Aspies and burnout?

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I was wondering, have any of you out there experienced burnout? As in: Physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress? As an aspie myself, I've definitely had meltdowns, and with my intense attention span, I work hard and long hours. But recently I've been very stressed, sleepless, and physically ill. Has anyone else dealt with burnout in their life? If so, could you describe your experience?
Thanks.

I;'m not sure if I have ever experienced what you would call as burnout but I have been in situations of high stress and basically not knowing how to deal with it. I just really get worked up and fall into a mood where I just really do not want to do anything, whether hat be sleeping doing uni work or playing a game, I just don't want to do any of it. It's as if my mind just tells me to just stop and take time to reboot. I usually get over it after sleeping, that's if I can bring myself to sleep.

Yes. Burnout for me happened last September.

I got more and more stressed, my overthinking went into complete overdrive, my coping strategies disappeared one by one, I started doing dangerous things, and then I had a massive shutdown at work where I couldn't move or speak or do anything.

Fortunately a colleague who is very experienced at dealing with people in crisis found me stuck at my desk and got me to a doctor. I had 4 months off-work with "stress related illness" - it was really tough, I couldn't manage anything at home to begin with either. I have had to build up coping strategies for pretty much everything from the ground up.

I am just about managing at home now, but I am still struggling to get back up to my full working hours & duties (we've been building up gradually and I know when I've pushed it too far because things at home start falling apart again). Fortunately, my employer has been very supportive.

I've experienced the toughest burnout or overwhelming event in a long time. I was forced into an emergency and to help my male shepherd cross over this past aug. True to its form we didn't find out he had cancer or how badly it had ravaged his precious body until it was too late, in just a handful of days he went from perfect to very, very ill. I spiraled into deep depression and am still not out of it, its been eight months this coming April 2nd. I still wake up every morning crying, and several times a day, he touched every part of my day from first climbing down my ladder in our mornings he always greeted me at the bottom with his ball. April 6th he would have turned nine, and I feel the panic creeping back in intense again. He was also my second assistance dog, retired, but we had an enormous bond.
My poor bodies immune system has been put through the wringer. I used to get eczema when I was age four/five in the mornings before school, I haven't had it since those early years. Halloween I had eczema come back, first time in almost thirty years brought on by the intense stress. I've been fighting it in different spots since. I had planned to get his portrait tattooed, but have to wait for my immune system to recover before... ironic thing is the tattoo would be therapeutic. He wasn't my only loss. I suffered four other deaths since his, another being a childhood friend just a month after my boy.. my first funeral, open coffin. My female shepherd (my retired first assistance dog) now has a visible lump on her right ribcage.. I have to get it checked. After so many losses I rotate to either a bag of numb or tears. I'm not someone who normally cries either.

Tough times.

I've experienced it three times over a four-year period. Or I experienced an extended version of it.

Yes, I was officially diagnosed at 19 or as close as it's going to get. Presumed to be caused by autism. After an AS diagnosis in high school that was a surprise to me as my strongest symptoms are all hidden, I went even more all out achiever-wise to try to show to myself that I could be better than it. I went as far as doing well and being recognized in prestigious youth, science and leadership programs all of which has socially demanding experiences attached. This all weighed down on me mentally, and there was no payoff for the work as what made normal people happy didn't at all affect me at all. Eventually I became severely, physically ill despite not having taken a single sick day in the last 2 years of high school. Many of my physical symptoms have now, much later, been lightened but I'm not at all fully functional, and have suffered loss of purpose as the result of a delayed life. It's been difficult.

I don't share often but I think it's important that you think about it. I wasn't aware I was in danger until things were very bad. One of the better scientific approaches I've worked in and seen good data/results for the the sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system understating of things: essentially, people with AS become stressed way more easily, and it stays with them longer. It sounds stupid (I'm a physicist and researcher) to many but there is a real effect to the concept of meditation and you should look into it. I of course wouldn't vouch for any of the spiritualism that goes with it, but the actual technique itself can help you. Start with abdominal breathing-- it's the simplest and most powerful and has a direct effect on your system to move you from more sympathetic mode (fight or flight) to parasympathetic. Most of your physical illnesses in the case of burnout are a literal result of your body being too tense, all the time (ie, sympathetic overload). Pm me if you'd like to discuss anyways.

Regards,
Eldanesh

I've just recently experienced a social burnout by going to my clubhouse too often in the past. It got to the point where I haven't gone regularly for a while. It's more anxiety than anything else. I'm going to discuss it with the head lady on Monday.

Sorry to resurrect a thread from last year but I had burnout in year 11. I did year 12 over two years and then later had burnout after one semesta of collage. I passed all my courses but I felt like full time study was too much for me so I dropped out. I should've stuck with it. Now I'm working a crappy part time job but I want to get a real job just so I don't feel so pathetic and I can stop hating myself. I'll at least try anyway but I have my doubts that I can even cope with a full time job even though for 99% percent of the people on this site it's an everyday thing.

Burn out?

I have only recently self diagnosed myself and everything makes sense now. About 20 years ago, back when I thought I was normal, I went on a campaign to self improve myself and put myself in an overload state that lasted for about 15 years. I went to college full time, worked full time. Graduated and started a career. At the same time I got married to a blind lady which meant no eye contact, but also meant that I had to guide her and myself. Then we bought a house, and had kids. You know the typical American dream right? Then I went back to school.

Everything in my life became a major task. When ever we went some where, I was guiding my wife, keeping track of the kids, trying to figure out what line to get in, who to talk to, chase one or both of the kids down, describe to my wife what was going on around us, figure out if we were standing in the same line, break the kids up from fight, discover we were in the wrong line as I was describing stuff for my wife, get into the right line, chase one of the kid back down....

My typical day was wake up, shower, drive the kids to daycare, drive my wife to work, drive myself to work. Work all day, then pick my wife up, pick the kids up, rush off to a drive through to buy myself supper on the way to night classes. Finally, got to go back home, only to do homework, and start it all back up in the morning.

I started experiencing physical symptoms, including falling out of nowhere, and kept myself in that worsening state for 10+ years. When I finally surrendered, I could no longer connect my thoughts together. Two paragraphs on the same page seemed to be talking about totally separate topics. The software I wrote I could read. I basically became low functioning and remained that way for a couple of years.

It has taken me over four years now, of low or no activity to regain most of my functionality back. Since my discovery of HFA, my wife and I have started trying to restructure my life so that I am never taking on too much at once, and things have started improving, starting with my self confidence.

So yes, I believe that burnout can happen.

Actually, I'm going through a burnout right now. Last year I worked really hard, and there were a couple of very exhausting months when I couldn't even get enough sleep, let alone other kinds of rest or entertainment.

After that my functionality dropped tremendously, and I still can't fully regain it. I have very little energy even for doing the things I like, I'm easily stressed by the smallest of problems, and even simple activities wear me out too quickly.

Yes, I've had several burnouts. I had one after several changes happened in my life at once, I was traveling more than ever with soccer, I lost several friends, and I was starting school at a new school. I became severely depressed, I wouldn't leave my house, I was so fatigued, I didn't eat and I lost a ton of weight, I even quit soccer. That was my most severe burnout. Since then my burn outs consist of a week or a couple weeks, maybe a month of burnout where I am just so exhausted that I don't keep up with hygiene and friends. I don't know how to stop getting burned out. It just will hit me one day like a ton of bricks.

My biggest burnout happened while employed by an overachiever who was convinced I could become an overachiever as well.

I worked hard (much time in sales) and attended all the training sessions. HA HA HA ! NOW I can laugh at the course on How to Win Friends and Influence People that took 13 weeks that left me miserable. HA HA. Talk about wrong planet.......sheesh! After working about 8 years for this man that was about IT. During the last year I worked (often night and day) for this man only to have him say, without explanation, he decided not to go forward with the project thereby negating all the work I'd slaved at for the last year.

I left him and was virtually unemployed for a year and until I made the decision to not do this type of personal contact work and switch to something else. I relocated our family from Illinois to California, got a job relying on my technical expertise and with little or no public contact, and stayed there until I retired in 2005. The last 20 or so of my working years were very pleasant.

The key for me was finding the things that made our life unhappy and me so tired and burnt out and, one-by-one, eliminating them. I had no diagnosis at the time we moved......just got lucky.

denny

I was a burnout in college and highschool.

I took on a nursing job about two months ago that turned out to be burnout city.

I went to work at 6:30 AM and literally had no break (meal, bathroom, whatever) till I clocked out around 4, 5, or 6 PM. I was practically running all the time.

I'm sure I was doing internal damage to myself, not to mention mental damage. And no, the bosses don't have a whip about your exhaustion or fatigue.

There was no way I could've sustained that forever so I quit this week. I'm now in the job market again.

I was never familiar with all these terms before I came to WP. I call meltdowns 'Having a Benny' and burnout for me is a 'breakdown'.