Am I in Autistic Burnout? - Creative Ways to Track Your Capacity
Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash
I’ve already told you a little about my autistic burnout experience and given you some clinical definitions. Here are some perspectives on burnout from other neurodivergent people followed by some activities to help you learn more about your own patterns of burnout and recovery.
Are You Experiencing Autistic Burnout?
Dr. Alice Nicholls, an autistic clinical psychologist, developed this symptom checklist for adults to assess whether they may be experiencing Autistic Burnout.
Depression vs. Burnout (Autism From the Inside)
Once again, Paul’s YouTube channel explains things in a way I can really relate to. My burnout and shutdowns were misdiagnosed as chronic depression for many years. This episode explains why so many of the treatments for depression I tried didn’t work or made things worse.
Autistic Burnout (Divergent Conversations)
This podcast episode is a conversation about burnout between Megan and Patrick, two Autistic ADHD (AuDHD) mental health professionals. I appreciated their discussions of the relationship between burnout and depression, the need to discern which self soothing activities can also increase burnout, and how practicing interoception helps us identify what we need. “Interoception is a lesser-known sense that helps you understand and feel what’s going on inside your body.” - understood.org
The Spoon Theory written by Christine Miserandino
The Spoon Theory is one metaphor for understanding that part of living with a chronic condition, like autistic burnout, is a need to assess how many “spoons” we have each day. When we have awareness of our capacity, we are able to make choices about how we will use it. This helps to recover from burnout and reduce the severity of burnout and shutdown in the future.
Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash
Ways to Track Capacity
Red, Yellow, Green Days (Bits and Pieces of Life)
One way to develop interception skills is to track our capacity. This article uses traffic light metaphor. When we need to stop, the light is red; when we can go slow, it’s yellow, and when we have a bit more capacity, it’s green. Once you’ve paid attention for a while, you can make your own guidelines for how to support yourself on different days. One thing I’d like to take from the article’s example is the guideline that when I’ve had a red day, the next day will always be yellow. But instead of using my use of pain medication as a guide, I might consider the weather because barometric pressure drops tend to result in a yellows or red day for me.
Another Metaphor: Battery Levels
Because my autistic mind wants a scale with more detail, I like to think about it as my battery level. If I’m totally shut down, near meltdown, or in pain (0 - 30%), I’m not going to be able to do much and need minimal sensory input. At 30 - 60%, I can consider whether I’m ready for soothing input and still need to be careful about what I do. 60 - 90% is the zone where I have to be careful. I am most likely to overdo it when I have the illusion of a full charge. I start to feel inspired again, and it’s harder to say no when I need to. After years of watching my patterns, I can now predict a little better when my plans will be too much. I can prepare by increasing my restful and soothing activities beforehand and set aside recovery time afterwards. This understanding also helps me communicate with other’s about my capacity and say no when I need to.
What’s Your Preferred Metaphor?: Creative Ways to Track Your Capacity
Tracking is easier and can even be fun when we use metaphors, symbols, and soothing activities to track them. You might choose specific symptoms to track such as energy level, pain, or ability to speak aloud. If your capacity varies a lot at different times, you can have three sections for morning, midday and night. However you do it, take a little time to look inside yourself to practice noticing how your body feels. Here are some ideas. Photo examples follow the list.
Color it in - set up a calendar with traffic lights, a number of spoons, or a battery level indicator to color in for each day.
Stickers - Coloring or drawing might be too much sometimes. Stickers are fun, and you can use a pre-printed “chore chart” or other tracking template modified to track your capacity.
Fiber - Make a temperature blanket, but with your capacity level instead of the temperature. If you are a fiber artist (and your hands are up to it), this could have the added benefit of being a soothing activity. First you assign colors (or patterns, in the case of a quilt) to each capacity level. You then make a row or square each day using the code to show your capacity for the day. Choose colors, patterns, and materials you find soothing and easy to use so you’ll be more likely to be able to do it when your capacity is low. Here are some patterns to get you started with knit/crochet or a quilt.
Body drawing - You can draw the feelings in your body freehand, fill in a body outline, or dress up a stick figure to slow how you’re feeling. This could be detailed or more general, in color or monochrome.
Poetry - Write a simple poem like a haiku.
Bullet Journal - write down what you’re noticing using short phrases or lists. A full journal entry might be too much some days.
Music - If sound is soothing, you could choose a song, instrument, or beat that fits for the day and note it down somehow. A playlist that you add to each day for a month could be a record of a time in your life that expresses more than words alone could.
