Every day I see people posting in FB groups for autistic adults about how chronically burnt out they are and how they feel helpless and hopeless around it. I get it, because that’s where I was when I figured out that I was autistic five years ago. This may be why I feel so passionate about spreading the word that we don’t need to feel helpless and hopeless as burnt-out autistic adults! This chronic autistic burnout is treatable and manageable through ditching neurotypical attitudes toward our sensory systems and managing your sensory health in an autism-friendly way.
I really don’t see sensory health discussed enough when we talk about autistic burnout. Sensory overwhelm is the main hidden cause of autistic burnout, yet people focus more on social overwhelm. Yes, neurotypical social pressures play a part in autistic burnout, but so do the noises, movement, smells, physical contact, light, and uncertainty of social situations as well as ignoring our sensory needs nearly all the time.
How does paying attention to your autistic sensory health prevent burnout? First, what is autistic sensory health? Autistic people have unique sensory needs. We may have extra sensitive or under-sensitive senses in any of our eight sensory systems. We may have trouble reading or understanding certain senses, or may crave extra sensory input. In general, we do not have the sensory systems that the neurotypical world expects, systems that can go through a given day just fine being ignored. Our sensory systems are like beautiful orchids gifted to someone who has been given instructions for taking care of a cactus (aka do almost nothing to care for it). Autistic sensory health is paying attention to what your specific sensory system needs and giving it that instead of what the neurotypical standards say!
How does this prevent burnout? If you’re not meeting your unique sensory needs, your body will constantly be in a place of sensory overwhelm or underwhelm. That chronic over- or under-whelm will burn your system out and you’ll wonder how you got here, because you were following the instructions for taking care of your cactus! But you were following the wrong instructions. We cannot follow the same instructions that neurotypical people follow, which is to basically ignore one’s sensory system. Yet we were almost all taught from a young age to do exactly that. We were taught neurotypical standards, told we were too sensitive, and encouraged to do anything but listen to our own sensory needs. Could you imagine getting angry at an orchid for not thriving while being treated like a cactus?
You know I love metaphors, so here’s another one. Say you have chronic back pain. Or, if you’re me, you do have chronic back pain. Even at a low level, this pain is always there. At first, before you know that it’s chronic, you feel that pain all the time. You’re always thinking about it and wanting it to go away. Eventually, it does go away in a sense, because your body stops noticing it all the time. This is a handy thing that our brains do to allow us to keep going. But has it gone away? No. It’s still there firing those neurons, but our brain is working to ignore that firing to survive. It’s taking processing power.
Am I mixing metaphors now? Let’s go with it. So now your brain is a computer and it’s running a program to keep that pain at bay. Then you have pain crop up somewhere else that requires another program, then more pain, then another program. That’s a lot of processing power being used at all times just to ignore that chronic pain that is still there even as you work so hard to ignore it.
What most autistic adults don’t realize is that each of your heightened sensory needs is like that chronic pain in your body if you ignore it. If you’re like me and sensitive to nearly all sensory input, the amount of work it takes your body to ignore those needs is likely using most of your energy. Yet, we don’t notice that it’s working so hard, because it’s a program running in the background to hide the truth of our sensory needs. That’s why I reached 42 having absolutely no idea that I had major sensory sensitivities and was chronically burnt out (I tell more in this blog post). I didn’t even realize I was burnt out!
So what can we do about our orchid sensory systems and computer chip brains? The key is to stop ignoring your sensory needs and work with them, not against them. You need to figure out which of your senses are over- and under-sensitive, then figure out how to balance out those needs. You might do this with a sensory diet or by implementing a Sensory Empowerment Plan in my Sensory Empowerment Program. This is why I built this program, to help other autistic adults use the techniques that I use to honor my sensory needs and break free from burnout.
So I have the instructions for taking care of your orchids! I wish I could just write out the instructions for taking care of my sensory system and every other autistic adult could use them! But, unfortunately, those instructions are different for every person because everyone has a different combination of specialized needs in the eight sensory systems. This is the reason occupational therapists work with autistic individuals for months to meet their sensory needs. This is the reason I had to build a highly personalized coaching program to support others in this work. I wish there were an easier solution, but at least there is a solution! You don’t need to feel helpless and hopeless about your burnout any longer.
P.S. If you're struggling with burnout, check out my free guide, "Unlock Your Energy: 15 Proven Strategies to Ward Off Autistic Overwhelm" for other ways you can reduce your overwhelm and burnout.
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