Participants of the survey described barriers to support, such as having their experiences and differences dismissed by others, a lack of external support and an inability to take breaks.īeyond this study, there are few published papers about autistic burnout, but similar conditions can help fill out the picture. Those include being forced to hide their autistic traits (often called “masking”), managing the disabling aspects of autism and coping with a world that expects autistic people to perform at the same level as their non-autistic peers.
Autism and mental health.Ī wide range of life stressors contribute to autistic burnout, according to a small 2020 study led by Portland State University researcher Dora M. Research does show that autistic people have a harder time keeping their heads above water in ways that are similar to burnout, and some experts offer advice on how to deal with it. That’s almost certainly an undercount many in the autistic and research communities believe that women and people of color are underdiagnosed.Īutistic burnout is a concept already widely accepted in neurodivergent communities, but it hasn’t been formally studied much.
Centers for Disease Control estimates that, as of 2017, 2.2 percent of adults in the United States - nearly 5.5 million people - are autistic. “Whatever you want from me, you’re not going to get.” “It’s the point at which there’s no more of you left to give. This harms their ability to perform well at jobs, in school or at home.
They may become unable to speak or care for themselves, and struggle with short-term memory. Autistic traits can amplify the conditions that lead to burnout, and burnout can cause these traits to worsen. While most people undergo periods of burnout - physical, cognitive and emotional depletion caused by intense, prolonged stress - autistic people, at some point in their lives, experience it on a whole different level. Occasionally, she winds up so fried she can’t speak or get out of bed for days. Tyla Grant, 24, holds down a full-time advertising job, is trying to get a nonprofit off the ground and creates regular content for her podcast, YouTube channel and Instagram.
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