How I "overcame" audHD burnout

2026-04-23

Hi. I'm gonna explain as best as I can how I deal with autistic burnout and I will put a lot of context because I think context of your situation is way more important that what you actually do for this. (this is my experience only, it could not work for you at all)

First I'm gonna ellaborate on my actual situation right now. I was on psychiatric drugs since 2012 and stopped in 2025. I think these are a big big part of why I'm in this situation right now. Before that I used to have healthy coping mechanisms for the most part, so I could actually rest mentally. Medication didn't allow me to do that anymore and I had a new thing to happen : Anxiety. Before I just had stress but higher than average. I always was, and still am exceptionnally lucky with friendships and family that's a very important factor. I live in a country I'm mostly satisfied with but the issue is the unemployment problem in this aera is very high and right now that's the only issue I have in my life. I have a supportive partner too. I do no longer have self esteem issues (that were aggravated by psychiatric drugs).

I would say the burnout began to show when I moved countries, and I think it was a mix of what medication I had at the time, personal issues and moving to a big city in my early 30s. I never lived elsewhere than the countryside of France. First appartment was small and very noisy. This went way worse overnight because I went to a wedding and I knew almost no one there. Sensory issues are impossible to ignore since then. Had to quit studies and get hospitalized because resting mentally and physically was impossible. They gave me Mirtazapine and at least it fixed sleep.

I still couldn't rest mentally. Here's why :

How did I fix this :

I know this isn't be the greatest idea for everyone and I think you absolutely can do it without it, But I started smoking low doses of weed. I've been able to relax a bit and that was the trigger to learn how to relax again. I used to read a lot before medication and I just tried reading again after I smoke. to my absolute surpise I not only was able to read again but I read as if I never stopped doing it. That made me realise how high my stress was for more than 10 years. Since I'm reading on my phone with a reading app, it took a little bit of time to read instead of using apps that overstimulate my brain. I got rid of social media before even if it's better it still didn't solve everything. But reading naturally came back again and way more quicker than I expected. I did have an habit since I'm a very young child to daydream a lot and I couldn't do it with medication. I underestimated how that thing was a huge way of resting for my brain.

I'm gonna be honest with you I said I overcame it it's not actually true. I started this less 1 month ago, and if I'm not mistaken the body needs 3-5 months to recover as before after years of stress. My sensory issues are still very high when I go outside. But this month was a very very good start. I had a week where all my muscles were stiff as hell and thanks god I had a weighted blanket at home for this. I had no choice but to relax even more.

To synthetize that : fix environment -> fix sleep -> fix phone addiction -> fix organization issues -> rest at least 3 months

(As much as you can of course environment is not always fixable)