Mi'sen

Myk raises an important topic here re: autistic burnout being a distinct thing. Here are a few practical points which I think are worth sharing:https://twitter.com/mykola/status/1131055183138643969 …

Distinguishing between depression and autistic burnout can be difficult. I spent a long time working with a professional trying to learn how to tell the difference; because they require quite different approaches to manage. IME depression doesn't respond to rest like burnout does

A lot of people think of burnout in terms of 'regression'. I think that can be an unhelpful framing for the individual. Cynthia Kim introduced me to the idea of Fluid Adaptation, which I find much more practical in terms of how one learns to manage/avoid burnout.

A good example of fluid adaptation was listening to @campbellclaret in his documentary, describing the process of learning to manage his depression. It isn't just a sliding scale of +/- symptoms; over time you also learn warning signs, skills, strategies, and so on.

Although my experience has largely agreed with current information, its important to remember that its a *big gap* in understanding ASD; its very early days in it being discussed & researchers only recently noticed that autistics are discussing this as a fairly common experience.

This infographic is pretty good as a loose summary/reminder:https://twitter.com/Adriana_Edu/status/1028977682674069504?s=20 …

Vague, but: as well as much more rest, a key component in my recovery, was slowly increasing activities which I'd identified as invigorating/balancing, not draining. These are usually minimally social, include some physical movement. Otherwise recovery stagnated.

Try to build the capacity to notice positive emotional states even in the midst of exhaustion, memory problems, speech issues, sensory processing stuff, all of that crap. Contact with gratitude, love, contentment, enjoyment, however subtle, was profoundly helpful for me.