We speak a lot about burnout in academia and in clinical professions – the risk of experiencing ongoing fatigue, cynicism and emotional detachment as a consequence of heavy and stressful workloads. Officially classified as an occupational hazard, burnout is a risk for us and our students, so it’s right that we should talk about the risks, the experience and how to avoid it. But there is another type of burnout that doesn’t get as much attention: autistic burnout. In this article, we’ll investigate what autistic burnout is, why we should talk about it more and how we can reduce the risk for our autistic students and colleagues.
Esther Murray, Reader in Health Psychology in IHSE, describes autistic burnout as “exhaustion so severe that there is a complete inability to function temporarily… as a result of trying to fit into a neurotypical world as if no-one’s noticing… or to function like everybody else functions when that’s not how you function.” While autistic burnout will manifest differently for different people, because everyone who is autistic is uniquely autistic, Esther noted that it might include not being able to speak or communicate, not being able to make decisions and not being able to engage in the types of activities you need to look after yourself, such as shopping for or cooking food or even taking a shower.
Learning at university requires navigating a lot of uncertainty – the ‘rules of engagement’, in terms of how you learn and engage with peers and staff, aren’t necessarily as defined as they are at school. And of course for many of our students, university may be one of the first times they begin to navigate the world as an adult, and start to figure out who they are as people. This exploration and negotiation of uncertainty can be challenging for everyone but autistic students, or otherwise neurodivergent students, often put in an extra layer of effort in order to function, or appear to function, as others do.
Both Esther and Ruth Rose, Lecturer in Biosciences in SBBS, highlighted that the ways in which university timetables are structured can make things harder for autistic students. “I’ll build alone time in my day so that I haven’t been exhausted by people”, Esther shared, ‘but student life isn’t quite like that .” Similarly Ruth pointed out that in a workplace, someone feeling overwhelmed can often sit quietly at their desk for a few minutes to reset and allow themselves to calm down before going into the lab or to talk to other people; at university however, their timetable requires them to be in a particular place and time.
The concept of energy accounting, or spoon theory, can help us think about how to create more inclusive learning environments and reduce the risk of autistic burnout. “Everybody’s got a finite amount of energy for the day. If some people find this, this and this so taxing that it uses up the energy for the day, that’s it, they can’t then, for example, go home and study. And we can’t make assumptions about how much energy people have got in a day,” explained Esther. Drawing on feminist theory, she explained that societal expectations of a day and what can be achieved in a day, is based upon a particular type of day for a particular type of person – “usually a straight white man who had someone to cook their dinner… someone else was doing all the other stuff.” Now, she says “we need to build a new kind of day that accounts for what everybody’s capable of.”
We can reduce uncertainty for students by setting out expectations, tasks and standards as clearly as possible; and Esther takes this a step further by explicitly acknowledging that students may still have questions and that it is fine to discuss them. “Obviously students have questions… but they feel that somehow they should know what to do because I have implied as their instructor that this is the thing we collectively understand.”
Normalising movement as a way of staying focused can also help. “It’s not odd for a brain to need something extra to keep engaged,” explained Esther. “Brains are expensive to run and they want to go into screensaver mode quickly.” She recommends encouraging – or even providing – fiddle toys, knitting or crocheting, or getting up to move around (somewhere that doesn’t distract others) during class.
When it comes to online learning, Esther highlights that online synchronous sessions can be really hard for autistic students as having the camera on can feel hypervisible and increase self-consciousness. Using closed captions, however, can help with processing challenges. Asynchronous opportunities to contribute can be beneficial for autistic students because it gives students more time to think and prepare their response. Having clear guidance, explaining the purpose of the activity and modelling compassion and constructive discussion are vital – “to risk ‘failing’ publicly is a big ask for any student… I really see that sometimes I haven’t understood how scary an activity is for them.”
Most important, Esther suggests, is asking students what is hard and what they need to thrive – “but ask everyone together, don’t just ask the students who are struggling.” She also highlighted that while we focused on students’ experience, many staff are autistic or otherwise neurodivergent and being mindful of this can help create a safer and more inclusive workplace. Indeed, more inclusive approaches in which we consider individuals’ needs, remain open-minded and proactively invite feedback on our approach, benefit everybody.
Esther recommends the National Autistic Society’s resource on autistic fatigue and burnout.
Dr Esther Murray,Reader in Health Psychology