Autistic Burnout Recovery: How to Build a Recovery Plan
Image of a person resting on a couch with the title of blog post: “Autistic Burnout Recovery: How to Build a Recovery Plan”
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If you're reading this, chances are you or someone you care about is dealing with Autistic burnout and wondering how to start the process of Autistic burnout recovery. Trust me; I’ve been there. I know what a grueling road this can be. As an Autistic person, I understand burnout from personal experience. As a Psychologist, I understand the toll it can take on a person’s mental health and well-being. Autistic burnout can be absolutely exhausting and overwhelming. Burnout often comes after years of over-functioning and over-straining our bodies, so recovery doesn’t happen overnight.
But there is hope. With planning, intentionality, self-care, and creative thinking, we can create a more sustainable life for ourselves. When I think of Autistic burnout recovery, I think of it in two phases
1) Recovering from the immediate burnout
2) Building a life that reduces the risk of future burnout episodes
We will talk about both of these dimensions of Autistic burnout recovery in today’s blog post. This post will cover what Autistic burnout is, the causes of burnout, various recovery tips, and how to create a recovery plan. So let’s dive in and look at some strategies to help you recover from Autistic burnout.
What is Autistic Burnout?
Autistic burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. It can be caused by various things, like stress, sensory overload, social isolation, or difficulty navigating social or educational systems. Autistic burnout is distinct from other forms of burnout and is characterized by the following three characteristics:
Chronic exhaustion: Pervasive physical, cognitive and social fatigue
Reduced tolerance to stimulus: Increased sensory sensitivities and sensitivity to sensory stimuli
Loss of skills: Many of our executive functioning skills will worsen during burnout. We may struggle with speaking, attention, regulating attention, and other cognitive functions.
Basically, burnout happens when we’re feeling drained, overloaded, and overwhelmed, and it can be really tough to deal with. It can affect our ability to function in our daily life and can take a toll on our mental and physical health.
Causes of Autistic Burnout
There are a variety of factors that can contribute to Autistic burnout. Some common causes include:
Stress: Autistic people often experience daily activities as more stressful than non-autistic people. The daily stress of navigating routine disruptions, allistic social situations, and the demands of work and school can be exhausting for many of us.
Sensory overload: Autistic people are often more sensitive to sensory stimuli, such as loud noises or bright lights, which can lead to sensory overload and contribute to burnout. Prolonged periods of sensory overload can tax our nervous system, reducing our capacity and increasing the likelihood of burnout.
Executive functioning overload: After prolonged periods of having our executive functioning taxed, many of us can experience burnout and loss of executive functioning skills.
Difficulty navigating allistic social or educational systems: Autistic people may struggle with decoding and following social rules in allistic spaces or may do so at a high cognitive cost (such as through masking). We may also face difficulty advocating for our needs in educational or work environments, leading to frustration and exhaustion that can contribute to burnout.
Difficulties accessing support and accommodations and lack of support: Many Autistic people face barriers to receiving a formal diagnosis and obtaining accommodations, leading to a lack of support and contributing to feelings of overwhelm and burnout.
It is important to note that Autistic burnout can be caused by a combination of these factors and may differ for each person. It is helpful to identify your specific causes of burnout in order to develop strategies for managing and preventing future burnout. You can read more in-depth information about Autistic burnout causes in my blog post here.
Autistic Burnout Recovery
This is the part of the blog post where I wish I could offer you an "easy three-step process" to GUARANTEE your burnout recovery in six weeks. But I can’t do that. I don’t have a magical recipe to cure your Autistic burnout because there are no quick fixes. If you've spent the last several years over-compensating, ignoring your sensory needs, and over-functioning, burnout recovery will not happen overnight. One of the hardest parts about Autistic burnout recovery is patience. We need gentleness and patience with ourselves (and the process). While I don't have a simple three-step process, I do have many thoughts and practices I will share with you.
Reconsider “Normal”
Autistic burnout is not something we can easily "bounce back" from. The idea of bouncing back implies that our burnout is a temporary situation, and once we recover, we return to our normal lives. However, for many Autistic people, it is the demands and challenges of their normal lives that contribute to burnout. Recovering from Autistic burnout often requires a significant overhaul of one's life, including reevaluating one's values and creating a more sustainable way of living.
For most people, to effectively recover from Autistic burnout, it is necessary to go through a two-step process: 1) Immediate recovery, which involves addressing the immediate causes and consequences of burnout, and 2) Sustained recovery, which involves restructuring one's life and creating a more sustainable way of living through reevaluating one's values and identifying and addressing the underlying factors that contributed to burnout.
Immediate Recovery
Immediate recovery involves practices that help you regain energy from the immediate burnout cycle you find yourself in. This involves incorporating things like rest, reducing sensory input, self-care, creating healthy boundaries, and nourishing practices. Recovery can take all shapes and sizes. For some, it will look like significant time resting and sleeping. For others, it may involve eating the same foods repeatedly. Or it may look like spending time with your special interests.
Sustained Recovery
The second phase of recovery is what I call deep recovery. This often involves a more systemic and structural look at your life. Deep recovery involves addressing patterns and parts of us that are more deeply baked in. This often involves structural and personality changes (things like breaking out of perpetual people-pleasing, reconsidering our relationship to food, alcohol, health, movement, sleep, work, and your sensory environment). Creating a sustainable life often involves re-evaluating the concept of "normal" to create a new normal. Building a life that works for you will likely take creativity and commitment; these things don't happen overnight.
Autistic Burnout Recovery Tips
The following paragraphs include several burnout recovery tips. Several of the tips come directly from Autistic people who were interviewed for the Raymaker study done on Autistic burnout. And then I've included several of my own tips. It's a lot of information and ideas, don't try them all at once. I encourage you to consider implementing the ones you are drawn to and leave the rest. When building a burnout recovery plan, sometimes less is more!
Raymaker Recovery Supports
The following themes came up in Raymaker's interviews with Autistic adults. Autistic adults identified the following themes as helpful in their burnout recovery.
Acceptance and Access to Social Support: Accessing individual and community support, peer support, attending to Autistic needs, and time spent unmasking. Advocating for and receiving reasonable accommodations.
Leaning into Autistic Strengths: Drawing on Autistic strengths and special interests.
Formal Supports: Mental health supports, time off, breaks, and the ability to socially withdraw.
Reducing Load: Reducing activities, setting boundaries, and asking for help.
Self-Advocacy and Health: Focusing on a healthy lifestyle, receiving an Autism diagnosis.
Self-Knowledge: Understanding patterns and triggers and making strategic decisions to be preventative.
Engagement with the Autistic Community: Engagement with the Autistic community can help a person name and validate their experience of burnout
Burnout Recovery Practices—Dr. Neff Tips
Here are a few additional recommended practices to support your recovery process:
Practice boundaries and drop unnecessary demands: Protect your time and energy by saying no to non-essential activities or commitments. It's important to prioritize your own well-being and not take on too much.
Find ways to reduce sensory input (use noise-canceling headphones or noise-reducing devices like Loops, sunglasses, etc.).
Take breaks: Make sure you're giving yourself time to relax and recharge. This could mean setting aside time for leisure activities or just taking some short breaks throughout the day.
Find alternative ways to express yourself. Many Autists have alternative ways of expressing emotions. Writing, art, making a collage, writing a poem, or finding music that matches your mood are just a few examples of alternative ways of expressing yourself.
Don’t let the routine go. In burnout, we’re tempted to let the routine go altogether. However, routines are soothing to our nervous systems because they tell us what to expect. It doesn't have to be rigorous, but it will be helpful to have a few anchor points during the day.
Engage in activities that are soothing to your senses: Find gentle and soothing ways to move your body.
Spend time in Nature: Nature is particularly restorative for Autistic people. If you have access, take time to go and sit by a lake, the ocean, or a beautiful meadow, or simply listen to nature songs.
Practice self-care: Take care of yourself by doing things that nourish and support you. This might mean getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, or practicing relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation.
Seek support: Don't be afraid to talk to someone about how you're feeling. This could be a therapist, counselor, or someone you trust in the Autistic community.
Create a sensory-supportive environment: Make your living and work spaces as comfortable and supportive as possible. This might mean minimizing sensory triggers, reducing visual clutter, and creating a calm and organized environment.
Seek accommodations: If you're having trouble with school or work, consider seeking accommodations like extra time for tasks or breaks. It can be helpful to work with an advocate or support professional to identify and request accommodations.
Building an Autistic Burnout Recovery Plan
When building your recovery plan, it is helpful to think about the core ingredients. Remember that every person will have different core ingredients to their recovery plan. The following paragraphs consider some ingredients or pillars that may be a part of your recovery plan.
Sensory
Where can you reduce your sensory load? Are there light fixtures you can swap out? Can you create a sensory detox space in your home? Are you using weighted blankets, noise blockers, or constriction clothing? Can you remove irritants (perfumes, chemical smells, bright lights) from your primary residence? These things may sound small, but they add up!
Given that our sensory system is on high alert during burnout, finding ways to block unnecessary sensory input can go a long way.
Many late-in-life diagnosed people are so disconnected from their bodies that they tend to have a "power through my discomfort" attitude regarding their sensory issues. However, these irritants contribute to burnout and benefit from being addressed.
Sleep
Sleep: Sleep is often hard for Autistic people, and we often benefit from being on top of our sleep routines, sleep hygiene, sleep supports, and more. Prioritizing sleep is a critical part of burnout recovery. You can learn more about neurodivergent sleep supports here.
Vital Behaviors
Vital behaviors are activities that bring joy and energize you. These likely are related to your special interests or may be related to repetitive physical movements that soothe you (swinging, rhythmic dancing, skating, etc.). Be sure you create space for activities that restore and energize you.
Movement
Finding movement that feels enjoyable, pleasurable, and restorative is vital. This may involve repetitive movement or movement that provides proprioceptive input (like swinging, weight lifting, or more). Just keep in mind that your body is recovering, so you want to be gentle with your movement regime.
Drop Demands
Do a “demand inventory” of your life and consider if there are any non-essential demands you can drop for a while. If you regularly cook, can you do more microwave foods, takeout, or meal delivery subscriptions for a while? Can you develop a uniform you wear every day/week and drop the demand of needing to pick out your clothing? Are there work demands or parenting demands you can drop? If you are a parent, consider ways of supporting your children by dropping some daily demands for them, from bringing them water to tying their shoes for them.
Rest
I can’t emphasize this one enough. Autistic burnout is a physical response to your body, mind, and nervous system being perpetually overloaded. You need rest and lots of it! This may look like focusing on your sleep, napping, or spending time with your special interest. Prioritizing rest is vital for your recovery. Try to focus on rest that feels restorative. Binge-watching T.V. may feel restful but likely not restorative. Consider reading or listening to a book related to a special interest or engaging in activities you experience as soothing to your sensory system.
Accommodations
Now is the time to take a serious look at what accommodations are in place and what could be added. If you are working on setting up work accommodations, JAN is a great resource (note: scroll to the bottom of their page and click through to see ideas of accommodations you can ask for).
For many people, the first step in accessing accommodations is to figure out what your body needs. Spend time scanning your environment and considering what the irritants are and what would support you. If you struggle to know what you need because of interoception issues, consider starting with activities that increase interoceptive awareness.
Creating a Recovery Plan: Bringing it All Together
On a piece of paper, write down your core ingredients or pillars that are going to feed into your recovery plan. Now create action steps and small goals under each of these pillars. So, for example, under rest, you may write, “focus on going to bed every night by 10 pm" or “talk to my doctor about medication support for sleep.” Under Drop Demands, take note of any demands you can possibly drop and how you will do that, and so on. You can find fillable worksheets to help build an Autistic burnout recovery plan in my Autistic burnout guide, or you can simply do this on a plain piece of paper.
Preventing Autistic Burnout
A final word about Autistic burnout recovery: preventing Autistic burnout is the best strategy. Self-knowledge is critical for this — knowing your triggers and identifying early signs of burnout. For some people, early signs will include increased sensitivity to sensory input; for others, it will be depersonalization and detachment.
Being able to identify early signs of burnout can help inform you that it's time to remove yourself from the situation and arrange some sensory downtime. Self-knowledge can also help you to plan travel, trips, and daily rhythms in such a way that builds in sensory detox/downtime. As part of your ongoing recovery and maintenance, working on preventing future burnout is critical.
By implementing these strategies, you can take proactive steps to prevent Autistic burnout and cultivate a sustainable life.
Deep Recovery
What I refer to as "Deep Recovery" is the deep psychological work involved in unmasking and learning to relate to the world differently. Masking gets baked into our psyches and is deeper than simply mimicking scripts and body postures. This can result in becoming a perpetual people-pleaser. Masking and people-pleasing make it hard to maintain healthy boundaries, and we often run ourselves ragged, hustling for worth. These deeper issues often have to be addressed when we set out to build a more sustainable life.
And so if you are a high-masking Autistic person or recovering from late-in-life Autistic burnout, you may need more than rest and added accommodations. You may need to restructure your identity as you incorporate your neurodivergent identity. For many, it is not until burnout that we discover our autism. And so your burnout may be the first time you recognize that your life simply isn't working. You may discover you are driving yourself to the ground trying to function in an allistic world, and it's not working.
If this is your experience, your recovery may also include 1) addressing internalized ableism and 2) creating space for grief.
Addressing Internalized Ableism
Internalized ableism refers to our beliefs and prejudices that come from living in an ableist society. These beliefs often form our expectations about ourselves. For example, "I should be able to work a 40-hour work week" or "I shouldn't need accommodations."
Our internalized ableism drives many of our unrealistic expectations of ourselves. We are holding ourselves to an allistic "normal" while not honoring our unique sensory, communication, and bodily needs. We will continue to run ourselves ragged until we address our ableism (and expectations)!
Internalized ableism often drives people-pleasing tendencies, which can make it difficult to create and maintain healthy boundaries. If we perpetually define our identity based on how pleased others are with us, we will remain stuck in the frantic loop of over-performing and burnout. There are many ways to engage in this depth work: reading, journaling, writing, connecting with other Autistic people, processing with trusted others, or working with a therapist or coach.
Autistic Burnout Recovery Involves Grief Work
Grief work goes hand in hand with addressing internalized ableism. As we address our ableism, we also encounter our limits. It's okay to grieve your limits. In order to accept new ones, you need to grieve what you are losing.
To accept our limits, we have to grieve the idea of ourselves we are releasing. After my Autistic discovery, I realized my chronic fatigue symptoms would never magically disappear. I realized I would always live in a body that needed more rest and was limited by its sensory needs. I grieved what this meant for me. The careers I would no longer be pursuing, and the ways this limited my social world and my role as a parent. I needed to grieve the image I had of myself to embrace who I was
Summary: Autistic Burnout Recovery
If you are experiencing Autistic burnout, it is important to know that you are not alone in this struggle. Burnout can be very draining and overwhelming. However, there are steps you can take to start healing your body and mind. Building a burnout recovery plan that works for you and your specific needs is key. This might include self-care strategies, setting boundaries, dropping demands, and seeking out support from friends, family, or professionals. With some planning and self-care, you can start the journey toward recovery and find a path toward healing.
In addition, your burnout may be a signal to engage in some introspection and address internalized ableism and the sadness that comes with realizing your limitations. It may also be an opportunity to reevaluate and reorganize your life in a way that better aligns with your true self.
