help at all. There’s a video out there me doing an interview and it must be the worst case of stuttering in recorded history. Never ever had that until 2023.

Breakdown 2, in early 2025, honestly, I just felt like my brain was re-wiring in real time, I know that sounds irrational, but it was a breakup, and it was kind of like my entire system inside me just violently evolved into something else. My inner voice changed entirely. Deep down, I’m still going through it. I am more distant. More aggressive and abrasive. Became much more agoraphobic and short tempered and basically walked out my job early this year, I’d have gotten sacked anyway and honestly if I didn’t have my autism I would have.

So all I can really say is, yes. I would say a breakdown can change my behaviour and mannerisms.