If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the prolonged stress of school, work, and home life, you’ve likely heard the term ‘burnout’. But, have you ever heard of the term ‘autistic burnout’? For autistic people, they can experience both general burnout as well as autistic burnout, a phenomenon that’s been talked about a lot in the community.
But how did the community start to define what made autistic burnout different from general burnout? Researchers, particularly Raymaker and colleagues (2020), noticed discussions on social media and other platforms regarding autistic burnout and set out to decipher the best way to categorize this experience. Through interviews conducted with autistic people as well as public review of social media and internet sources, these researchers noticed a common theme: participants described exhaustion and burnout due to life stressors while dealing with barriers to support that stalled their ability to gain relief from these stressors.
Participants described this feeling as chronic exhaustion, experiencing a loss of skills, and reduced tolerance towards stimuli in their environment. They said it caused difficulties with health, especially mental health, and noticed an impact on independent living. This all resulted in a loss of self-confidence and fear that the loss of skills may be permanent.
As such, the definition for burnout was formed: “Autistic burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic life stress and a mismatch of expectations and abilities without adequate supports. It is characterized by pervasive, long-term (typically 3+ months) exhaustion, loss of function, and reduced tolerance to stimulus.” Other symptoms of autistic burnout have been noted over time as well, including difficulties with concentration and executive functioning, social withdrawal, emotional sensitivity, food and appetite changes, fatigue and loss of motivation, and a sense of emptiness (Neff, 2021).
However, when you consider these symptoms, they start to sound very similar to those of depression, which begs the question: How can we distinguish autistic burnout from occupational burnout or other mental health experiences like depression? In their analysis of the measures used to determine autistic burnout, Bougoure, Zhouang, and Magiati (2025) noted that another research study by Higgins (2021) explicitly mentioned interpersonal withdrawal as a key characteristic of autistic burnout. While depressive symptoms may lead to social withdrawal and isolation due to feelings of anhedonia, worthlessness, or low self-esteem, autistic individuals experiencing autistic burnout may withdraw from social situations due to overwhelming sensory or social demands (Neff, 2021).
Now that there is a definition for it, it’s important to understand what types of life stressors or expectations can also lead to autistic burnout. Raymaker’s research notes that this can occur from a variety of challenges that autistic individuals deal with in their day to day lives. One big factor is masking or camouflaging in an otherwise neurotypical world. As part of this, autistic individuals may also struggle with difficult or unattainable expectations from family, friends, the workplace, and more. Other autism related stressors include social confusion or unpredictability with social encounters, facing peer rejection and victimization, prevention or punishment of preferred repetitive behaviors and frequent aversive sensory experiences in daily life (Wood and Gadow, 2010). This stress can compound day to day as individuals try to navigate a world that was not set up to accommodate their needs. This can also lead to barriers in support, such as dismissal of symptoms, poor boundaries, and difficulty with self-advocacy, taking breaks, or asking for help. Other stressors include life changes and transitions, even if they are positive, like starting college or moving away from home.
Understanding this combination of stressors and factors makes it clear how challenging it can be to experience autistic burnout. It also helps with the provision of more specific support, strategies, and interventions that may be helpful. If while reading through this description, you find yourself feeling that this experience is all too familiar, it might be a good idea to start integrating protective factors and coping strategies to help with burnout. While this can be a long process, we recommend speaking with a professional or expert in the field to process and understand your own personal triggers, stressors, and what strategies might work best for you. (We’re here to help at the Sterling Institute!). We will also be following up with a part two to this blog post that focuses on protective factors and coping strategies that might be a helpful starting point for minimizing autistic burnout.
