Untypical by Pete Wharmby

Author:Pete Wharmby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2023-01-26T11:47:34+00:00

Burnout

I hesitate to even begin this section. I’ve always found autistic burnout difficult to talk about, whether when speaking publicly, or when writing my blogs or my threads on Twitter. This is because it’s indelibly linked in my mind to my experience of severe depression and, at times, especially around 2016 or so, attempted suicide. This is not to add a layer of hyperbole to an already difficult concept; it’s simply to show how autistic burnout can leave an autistic person feeling broken, potentially forever.

All of this is made even more complicated by the fact that autistic burnout is still relatively unexplored and unresearched. Things are improving, but like almost everything in medicine, it takes considerable time for new ideas and medical science to trickle down to the frontline of general practitioners and nurses. As such, if (or when) an autistic person goes to their first port of call for medical assistance, they’re still likely to be met with blank looks, poor-quality assumptions and a total lack of support. Any autistic person who has experienced burnout, though, can confirm that it’s absolutely real. And it can be deadly.

A lot is made of statistics that show that autistic people have a much lower life expectancy than their neurotypical brethren. Depending on which set of stats you pay attention to, the life expectancy of autistic people balances out at either around thirty-six years old, or a little later at fifty-four. Both of these figures take into account many variables, from accidents to deaths caused by what we could call comorbid conditions. Of course, this does not mean that any autistic person you know will definitely be dead by their mid-fifties. Rather it’s a signal of alarm that autistic people are dying much younger than they should – an alarm that really needs to be heard and reacted to. There are a whole host of factors that can drag down an autistic lifespan, many of which I’ve covered elsewhere in this book, but probably the most insidious (as well as potentially the most preventable) is suicide.

As I’ve already mentioned, autistic people are three times more likely to die as a result of suicide than the general population. Studies have shown that over 60 per cent of autistic people have at some point seriously contemplated taking their own life.†

Given the myriad struggles we face, many of which I’ve tried to explain in these pages, these statistics – while extraordinary – shouldn’t be shocking. There’s next to zero support available for the vast majority of autistic adults. Despite depression and suicidal ideation being a big part of the reason why I received a diagnosis of autism back in 2017, I’ve been given no support from the NHS since my diagnosis, having been sent on my way with a handful of mediocre pamphlets and a ‘good luck’ from the psychiatrist. We’re left to try to figure it all out on our own, and if it hadn’t been for the supportive network of autistic people online I fear my own personal outcome may have been bleaker.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.