There's a key difference between autistic burnout and non-autistic burnout, and the difference isn't just that the person is autistic or allistic (non-autistic). The real difference is in the manifestation of the burnouts themselves.
Burnout is a term that was coined by Herbert Fredenberger in 1975. He defined it by three components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased sense of accomplishment (Nagoski & Nagoski, 2020, p. xi). To be a little bit more elaborate on what these mean, you've got fatigue that "comes from caring too much for too long," along with "the depletion of empathy, caring, and compassion," and finally, "an unconquerable sense of futility: feeling that nothing you do makes any difference" (Nagoski & Nagoski, 2020, p. xi). Using this basis of burnout, we can understand what non-autistic burnout is, but what is autistic burnout?
To put it simply, "autistic burnout is an experience commonly described by autistic people (e.g. #AutBurnout, #AutisticBurnout on social media) and reported to have substantial, deleterious effects on people’s lives" (Higgins et al., 2021, p. 2357). As described by participants in Raymaker et al. (2020)'s study, the primary characteristics "were chronic exhaustion, loss of skills, and reduced tolerance to stimulus" (p. 136). Higgins et al. (2021) declared the following to be the criteria for autistic burnout:
significant mental and physical exhaustion
interpersonal withdrawal
In addition to these two, you must have one or more of the following:
significant reduction in social, occupational, educational, academic, behavioral, or other important areas of functioning
confusion, difficulties with executive function, and/or dissociative states
increased intensity of autistic traits and/or reduced capacity to camouflage/mask (p. 2365).
Something to remember, however, when viewing this is that although Higgins et al. (2021) provide us with a general idea of what autistic burnout could be defined as, there is no generally agreed-upon definition of what autistic burnout is.
Because of this, we face an incredibly hard thing in addition to the burnout itself: being told we're making things up. The number of times we get told we're making things up hurts. "One of the most prominent subthemes was gaslighting (i.e., making the person question his or her own sense of reality) and dismissal; when people realized their life had become unsustainable and asked for help, they were told their troubles were their own fault or dismissed" (Raymaker et al., 2020, p. 140). The truth is, when we describe being burnt out, we're not describing non-autistic burnout. It's important to note that autistic burnout and non-autistic burnout are not the same. And being told that it is numerous times creates a sort of cynicism or a gaslit feeling; after all, what if this is all in our heads? What if it's in every autistic's head? What if we're all making this up?
(To be clear, that would be very hard and as you can most likely tell, this is not true. Autistic burnout is a real thing, but I'm trying to get you to understand that we think illogical things in our pained haze of exhaustion.)
Higgins et al. (2021) believed that "a definition of autistic burnout by consensus of ‘experts by lived experience’ would (1) provide acknowledgement and formal recognition; (2) enable research towards further understanding its causes, correlates, and consequences and (3) identification of appropriate support strategies and environmental accommodations" (p. 2358). This could give us these things and more, supporting us through the feelings we're so desperately looking for a name for. Because "the condition is not better explained by a psychiatric illness such as depression, psychosis, personality disorder, trauma- and stressor-related disorders" (Higgins et al., 2021, p. 2365).
One of the key differences between the two types of burnout is where you'll see it manifested. Most of the existing burnout research is done on workplace environments, primarily occupations such as mental health nurses and other health care workers. The problem with this is, "autistic burnout is described anecdotally as pervasive" and does not just stick to the work environment (Higgins et al., 2021, p. 2357). It doesn't disappear when you get away from whatever you're burnt out from. It's like being burnt out from life itself, which you can't ever get away from. A simple explanation is that "autistic burnout is directly related to the energy reserves of the autistic person at any point in time" (Higgins et al., 2021, p. 2360). Things such as simple misunderstandings and sudden changes of plans, for autistics, can cause stress, use energy, and lead to the onset of burnout (Higgins et al., 2021, 2361).
To a point, most people have some inkling of what non-autistic burnout is. Autistic burnout on the other hand is most often mistaken for depression. When you find yourself stuck in autistic burnout, you may find yourself facing increased sensory sensitivity "and aggravation of coexisting conditions, such as insomnia, anxiety, and gastrointestinal problems" (Higgins et al., 2021, p. 2361).
And the worse part of this? With autistic burnout, "recovery may be incomplete in comparison to previous functional capacity" (Higgins et al., 2021, p. 2365). You may never get back to where you were before. And that's hurtful in terms of hope, among other things. Because you're trapped in this horrible feeling and you may never feel 'good' again.
Ultimately, many people (after being burnt out for a while) turn to self-harm or suicide. In one of the participant's own words: "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" (Raymaker et al., 2020, p. 140). There's a kind of desperation that you find when you're down this low, when you're unable to do so many basic things for seemingly no reason. Alternatively, some people turn to a less drastic road of self-suppression escapism; this, as the name suggests, is meant to help escape from exhaustion and suffering (Pyszkowska et al., 2023).
So, what is autistic burnout? No one could really tell you an agreed-upon answer, but we can tell you that it's painful, that it's hard to get out of, and that it's being researched more as years go on. And hopefully, soon, we'll get the answers we're looking for. But for now, just remember, autistic burnout is not allistic burnout.
References
Higgins, J. M., Arnold, S. R. C., Weise, J., Pellicano, E., & Trollor, J. N. (2021). Defining Autistic Burnout through Experts by Lived Experience: Grounded Delphi Method Investigating #AutisticBurnout. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 25(8), 2356–2369.
Nagoski, E., & Nagoski, A. (2020). Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. Ballantine Books.
Pyszkowska, A., Gąsior, T., Stefanek, F., & Więzik, B. (2023). Determinants of escapism in adult video gamers with autism spectrum conditions: The role of affect, autistic burnout, and gaming motivation. Computers in Human Behavior, 141.
Raymaker, D. M., Teo, A. R., Steckler, N. A., Lentz, B., Scharer, M., Delos Santos, 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.