Autism assessments for ASD and depression association

A lot of the private places seem to be adult focused, although no-one seems to define this. It maybe taken as 16-18.

Note the autistic burnout may appear to be depression from the outside. Both can co-occur simultaneously and in my opinion (and experience) sorting out the burnout is the most important.

A prolonged period of stress, such as exams or bullying, could do it. 

If I am allowed to mention someone private, you could try join psychology.co.uk who specialises in female presentation. She saw me when I was burnt out, dysregulated and emotional and managed ok (although I am not female or young). I did it in-person but I believe online is also possible. It is all to NICE guidelines so would be accepted by a GP.

You can email and then have a brief call, up to 15 minutes, to decide if she can help you. It is for adults, but as mentioned this is not defined.

(I have no commercial relationship or sponsorship, so this just a personal suggestion.)

Hello Stuart

thank you for the information. This is a bit of a minefield for us all as new to it but bullying and exams have both been prevalent in the last 2 years

if you’re able to without impacting your own mental health could you describe burnout symptoms briefly please?

re psychology today. That link appears to go to a generic domain. Was there a specific person that helped you yhat we could get in touch with please?

once again thank you for responding

David

Hello Stuart

thank you for the information. This is a bit of a minefield for us all as new to it but bullying and exams have both been prevalent in the last 2 years

if you’re able to without impacting your own mental health could you describe burnout symptoms briefly please?

re psychology today. That link appears to go to a generic domain. Was there a specific person that helped you yhat we could get in touch with please?

once again thank you for responding

David

Yes. I can imagine that without truly understanding it.  Most frustrating thing as a parent is I/we feel quite helpless and underprepared at this point. But thanks to this forum have a slightly better understanding/insight which is some comfort. 

Thanks for the explanation Ann.  It sounds quite scary really. It sounds entirely possible but I’m wary of fitting symptoms into a diagnosis as a layperson.   But it does fit almost entirely with my daughter’s position.  The scariest thing is if it is correct what the solution may be?   A lot of information to process at 2am really.  The best news I have is she appears to be more emotionally stable over the last couple of days and is looking forward to her birthday. So fingers crossed. 

Burnout is intimidating if you are undiagnosed. You don't understand what is happening to you. Once you get over it, it leaves you confused.

It is also hard to see from within as it is a cumulative issue. Even though things are so hard, you think you are lazy, or just making a fuss. I couldn't understand it, till I got diagnosed this year and decades of issues dropped into place.

I think you have described it quite well. 

Hi, In terms of autistic burnout- this link explains it really well https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/autistic-burnout 

I have personally experienced autistic burnout (and had it mistaken for depression) and I think it’s important to distinguish between them. When I am burnt out I loose the ability to do all kinds of things that I used to be able to do and cope with before. Everything feels like it takes an inhumane effort and I am so mentally and physically exhausted that I can’t do or enjoy anything - if I have to push through this often leads me to overworking more as even ‘fun things’ become so hard, so I tend to think I might as well work which just worsens everything. Burnout can look like depression because both can stop people from engaging with interests etc but the reason why may differ- with burnout it’s often due to simply being too exhausted to do anything and once you rest properly the interest comes back. I am only talking of personal experience but when professionals think you are depressed, the advice is often to still try to engage with the things you used to be interested in, or to try new things and find new interests or to socialise more again etc. I tried to do all these things and ultimately it made it worse as it deepened my exhaustion and burnout- it took me a very long time to understand that. I hated resting so even when I thought I was ‘resting’ I wasn’t really. I do know now though that if I am more rested then the desire to do things comes back and I can find new interests etc. I think what people don’t realise is that autistic burnout builds up over years and years- all those little things in every day life that are exhausting, the masking, living in a world not built for us, it just all adds up over time and can slowly chip away at you. For me knowing that I am autistic really helped me as I was able to understand myself better and I could start to see some of the stress factors more clearly and recognise some of the patterns. I was then able to remove some of them. 

I don’t think autistic burnout is very well defined at present- there are only very few studies on it so far (and a lot of the information comes from people’s experiences), so the above is just my personal experience. 

Regardless of whether your daughter is depressed or burntout or both, knowing whether she is autistic could really help in the long term

The text editor may have added a space, it is one word "joinpsychology.co.uk", itbis Jo in Psychology compressed.

I don't have time to type much. There is an ebook you can but at "embrace-autism.com" . I bought it.

"Autistic burnout is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic life stress and a mismatch of expectations and abilities without adequate supports. It is characterized by pervasive, long term (typically 3+ months) exhaustion, loss of function, and reduced tolerance to stimulus."

You have executive function issues and bandwidth to do things drops. Additional stress becomes unmanageable. People want to be close but you gave to be alone, a lot. Socialising is very hard. 

I have had it at least 3 times. It takes 6 or more months to recover. You are fragile for a while. Your thinking is dysregulated and you may fixate on things or get things out of perspective.

If you have past trauma, you can enjoy looping on it. It makes you think of ending it all, which I came close to. It is not just being a bit down.

You nervous system is overloaded and you start hypervigilence and seeing threats. Criticism is very hard to take, you shut down, become irritable. Some you are aware of, sone you are not.

You are just in survival mode. Drink offers some temporary relief, for me, but makes it worse overall.

While you are tired, if fight or flight is too active you can't sleep. You kidneys also may not slow at night so you get up for the toilet 3 or 4 times, I thought I had diabetes. A blood test showed various hormones awry, including chronic stress markers.

I also ended up with eye problems, CSR, last time.

Not being diagnosed it is disastrous for relationships and it seriously adversely affected my life. Something I have had some trouble coming to terms with 

I don't think it is well known. Certainly GPs will have no idea.