Category: Burnout
-
Autistic Burnout vs Depression: How to Tell the Difference
Autistic burnout and depression can look the same from the outside but need different support. The differences, where they overlap, and what helps each.
-
Free Resources for Autistic Adults: The Thriving Autistic Discovery Programme
Free, self-paced videos, guides and tools for recently identified Autistic adults, from the Thriving Autistic Discovery Programme. What it is, who it is for, what it covers, and how to explore it.
-
Going Deeper: Rest, Burnout, and Monotropic Flow
Autistic burnout recovery often means going deeper into flow, not switching off. Find out about reclaiming rest through monotropic focus, spiral time, and meaningful immersion.
-
Autistic Pride: Rest, Resistance & Monotropism
Written for Autistic Pride Day 2025: what Autistic Pride means to me, from monotropism and the cost of masking to reclaiming rest and finding belonging in community.
-
Reclaiming Rest: Autistic Burnout, Monotropism, and Resistance
Rest can become a radical act in a world that often equates our worth with productivity, especially for Autistic or otherwise neurodivergent people navigating the tides of burnout, where even our ways of resting may look different.
-
Tides of burnout and being monotropic
“Once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in.” [And that may even be a good thing]. (Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami, 2002) Haruki Murakami is one of my…
-
Autistic Burnout, Bodymind and Soul
Kieran Rose (2018) describes autistic burnout as a ‘crash where you keep on crashing’. This resonates deeply. I have experienced cycles of burnout throughout my life due to systemic unmet needs living as an autistic person in a world primarily designed for non-autistic people. The double empathy problem (Milton, 2012) is real, and as explained…
-
Quantum Neuro-Holographic Thoughts from a Liminal Space
“Quantumness tends to prosper in very cold systems that are carefully isolated rather than part of a tepid soup awash with other activity.” (Lewton, T. 2024) This may be a weird take, but … I think we could use the idea of quantumness and reframe it around an interpretation of marginalised groups living on the edges of…
-
Neurodivergent Co-Regulation
Being neurodivergent can be really hard work in a world that is mostly still lacking in an understanding of the differences in sensory, social, and communication needs of autistic/ADHD and other neurodivergent people. Different lived experiences can create a double empathy gap (Milton, 2012). This means that people’s needs are often not adequately met, and…
-
Autistic Burnout: Social Media Project November 2023
Autistic burnout is a term often used within the autistic community to describe an intense exhaustion that many autistic people experience where input and demands from life exceed the capacity a person has to manage. As part of my ongoing work within the neurodivergent community, I hope to help develop a deeper understanding and awareness…
-
Book review – Autistic Burnout, Children /Young People in Education by Viv Dawes
I am excited to announce that Viv Dawes (autistic advocate, writer, and trainer, www.autisticadvocate.co.uk) has just published her new book, Autistic Burnout, Children /Young People in Education, a book aimed at parents of autistic (or other neurodivergent) children. I have revised my preface here as a short review so everyone gets a chance to find…
-
Supporting neurodivergent students who are struggling to attend school
Updated October 2026. School attendance remains the question I am asked about most by families and schools, and the reasons have not changed: unmet needs, sensory overload, masking and burnout. This post sets out what schools can do. For the burnout side read the Autistic burnout hub and the teacher guide; for parents, Parent ideas…
-
Supporting pupils through Autistic Burnout (Neuro-Affirming Teacher Guide)
Supporting pupils through Autistic Burnout (Neuro-Affirming Teacher Guide)
-
Supporting Children through Autistic Burnout (Parent/Carer Guide)
Updated October 2026. This guide was one of the first things I wrote for Autistic Realms, and it is still the page most parents arrive at. Since then I have gathered everything on burnout into one place, the Autistic burnout hub, and written about how burnout differs from depression and about spoon theory and energy.…
