Middle age burnout

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I've been reading online about Aspie adults burning out when they are middle aged. Does this actually happen? I hope this doesn't happen to me.

It happened to me.

I feel like it already happened to me even though I'm only seventeen. When I was in elementary school I had good grades and a few friends. I also got bullied a lot. When I was going to start middle school I decided to make myself more normal to make more friends and not get bullied. When I started middle school I could barely get my assignments done and ended up in special ed full time. I didn't make any friends, but I didn't get bullied as much. When I started high school things were the same. I sort of dropped out when I was fifteen. I started "homeschooling", but I barely got any work done. Right now I'm mostly focusing on art and music. The problem with that is I doubt I'll be able to make a real career out of that. I can barely get out of bed. I can't imagine having an actual job. I hope I can one day live independently, have a full time job and a relationship.

Nope. It's not the same thing. Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying you're not having problems. Only that they're different problems corresponding to different life phases.

Midage burntout is mostly physical. You can feel great psychollogically speaking, but it's like your body have be depleted of all resources.

How to explain it?... when you're seventeen (or early twenties) you can feel lost. And there's a moment when you're really exhausted of feeling lost, of not knowing where you're going.

The middleage burnout is different. You are not lost, you know where you're going. You have been running and running, But running in a NT world takes a lot of energy. And there's a moment when you have no more energy, when you are exhausted of running.

It's routine in my (all Aspie!) family, but we've all dealt with it in different days.

My dad took his gold plated Civil Service pension, bought a farmhouse on a mountain, and proceeded to draw that pension for 48 years (probably singlehandedly tipping the world economy into recession?)! My brother moved away from London and got out of management roles for his last five working years. My GP spotted the danger and got me medically retired before I got near crashing.

this is interesting, can someone link me an article about this please?

There's pieces of information here and there in the web, but I think there's still no serious investigation about the subject. The problem is that this is something characteristic from adult HFA, and medicine is just starting to investigate about them.

ok i've found some threads here relating to this too, thank you

feel slightly qualified to talk about Burnout, but first, has anyone come across a link between Fibromyalgia/Chronic-Fatigue and Aspergers?
Let me explain, I worked nights for many years in an extremely high-stress environment (and dumb enough to return to similar situations in later years), anyhow, I was basically "running-on-empty" as well as unknowingly having Depression/Stress. Fibromyalgia Syndrome or FMS, appears to especially effect those who are over-stressed, there is still much mystery surrounding FMS/M.E/Chronic Fatigue, which is extremely frustrating when you are attempting to live with the conditions!
I suspect that the Stress of being an Aspie, added to the normal stresses of Study/Work/Living, might create the Environment for FMS/M.E to develop or possibly help weaken the immune-system so that individuals are more vulnerable to the conjectured pre-viral causes.
There is also an awful lot of Corporate Thinking/Philosophy which functions in an inflexible manner and adds to individual stress, in my opinion ( from painful life-experience)
I mean, WHAT are People FOR!? just "Human Resources"? nuff said!

I felt very identified with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue symptoms. It ended up being ADHD. Stimulant drugs used for ADHD helped me with it. (ADHD and Aspergers appear together in a significant percentage).

Perhaps you should give it a look.

Right now I have way less energy to do things compared to when I was ten. For a few years I also had migraines and stuff, but I'm slowly recovering.

Any idea when this starts? I'm in my mid/late 30s. Now I know no one likes going to work, but more and more I feel like Im just done. I took a week of vacation and I felt great, but the second I went back to the office i just felt ... tired? but not really tired... I have a hard time explaining the feeling. I love what I do, I'm a computer engineer, but I hate getting up and going into the office every morning. ( I'm a computer engineering for a non-technical company )

What doesn't help is that we don't have set procedures, I have to spend 1/2 the time playing dodge the baracade because no one wants to setup proper procedures and when I setup the procedures they throw them out because I'm not upper management. Of course upper management doesn't have a clue about IT so they dont know how to do procedures accordingly. Then of course I have to put up with NT's, they want to socialize and I'm picked on because I dont participate. I'm picked on because I don't do the dept./company outings. I have to put up with these people day in and day out and my wife worries I'm going to shutdown on her completely when I get home each night. I feel that is happening slowly but surely, i just want to shutdown ... sigh ... I try to tell myself this is normal everyone hates thier job and I'm just ... sigh ...

Burnout can happen at any time, I crashed when I was 18. I was in a university, going for a political science major, and depression, unfamiliarity with a classroom setting and dealing with a wide variety of people all the time (I grew up in an abusive fundamentalist homeschooling family), lead me to just completely fall apart. Depression hit hard, I couldn't hardly get out of bed, I was in pain all the time, ended up flunking out, and having to move back in with the family.

5 years later, though, and I have a good job, I just bought a house that I'm rebuilding, and will move into in the next two months or so, life is starting to look up again.

Well, first, this is something that has not been surveyed. All I have is my experience and it fits a couple of things I read in the net.

According to what I know, and supposing it's correct (I repete: there's no investigations about it), this is supposed to happen to HFA or Aspergers (I never knew the difference) that managed to integrate with some success in the NT world. But we're still aspies, so it takes an extra amount of energy to be constantly trying use a 'NT facade' (to say it in pattern language ).

To me, it happened in my mid/late 30s and it was exactly the same you're describing. I'm indeed very attached to procedures and to organize and define very clearly how information (any type) is organized in general.

It is supposed to be (again: just a guess, no investigations) because the body becomes someway exhausted of trying to 'look NT' 24H. It's being in a constant stress. And the problem is that for NTs, social events are a way to recharge batteries, but for aspies, they keep being a battery-discharges where you must keep you 'NT facade'.

What helped me:

- Taking it easy. Very important. Slow down.
- Having time for yourself when you don't have to 'look NT'. What means: resting, dear god.
- Low sugar diet. I was using lots of coffee, sugar and vitamines to have my daily 'boost' until one moment I just couldn't do it any more. Sugar works Ok to keep you working if all you need is short term, but long term, it's contraproducent.
- Sleeping well. I had lots of problems with sleep. Now I'm using melatonin.
- Antidepressants. They helped me. But here it's doctor's word. I'm still taking them, but half dose I was taking before.

Hope it helps.



Did you consider the option of being depressed? Depression it's not always about 'feeling sad'.

[quote="Greb] According to what I know, and supposing it's correct (I repete: there's no investigations about it), this is supposed to happen to HFA or Aspergers (I never knew the difference) that managed to integrate with some success in the NT world. But we're still aspies, so it takes an extra amount of energy to be constantly trying use a 'NT facade'.[/quote]

Maybe they should do some studies on this, I think this might be important for our long term mental stability/health.

Can you please help me with what you mean by "taking it easy slow down", people have said this to me several times over the course of my life but never can they explain it well enough to me.

Yeah I switched to a low-sugar diet I moved to 4-5 years ago. I'm glad to hear I should increase my dosage as that is what my brain says I should do as I feel like i"m on empty so often.

Sleep, yeah sleep is a great thing. I also have alot problem with sleep, my damn brain refuses to stop alot of the time. I get sleep 6-8 hours on weekdays (with the exception of those nights I get 2 hours) ... and I try to get 10 hours on the weekend.

Thank you for your response and advice, at least I know that this I'm not the only one. thanks!

Seriously, check melatonin. It's the natural human body sleep cycle regulator. It's harmless, cheap and needs no prescription, you can get it in any drugstore. For me it was a real discovery.



Well, slow down is... slow down. Dunno really well how to describe it. For example, with the procedures stuff, if people are not willing to collaborate, let it go. I know that letting things go is kind of difficult when it comes to things that you consider importants (aspergers use to be obssessive with matters for them). Here antidepressants really helped me. Some antidepressants, besides the depression stuff, help with OCD traits. They make easier not to get obssesed.