Everything I read about recovering from burnout is like “it takes months or even years to fully recover” and it’s like okay…. I have a weekend before I gotta clock in on Monday
A lil 4-step, nonspecific guide for autistic folks from your friendly neighborhood "I have some knowledge in this area" cryptid:
1) Reduce your sensory overwhelm as much as possible: wear sunglasses outside, put headphones or earplugs on when you have to go to noisy places (or wear them in your house if there are noises in there that bother you) etc 2) Increase your stimming whenever possible: you're probably not stimming enough. Play around with what feels good and do it on purpose. 3) Engage in your special interests whenever and however you can (without compromising your health/livelihood etc). This sometimes feels counterintuitive to folks because it's using energy but it's super restorative to engage in things you love. If you don't have the energy to engage in most of your special interests, figure out what the bare minimum you can do is (listen to music, watch TV, read 5 pages of your book etc) and do periodic checks to figure out if you have the energy for the bigger stuff 4) Do your best to get your basic needs met. Burnout is often accompanied by not eating or sleeping enough, or doing your hygiene routine. Even if you don't have the energy to make big changes here, are there small things, like keeping your safe food in the house accessible or having easy calorie grabs? Protein shakes or pre-peeled hardboiled eggs or cookies? If you can't sleep more, can you close your eyes and rest a little more (thank u mythbusters for teaching us that this helps)? If you can't shower or brush your teeth, can you at least change your shirt so you have less sensory overwhelm from a stale shirt? OP I know this wasn't the point of the post and I do hope you'll forgive me for adding to it, but I think doing these things can make a dent in meaningful ways pretty quickly. Burnout sucks but it's not an on/off switch. You can feel incrementally better and feel more like yourself regardless of how long it takes
No, this is good!
Headphones or whatever can help mitigate moments where you’re not focused, making sure you know what you need (like, say, water) prevents you from worrying too much, just finding what brings joy calms the mind or gets out wilder emotions, and even a random thing to keep your mind on helps ground you in moments of stress (I personally just have a random, small thing in my pocket besides phone and wallet.)
All of these can help. If not all together, they individually can do a lot, at least for me.
