Burnout is Not Just Occupational
We live in an exhausting — and exhausted — world. Demands and responsibilities are high, while resources are quite limited.
Burnout is prevalent, and I’m willing to bet you’ve experienced it at least once in the last five years. Unfortunately, despite the high rate of burnout in recent years, mainstream advice for treating burnout is inadequate, to put it gently.
For starters, mainstream society only recognizes one form of burnout: occupational burnout in neurotypical individuals. The neurospicy-conscious corner of the internet is beginning to recognize and spread awareness of autistic burnout (a form of burnout that, as the name implies, only affects autistic people — it’s a side effect of prolonged masking). As a neurodivergent person (and a person who is generally kind and cares about others), I’m happy that awareness of autistic burnout is increasing. But the academic and nonacademic worlds still refuse to acknowledge that non-occupational burnout for neurotypical folks exists.
Which makes absolutely no sense. If it’s true that one can become burnt out from overwhelming responsibilities at work, then it logically follows that one can also become burnt out from overwhelming responsibilities at home, such as childcare, financial struggles, caring for companion animals — the list goes on.