RADICAL DEMAND REDUCTION

RECOVERING FROM AUDHD BURNOUT

I’ve been trying to finish and publish this post for 3 weeks now. I’ve been drawing on the emergency reserves of my energy for several years now, and I’ve finally depleted even the backup source. I’m spent. I’ve come to realize that what I’m experiencing is AuDHD burnout. Last year I discovered that I have both ADHD and Autism, and that they’d been sort of covering each other up for my whole life, hence the late identification. I’ve recently realized that my autistic burnout has been misdiagnosed as depression for decades. While these realizations don’t necessarily change what I’m experiencing, and this is definitely not my first rodeo with burnout, I do have a much clearer lens to view the circumstances through.

I’ve decided that I need to drastically reduce the number of demands in my life, at least temporarily. When looking at my annual plan for 2025, I decided to break it up into quarterly themes. For Q1, I will be focused on HEALTH, which means I will be channeling my energy into…