How To Fix Burnout/Exhaustion/Whatever

[beyondbacon]

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how coherent I can be under the circumstances, so apologies in advance.

Basically, for the past 10 years (give or take) I've been essentially unable to function. I've called (or heard it called) executive functioning disorder, low spoons, mental exhaustion, and other things but the basic gist is that everything takes more energy than I have.

Paying attention to things takes energy. Any sort of complex task takes energy. And I'm not talking about physical energy— when I'm all out of mental energy and can't focus on anything, I might be hyperactive (or tired) (or anywhere in between). Physical exhaustion causes mental exhaustion, but the reverse is not true.

Unfortunately, that means I can't work, attend university, or do anything I enjoy, which makes for an incredibly miserable life. I'm desperately searching for solutions, but there don't seem to be any.

In other places, descriptions of "autistic burnout" seem to more or less accurately capture what I'm feeling, but often with key variations (few sources seem to accept the idea of a burnout lasting 10 years without reprieve) and when they offer any suggestions at all, those suggestions are completely inapplicable to me.

So does anyone have the slightest clue what I'm going through and what can be done about it? After 10 years of this misery, I'm about three months away from considering assisted suicide to be a possible solution.

 

[Keigan]

10 years is a long time. What has your environment and diet been like over the past 10 years?

 

[FreeDiver]

Look into sensory processing disorders (SPD). Theses issues can hit you immediately, or they can hit you at a later time. and I think what is happening in your case is that they are hitting you at a later time in the game. What I mean is is that you may be in an environment that is causing sensory overload and you may not be consciously aware that anything is happing. But in fact, is costing you spoons and you feel it later on in the game. You're feeling the pain for something that happen earlier on.

 

[beyondbacon]

Environment? Living with my parents because I can't afford (or function well enough) to live anywhere else. Doing what I can with the spoons I've got— sometimes, I have more and sometimes less, which means sometimes I can do a few fun things and sometimes not. On a few occasions, I'd try taking classes at a university (only one class at a time). It usually didn't end well.

I did manage to go on vacation a few times. Each vacation was a six-week adventure in which I was able to be mostly-normal and generally functional from just after I left until about 4-5 weeks later, at which point I'd crash catastrophically and sort of limp back home with no spoons to spare.

Diet? No nutritional deficiencies. Low spoons rule out any chance of "normal" three-home-cooked-meals-a-day, but I'm not suffering from any dietary woes.

 

[beyondbacon]

I know I have SPD, though I'm rather stymied trying to find treatment for it.

That said, I don't think the SPD is the entire picture. It seems like more of a hanger-on; "I'm also miserable because..."

EDIT: OK, so I apparently messed up the quotes. Sorry.

 

[kay]

Is a hanger-on the same as a hangover? That's what I imagine I'm feeling today after a very long day yesterday. Though I've never had a hangover before so I am just guessing.

 

[kay]

So, this is a problem I have, too. I'm always running out of spoons and am exhausted from everything. Prevention is the best thing I know of.

Pay attention to all the little things that might be stealing bits of spoons. Is that t-shirt really soft enough? Is the ring of the phone set too loud? Do you need less television time? Don't wait till the noise gets to you, go ahead and use earplugs every time you go to the grocery store. It's surprising how the stuff that you think you can handle adds up to lost spoons.

Always be prepared, that's the other thing that's really important.

In preparation for a potential roadtrip: I just bought Ensure,(that nutritional drink that chemo patients get for free sometimes) some Mack's silicone earplugs, Benadryl to make me drowsy if needed, and Cheetos. The Cheetos are just because I think I deserve them. I also have ibuprofen, Excedrin, Tylenol, aspirin, Alka-Seltzer, vitamin D, Prozac and my thyroid meds. My ear muffs and little pink foam earplugs are going. I have a bag of chocolate, all the right music, my most comfy clothes, spare sunglasses, fidgets, a plan that I never have to go in a grocery store, Wal-mart or anything else that will overload me. We are avoiding heavy traffic as much as possible. I get two days mid-trip to have alone time in the motel. We will be resting as often as possible by taking short hikes and camping part of the trip. And the car is organized to near perfection at this point.

Despite all my efforts I just expect I will need a month to fully recover. And that involves Epsom salt baths, dark rooms, rest, rest, and more rest. A rocking chair. Weighted blanket and comfort foods. More rest. I'll be able to maybe get a little work done after a week, but very little. That's why I don't work much and am self-employed because so much of the time I just can't do much of anything.

Also, do go to the doctor and make sure there isn't anything else going on that might be making sensory issues worse.

Sorry that's all I know. Wish I knew more because I hate feeling so exhausted, too. It means having to miss out on quite a bit and I still can't work enough. If it wasn't for my bf I don't know what I'd do.

 

[Buzzerfly]

I am having trouble with this in my current living situation, and I'm not even autistic. It's been going on for a few months, and I've had other periods of it since my teen years. Now, it's especially hard because I have a household and children to take care of. I find that it's not only a total lack of energy but a pull that actually makes me feel less capable than I was before...

Ten years= you are strong.

My response to your inquiry may seem unrelated, or worse, nutty. Oh well:
Have you ever thought about black holes? Like out in space. They eat light, engulf things, take energy. Is it possible that sometimes a person or set of circumstances in our lives can line up like a black hole and take from us? If so, my only advice is to try and identify where the sucking comes from. Don't under any circumstances try and fight it...it's a mindless entity that just does what it does. Then, see if there is some kind of miracle to help guide you away from it. Again, fighting takes the rest of what energy you've got, but being aware of a black holes location is possible by observing where matter goes missing...I think!

 

[Full Steam]

I've had something similar for many years, and I'm just fixing it now. I was tired all the time, and could only work, think and talk effectively about 2 days in 7. Got worse as I aged, and it got debilitating.

It's taken 3 year of making it my primary priority, reading, and testing, and experimenting.

What I found was like peeling back an onion, only to find new causes and problems.

Here is what I found:

Low potassium. I got even more tired after drinking water. No one could explain this, and I figured it out myself. Fix: small amounts of supplemental potassium. Large amounts can stop your heart.

Multiple chemical sensitivities. Cut out all preservative, colours, gluten and dairy, and felt much better.

GI problems. I rarely get upset stomach, so it was hard to see the role of GI on mood and energy, but it's there. Fix, drink kefir everyday. I find a small amount of milk in the kefir is ok.if I drink every day I can tolerate much more chemical toxins.

Gene testing. Get this done for sure. This was a major part of fixing me, and impossible without. It's cheap, and amazingly interesting too.

Autistic shutdown. The inner part of the onion. No fixing this I think, as the causes are noise and people. I take regular breaks before I feel slow or numb and that helps massively. Learning to look after myself with this as it's cumulative. If I don't rest when I need it, then I'll end up with days of exhaustion.

Think someone on here said "schedule in down time or will schedule itself in".