What is one way of recovering from and preventing autistic burnout?
One way of recovering from and preventing autistic burnout is to cope with less.
Coping, in the context of neurodivergence, refers to conscious or subconscious strategies that we use to manage stress, discomfort or demands in our environment that are not designed for our way of processing and interpreting.
For neurodivergent women, coping is less about resilience and genuine regulation as it is about surviving in misaligned systems and environments.
Coping can look like:
masking natural ways of being or our needs in order to appear ‘acceptable’
enduring sensory, social or executive overload in order to push through daily interactions and tasks
ignoring bodily signals (pain, exhaustion, overwhelm) in order to comply with harmful expectations (example: tolerating sensory-unfriendly work environments)
compensating for our needs not being met by using personal energy reserves and by being hypervigilant.
Coping can delay access to support by making our needs invisible. It can also remove opportunities for self-regulation and rest. What may look like ‘functioning’ on the outside may actually be a steady depletion of our energy and identity when we’re perpetually coping.
Continuous coping can also lead to continuous suppression of our authentic needs, which can lead to:
emotional exhaustion
social isolation
physical illness
cognitive depletion (loss of executive function)
identity confusion (who am I without coping?)
burnout (forcing us to ‘collapse’ because coping has become unsustainable).
Choosing not to ‘cope’ means we choose not to put up with or push through at the expense of our wellbeing. It means we assess what we need and put measures in place to have these needs met. It means we choose ways to reduce daily demands.
For example, I love reform pilates, but I choose not to cope with the volume of the microphone and music by wearing noise-cancelling devices (I use either AirPods Pro or Loops).
I also love having plenty of fresh food in my fridge, but I choose not to cope with the overwhelming supermarket environment by ordering my groceries online and having them delivered to my home. The amount of exhaustion this one choice prevents is phenomenal!
By making choices to reduce daily demands and to meet our needs, we create conditions for recovery from and prevention of autistic burnout. We pivot away from coping to survive. We give ourselves permission to cope with less so we can move beyond mere endurance and into a life that feels aligned, authentic, sustainable and enjoyable.
