The first special interest that drops out of my life, when the beginnings of burnout start to singe my mind and body, is writing. It’s not always that I don’t want to write, it’s more the words and sentence formations don’t come easily or clearly. I think they call it brain fog… or at least that’s how it feels, fogginess inside my head, where thoughts are stuck ruminating about the *stress* I’m experiencing with little room for much else, especially not much creative.
An excellent post Chelsea, thank you for sharing. I’m often the same when I’m in autistic burnout: one of the first signs is letting my writing practice go because like you said the words just don’t seem to form correctly in my mind.
Also THANK YOU for sharing that info from the Report on Autistic Burnout. The amount of times I’ve been told I need to ‘socialise more’ to come out of a ‘depressive episode’ is insulting. It’s nice to read that my instincts were in fact correct: I need LESS interaction not more when I’m burnt out.
Thank you so much for writing all this. I'm currently in a depression and only 6-9 months into a self diagnosis of autism. I was doing ok at the start but it's taking it's toll on me at the moment. So many flashbacks to previous interactions and situations in the past that were due to autism and misunderstanding. I'll try to refer back to this post over the next few weeks/months and see where I can help to reduce stress and improve things. Thank you again Chelsea. X
A lot of this is very similar to my own experience the past couple of years.
I do feel like I'm on the other side of burnout now and I'm feeling so grateful for that! 🙏🏻
I tried lots of things - time off work, sleep, nourishing food, nourishing company, following much curiosity and interests.
I needed to spend a LOT of time alone learning how to listen to my body and my intuition and allowing myself to honor what I was hearing.
I was extremely fortunate to be able to spend time abroad to do that - solo travel is when I feel my most unmasked. Just my fully curious weirdo self anonymous in new places and collecting aaaallll the dopamine 🤣
I noticed a lot of internal pressure to do or be certain things and I'm working hard on addressing that.
I also really struggle to write when I get burnt out but found that I felt really guilty about it! Like I owed people regular content.
An excellent post Chelsea, thank you for sharing. I’m often the same when I’m in autistic burnout: one of the first signs is letting my writing practice go because like you said the words just don’t seem to form correctly in my mind.
Also THANK YOU for sharing that info from the Report on Autistic Burnout. The amount of times I’ve been told I need to ‘socialise more’ to come out of a ‘depressive episode’ is insulting. It’s nice to read that my instincts were in fact correct: I need LESS interaction not more when I’m burnt out.
Thank you so much for writing all this. I'm currently in a depression and only 6-9 months into a self diagnosis of autism. I was doing ok at the start but it's taking it's toll on me at the moment. So many flashbacks to previous interactions and situations in the past that were due to autism and misunderstanding. I'll try to refer back to this post over the next few weeks/months and see where I can help to reduce stress and improve things. Thank you again Chelsea. X
Thank you for sharing so much of your experience.
A lot of this is very similar to my own experience the past couple of years.
I do feel like I'm on the other side of burnout now and I'm feeling so grateful for that! 🙏🏻
I tried lots of things - time off work, sleep, nourishing food, nourishing company, following much curiosity and interests.
I needed to spend a LOT of time alone learning how to listen to my body and my intuition and allowing myself to honor what I was hearing.
I was extremely fortunate to be able to spend time abroad to do that - solo travel is when I feel my most unmasked. Just my fully curious weirdo self anonymous in new places and collecting aaaallll the dopamine 🤣
I noticed a lot of internal pressure to do or be certain things and I'm working hard on addressing that.
I also really struggle to write when I get burnt out but found that I felt really guilty about it! Like I owed people regular content.