Autistic Burnout and how it Affects Students
Fae Sitko is a 22 year old psychology student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and an autistic advocate. They are passionate about writing, queer and neurodivergent activism, and science fiction tv shows.
7 minute read
What is burnout?
When you hear the term burnout being discussed in mainstream circles it usually refers to when a neurotypical person has pushed themselves too far by working or taking on too much. Perhaps they’re juggling two jobs as well as looking after their family, or maybe they have a social media related job and they find themselves under constant pressure to produce high quality content to make their fans happy. Anyone would find that stressful. However, in the Autistic community when we talk about burnout we’re referring to something quite different.
Autistic burnout is the result of constant long-term masking and putting yourself in long term situations of being overstimulated.
For those unfamiliar with the term, masking is the word we use for disguising or suppressing our autistic traits in order to survive in an allistic (non-autistic) world. But honestly, masking is a lot more complicated than that. It can mean different things to different people, but for myself in particular, I have been reinventing different personality types and different versions of myself for different situations for as long as I can remember. Essentially I have been rewriting my entire identity and crafting a new one to please other people. And that, as I’m sure you can imagine has taken a toll, and that toll leads to burnout.
Photo submitted by Fae Sitko
That means constantly being exhausted, mentally, emotionally and physically. Some people, including myself, find it more difficult to speak or form thoughts due to burnout. Some even lose the ability to speak all together. Lots of autistic people report either becoming extremely irritated or aggressive for no apparent reason, or depressed and lethargic. I personally become very numb and cold, finding it difficult to feel any joy for anything or connect to anyone. I deal with intense pain and aches in my body, soreness across the surface of my skin and overwhelming bone deep exhaustion. Dealing with all of this on its own is horrible, but dealing with the pain of burnout and masking while having to go to school and trying to do well so you can graduate high school or obtain a university degree is not only unpleasant but borderline impossible. My experience with burnout
My experience with burnout
I spent the majority of my teenage years in a constant state of burnout, made even worse by the fact that I had no idea that was what I was experiencing. No one ever informed me about Autistic burnout or what masking was until I started having conversations with other autistic adults in my 20s. I honestly think that not many autism professionals or doctors even know much about Autistic burnout or even masking because they so rarely talk to actually autistic people. To most teachers and Educational Assistants (EAs) I know I appeared disengaged and lethargic. Constantly they would ask me why I was feeling that way, only for me to reply with “I don’t know. I’m just tired.” Both I and many others around me thought I was experiencing depression, but when I spoke to therapists about it, I could never pinpoint exactly why. I tried two different types of SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) but neither of them worked. All of therapies I tried never really went anywhere either. I think this was because I wasn’t experiencing traditional depression, I was burnt out.
Photo submitted by Fae Sitko
However, no one had the language to explain what was happening, least of all me. So I started being blamed for my treatment failing.
People told me that I wasn’t trying hard enough or that it was like I didn’t even want to get better.
If one of the primary aspects of ableism is gaslighting then probably the second most important part is victim blaming. It was my fault that I was getting yelled at because I couldn’t pay attention or get any work done in class. It was my fault that I was being scolded for ignoring people and being rude when I couldn’t hold a conversation with my teachers, EA’s or my peers without extreme psychological strain that eventually resulted in me “zoning out.” I realized later on that I was actually experiencing shut downs which are internalized meltdowns. Basically if you have been taught to mask your whole life then when you eventually reach a breaking point, instead of melting down in a more recognizable and traditional way, you just leave the situation mentally. You drift off, you go somewhere else in your head and you leave your body.
Why have I never heard of this?
I think it’s important that the general public, (especially educators) learn about these things. If you want to help the neurodivergent and autistic students in your classes succeed or even just feel safe and accepted, then it’s important that you understand where certain types of behavior are coming from and how to help. I don’t blame most people, educators and parents alike for not knowing about the effects of burnout or even about masking, because most autistic kids don’t know about it either. We are given so little information about our disability because most resources come from very rigid, traditional and out-right harmful places. There isn’t a lot of information on various traits and experiences associated with autism that aren’t actually listed in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), such as masking, but also the prevalence of eating disorders in our community and why they usually happen. Things like paranoia, insomnia and emotional dysregulation are also heavily linked to autism and I didn’t learn about this until adulthood.
I was diagnosed at two years old and yet I share so many experiences with people who were late diagnosed because nobody told me anything, and a lot of what I was told wasn’t actually useful to my specific experiences.
There are so many different flavours of autism not just what the media likes to portray.
If more people learn about different types of experiences and traits, then more teachers and EAs can properly accommodate autistic students. It is also extremely important for autistic people to acquire more knowledge about ourselves so we can learn how to best self-advocate and look after ourselves. I want everyone to learn the signs of burnout so we can learn how it prevent it.
Photo submitted by Fae Sitko
How to combat burnout
Some things that have helped me personally are, working in a separate room apart from other students and overwhelming sensory stimulus, being able to take breaks when I can’t think anymore, and not having to talk a lot. It’s easier to try and prevent burnout before it happens rather than trying to recover from it afterwards. I find that extremely difficult to do, and it takes a significantly long time. So recognizing the signs of burnout to try and head them off before it gets worse is important.
The main warning signs like finding it difficult to speak, feeling overly sluggish or tired or more than usual, and feeling aches on your skin are key indicators that shouldn’t be ignored.
Masking for long periods of time is the main cause of burnout, but the problem is schools are an environment where we are forced to mask through peer pressure or the environment of the classroom being hostile to our autistic traits. Ending masking overall is going to be an incredibly difficult process involving the dismantling of societal and structural ableism. However in the meantime, teachers can support the un-masking of their students by allowing them to stim (self-stimulatory behavior), allowing them to use their stim toys in the classroom and attempting to limit the sensory information in the classroom.
My greatest wish for the future overall is that we can create an educational environment that won’t produce or contribute to the burnout of autistic students. Learning the warning signs of burnout and how to prevent it is a key step in that direction.
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