No Rest for the Autistic: The Experience of Autistic Burnout
By: Julia Daley
It starts with exhaustion, nibbling at the edges of my daily experiences. It’s hard to figure out what to attribute it to—perhaps being short on sleep, or maybe too busy of a weekend. Getting more sleep doesn’t seem to help, though; the exhaustion gets heavier—crushing–almost like the aura of an impending migraine. Sometimes headaches and other body aches follow, and maybe it is a migraine after all because now sounds are getting louder and the lights are more blinding. That sensitivity has always been there, of course, but the previously-tolerable sensory input is now completely intolerable. Thinking is harder—following a train of thought is like hiking in deep mud, each step a painful slog. Was food always so hard to chew? Did this favorite blouse always make my skin crawl? It’s hard to remember a time before exhaustion had me in a vice grip.
I have a job to do, and I have to keep doing it. I must maintain a serene expression on my face while I teach my students. It’s hotter now, and it’s hard to keep the classroom cool. There’s an old circulating fan next to my podium that whines faintly while it spins. Is the irritation worth the mildly cooling breeze? I cannot decide now. I call on a student, and I cannot hear their response, though I know they said something. They spoke at a reasonable volume and with a clear accent, but comprehension was beyond me. They can’t hear the fan. I have to ask for repetition more often, with more students. I blame my perfectly-healthy ears. My kind students speak louder to help me understand, even though volume was never the problem. I really want to smash that fan and make it quiet. I stuff the illogical rage down somewhere deep and hope it doesn’t bubble back up somewhere public.
The class ends, and I sit at my desk, and I’m too tired to think. I know what’s wrong now, and I have no idea what tipped me over the edge again. Perhaps the specific trigger doesn’t matter, and this boom-and-bust cycle is just an inevitable part of my life—of autistic life. I’m in the early stages of Autistic Burnout again, and it’ll be a frustratingly long while until I can get myself out of it.
Autistic Burnout
If you’re part of the autistic community, you’ve probably heard about Autistic Burnout; outside of that community, well, there’s a lot more research and outreach that needs doing. In 2020, the Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE) shared the first attempt to define Autistic Burnout in the literature:
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.” (Raymaker et al., 2020, p. 140)
This early definition will likely continue to be revised, but for now, it seems to be the one that most researchers are working from.1 Even the name itself—Autistic Burnout—is still under debate; alternative candidates include Autistic Regression and Autistic Exhaustion (Arnold et. al., 2023; Raymaker et al., 2020; Tomczak & Kulikowski, 2023). Despite all this debate among researchers, they all seem to be in general agreement that Autistic Burnout is a distinct phenomena, that it can be debilitating, and that it includes core features of exhaustion, sensitivity to sensory stimuli, and loss of skills. It’s also believed that burnout can strike autistic people at any age, so it can affect children just as much as adults (Phung et al., 2021).
1 Many researchers also refer to a more detailed definition concurrently developed by Julianne M. Higgins and her team in 2021.
A good video that summarizes the experience of Autistic Burnout.
Researchers are using the AASPIRE Autistic Burnout Measure (AABM), along with other measurements for things like anxiety, depression, autistic camouflaging, and occupational burnout, to try to better understand Autistic Burnout (see Ali et al., 2025, for a systematic review of what we’ve learned so far). Since the research is still in its early stages, most studies are still focused on being able to identify autistic people who are in a state of Autistic Burnout—in other words, accurate diagnosis. So far, these early studies are showing that Autistic Burnout is a separate condition from things like occupational burnout and depression (Ali et. al., 2025; Arnold et al., 2023; Bougoure et. al., 2026; Mantzalas et al., 2024; Schoondermark et al., 2024).
There are some ideas as to what might be causing Autistic Burnout, but more research is still needed.2 In a nutshell, trying to live life like a neurotypical person takes a lot of internal resources for autistic people. Masking—what autistic people do to try and appear “normal”—can require tremendous effort to maintain, and that cost can build over time, eventually leading to burnout. Many autistic people also experience Alexithymia, which means that not only do they struggle to interpret others’ emotions (which makes navigating social situations that much harder), but they also have difficulty understanding their own internal states; this means Autistic people may not notice right away that they are unusually exhausted and headed towards burnout (Ali et al., 2025). Even worse, while they are experiencing burnout, autistic people can begin “dual-masking,” hiding both their Autistic Burnout and their Autism (Clarey et al., 2026).3 This can delay getting much-needed help and worsen the burnout.
2 How many times can one write “more research is still needed” in an article? Even within the research on Autistic Burnout that is being done, it’s a phrase that researchers include frequently in their articles.
3 Julia has rarely encountered a qualitative study as beautifully-written as this one and highly recommends reading it.
If Autistic Burnout is like a pit in the ground, then its severity can be imagined as the depth of the hole. Trust me when I say that that pit is an unpleasant place to be, nor is it somewhere you’d willingly go. The deeper you dig down into the pit, the worse the burnout gets. You do what you think is needed to climb your way out of it, but somehow you just end up digging deeper. Autistic people can be stuck in that pit for months or even years. Spend enough time in that darkness, and it can feel like the pit is all there is. Within the autistic community, people write about losing their jobs while burnt out (Ali et. al., 2025; Clarey et. al., 2025; Raymaker et al., 2020). As their daily lives collapse around them, and as the pit gets deeper, many autistic people report feelings of suicidality (Ali et. al, 2025; Clarey et. al,, 2025; Clarey et. al., 2026; Higgins et. al., 2021; Mantzalas et. al., 2022; Raymaker et al., 2020). Perhaps Kieran Rose, of The Autistic Advocate, describes this despair best: “I did not want to die, I’ve never wanted to die… I needed to remove myself from the environment and take myself elsewhere… But the only way I knew how to do that was to die. So I tried” (Rose, 2018). Researchers are beginning to wonder if the elevated rates of suicide within the autistic community are connected with Autistic Burnout, but more research is still needed.
Autistic Rest
Fortunately, there seems to be a way out of the pit of darkness, and it involves rest. Autistic rest, though, can look a bit different than you might think. For one, spending time with special interests is really important. These special interests might not seem restful from the outside—you just spent how many hours researching about horse DNA?—but that dedicated time with special interests is something that the autistic brain just seems to crave.
Engaging in stimming is also very healing for the autistic mind. Stims, or repetitive self-soothing behaviors, are one of the more distinctive aspects of Autism that people are familiar with. Stims can engage all of the senses; they can be tactile (petting soft things, tapping fingers, twirling hair), or they can be auditory (playing a favorite song on repeat, listening to a cat’s purr); they can involve taste (eating comfort foods, using toys designed for chewing); or they can even be vocal (making sound effects, repeating favorite lines). High-masking autistic people sometimes avoid engaging with their favorite stims while in public due to perceived stigma, but that path leads to eventual burnout.
Spending time alone, in a sensory-unstimulating environment, is also very helpful for burnt-out autistic people. It’s still unclear if withdrawal is a symptom of Autistic Burnout, or instead perhaps part of a necessary cure (Higgins et al., 2021). However, there’s no doubt that engaging in social niceties is taxing on autistic people. The trick is finding a way to reduce social obligations without cutting off access to any outside support that could help the autistic person through the burnout.
Unmasking, or “letting that Autism shine,” may also help. Not only could that mean allowing oneself to engage in stimming while in public, but it could also mean being open with others about an Autism diagnosis. Unfortunately, unmasking isn’t always possible, especially as many cultures still stigmatize neurodivergency. Still, where it is possible to unmask, it can help to lighten the cognitive load. As a bonus, unmasking might make it easier to request accommodations, like a low-sensory environment, or perhaps some extended time off.
For nine ideas on getting past Autistic Burnout, I recommend watching this video.
Final Thoughts
I’ve cycled in and out of Autistic Burnout a lot in my life, though I didn’t know that’s what I was experiencing until I was diagnosed as Level 1 Autistic in my thirties. I’ve learned to recognize the signs of burnout, though it can take me a bit since my interoceptive ability is rather shoddy. I’ve learned to triage my life when I’m down in the pit of burnout. I try to maintain the critical responsibilities, but if I don’t do laundry as often as usual, that’s something I can live with temporarily. I’m practicing, too, how to say “no.” I’ve learned the hard way that I really need to limit how many responsibilities I take on because once my plate gets too full, I run the risk of burning out.
I think I’m lucky to be in academia, as I can use the breaks between semesters to truly rest and recover. I’ve found that, with enough vacation time, I can relax and allow myself to be bored; the more days I can spend being properly bored, the more human I start to feel. No idea why that works, but it seems to. Perhaps because I have so little free time during the semester, I try to maximize what time-off I do have, and so maybe my typical weekend isn’t as restful as what my brain actually needs. I should probably try to work on that when I’m not so exhausted.
I’ve also learned to recognize the signs of Autistic Burnout in the people around me, especially my students. Students who stop coming to class, or stop engaging with their peers, or stop doing their homework as consistently, or who stim more often in class, or who erupt in anger more often, or who can no longer maintain their hygiene… These can all be signs of psychological distress, but they are also particular hallmarks of Autistic Burnout. If I see these changes in a student, I try to intervene and get them help.
One day, I hope we’ll better understand what the heck is happening in the brain during Autistic Burnout. I wish I lived in a world where it was a widely recognized condition, with easily-applicable treatments. As the research progresses, I think this future could really happen. In the meantime, I’m going to prioritize resting and getting myself out of this hole.
References
Ali, D., Bougoure, M., Cooper, B., Quinton, A. M. G., Tan, D., Brett, J., Mandy, W., Maybery, M., Magiati, I., & Happé, F (2025). Burnout as experienced by autistic people: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 102669.
Arnold, S. R., Higgins, J. M., Weise, J., Desai, A., Pellicano, E., & Trollor, J. N. (2023). Towards the measurement of autistic burnout. Autism, 27(7), 1933-1948.
Bougoure, M., Zhuang, S., Brett, J. D., Maybery, M. T., English, M. C., Tan, D. W., & Magiati, I. (2026). Measuring autistic burnout: A psychometric validation of the AASPIRE Autistic Burnout Measure in autistic adults. Autism, 30(1), 20-36.
Clarey, M. M., Abel, S., Ireland, M. J., & Brownlow, C. (2025). Autistic burnout on Reddit: A Sisyphean struggle with daily tasks. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1-13.
Clarey, M. M., Ireland, M. J., Abel, S., & Brownlow, C. (2026). Beyond exhaustion: Shame, identity disruption, and functional collapse in autistic burnout. Autism, 13623613261444797.
Higgins, J. M., Arnold, S. R., Weise, J., Pellicano, E., & Trollor, J. N. (2021). Defining autistic burnout through experts by lived experience: Grounded Delphi method investigating# AutisticBurnout. Autism, 25(8), 2356-2369.
Mantzalas, J., Richdale, A. L., & Dissanayake, C. (2022). A conceptual model of risk and protective factors for autistic burnout. Autism Research, 15(6), 976-987.
Mantzalas, J., Richdale, A. L., Li, X., & Dissanayake, C. (2024). Measuring and validating autistic burnout. Autism Research, 17(7), 1417-1449.
Phung, J., Penner, M., Pirlot, C., & Welch, C. (2021). What I wish you knew: Insights on burnout, inertia, meltdown, and shutdown from autistic youth. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 741421.
Raymaker, D., Teo. A. R., Steckler, N. A., Lentz, B., Scharer, M., Santos, A. D., Kapp, S. K., Hunter, M., Joyce, A., & Nicolaidis, C. (2020). “Having all of your internal resources exhausted beyond measure and being left with no clean-up crew”: Defining autistic burnout. Autism in Adulthood, 2(2), 132-143.
Rose K. (2018). An autistic burnout. The Autistic Advocate: Autistic People Have a Voice, 2018. https://theautisticadvocate.com/2018/05/an-autistic-burnout
Schoondermark, F., Spek, A., & Kiep, M. (2025). Evaluating an autistic burnout measurement in women. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 55(9), 3328-3342.
Tomczak, M.T., Kulikowski, K. (2024). Toward an understanding of occupational burnout among employees with autism: The Job Demands-Resources theory perspective. Current Psycholgy 43, 1582–1594 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04428-0
Julia Daley is a senior lecturer and Assessment Coordinator at Hiroshima Bunkyo University, and she received her Masters in TESOL from Northern Arizona University. She has taught English writing and conversation in many classrooms in the US and Japan. Julia is tired of being tired and is focusing on getting better rest.