You’ll agree with me, I hope, that autistic burnout is real. If you haven’t had a chance, please check out the Thrive with Aspergers podcast episode number 88, called 3 Reasons We Should Be Talking About Autistic Burnout. In this post, I’m sharing autistic writers’ tips for burnout recovery. What Is Autistic Burnout? It’s a term that I’ve heard come up in reading many different articles and forum posts. Karla’s ASD Page has a picture that illustrates some of the symptoms of burnout: * Late-onset loss of functioning due to sustained monumental efforts *  Happens to MANY young ASD adults and many more all the way up into 50-60 years *  Often directly related to failing at ‘fitting in’ with NT social skills despite faking it all the time to make it *  No ASD (autism spectrum) book or NT (neurotypical) professional references Autistic Burnout. Only ASD adults talk about it. Autistic Burnout Recovery Tips Tip 1: Burnout Does Not Equal Regression This is a reminder to teachers, parents, therapists, and spouses as well as to autistics. Autistics may have learned to camouflage or adapt their natural tendencies in order to “fit in” with society for a job, or a relationship, or other things. But after a while, if under too much stress, and if the demands of a job or a relationship exceed the capacity to cope, burnout may occur. In this case, remember that your behavior may simply be your system telling you, “It’s too much!” Cynthia Kim summarizes this beautifully in her article, Autistic Regression and Fluid Adaptation: Being autistic means a lifetime of fluid adaptation. We get a handle on something, develop coping strategies, adapt and we’re good. If life changes, we many need some time to readapt. Find the new pattern. Figure out the rules. Test out strategies to see what works. In the mean time, other things may fall apart. We lose skills. We struggle to cope with things that had previously been doable under more predictable conditions. This is not regression to an earlier developmental stage, it’s a process of adapting to new challenges and it’s one that we do across a lifetime of being autistic. (italics mine). Action Step: Practice Self-Compassion I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a tendency to “beat myself up” when I struggle with setbacks in my life. Try a new habit instead, called Self-Compassion. I’ve linked to this self-compassion page with several practical exercises to help you cope with the stress of life changes. Read the page and pick out a couple exercises you can do each day. Tip 2: Scale Back To Cynthia Kim’s point, there may be things we need to Stop Doing, things we need to Keep Doing, and things we need to Start Doing. Thanks to Judy Endow for her article, Autistic Burnout and Aging. In this article, she tells of how she has had to manage burnout by withdrawing from most of daily life to focus on the essentials of employment an...