Autistic burnout

[1] Autistic people commonly say it is caused by prolonged overexertion of one's abilities to cope with life stressors, including lack of accommodations for one's support needs, which tax an autistic person's mental, emotional, physical, and/or social resources.

[2][3] To explain the behavior of autistic burnout from a proximate approach, emphasis is placed on immediate social, psychological, and environmental factors.

[citation needed] In Raymaker's research, participants reported feeling invalidated and unsupported when expressing their struggles as they were told their difficulties were their own fault.

This pervasive fatigue can negatively impact different aspects of life for autistic individuals as it results in loss of interest to engage in activities, difficulty maintaining social relationships with low social battery, and challenges in completing the simplest tasks such as brushing teeth due to fatigue.

When cognitive abilities are depleted due to chronic exhaustion, language disability challenges, which many autistic individuals already face, are exacerbated, affecting the management of effective communication required to maintain different social relationships.

Lastly, autistic individuals experiencing burnout often experience sensory hypersensitivity which reduces their tolerance of environmental stimulus by decreasing the sensitivity threshold.

This means that when they experience autistic burnout, they can be easily triggered by the simplest stimulus which can contribute to emotional impulsivity such as excessive crying.

Extended periods of autistic burnout can significantly impair an individual's ability to maintain employment, schooling, independent living, and general quality of life.

However, having a buffer against these harmful effects can increase an autistic person's psychological resilience in response to victimizations.

However, feeling connected to the autistic community via advocating politically predicted lower internalized stigma and minority stress.