TBI after autistic burnout

Hi,

I was wondering if there is anyone in this community who has suffered a brain injury due to autistic burnout. I was late diagnosed ASD in my mid forties and I'm now in my early fifties.

In April 2022 I suffered a brain haemorrhage whilst running. Whilst I recovered well physically and left hospital being told I was in the lucky 10% of people who recovered naturally without the need for surgery, this has left me with side effects that still trouble me today which include depression, headaches, short term memory issues, fatigue, and anger/outbursts.

I have recently made more sense of my ASD diagnosis and came to realise my life's struggles centre around my disability and what I have experienced was ‘extreme autistic burnout’. Simply put the load I was carrying in life, both at home and work, exceeded my ability to cope and a lifetime of masking had finally paid caught up with me.

I am now really struggling with work and my marriage is hanging by a thread. I feel I need to get an easier job and leave my wife but having three children to support and a mortgage to pay I feel desperately trapped.

Is anyone out there who could advise or going through anything similar?

Thanks

[Leaf100]

Hi SSA hemorrhage is an injury.

From a gross physical point of view, you healed.

However, if you had any inflammation at all, and you would as it is part of the healing response, you can get injuries that are too small to be seen on a CT or MRI.

What happens with inflammation- and it happens over time - is the swelling chemicals destroy the tails of neurons that cross between the grey and white matter.

Yes, you feel burnt out, unable to do what you did before, unable to cope with complexity or even simple things. Perhaps more sensitive to various stimulation. Great fatigue. Anger. Memory issues. And maybe more - issues with balance, word finding, reading, multitasking, to name a few. (And depends where the injury is.) All very typical.

These are all brain injury symptoms.

My guess , based on my life experience, is that you had a life that the autism was manageable within. Put a brain injury on top - now not manageable.

I was in an accident and didn't have a mark on me, just soft tissue stuff. I thought I would heal, no problem. No - big problem.

The people at the bi society keep looking fir my scar as they figure I had a bad one. I did. But no scar outside, all inside.

Look up axonal shearing to understand how that works.

You will heal over time. Likely not completely but you can go a long way..the brain forms new pathways. You also may not feel like the same person. I have personality changes. If you can find out what area of the brain had the hemorrhage you may have in idea of how it relates, to a point - inflammation happens maybe everywhere so who knows.

In my case the anger went away after awhile. I am now quite far away from emotion. A lot if people with bi are more emotional. It just depends.

So, I really feel you are describing a brain injury on top of autism.

Unfortunately a lot of docs who see people who have hemorrhages or strokes etc never put the brain injury label on it - but those are forms of brain injury.

Sorry you are in the club, we all hope no one has to join. And, you are welcome cause you are one of us.

People here will share things that work - mostly coping strategies. They are trying and finding what works.

How long ago was the hemmorage?

Bi is a long slog. Healing happens faster in the first 3 years or so and then keeps going, only slower. So if you are under 3 years you are still freshly injured. Relatively speaking. And, it isn't like a broken leg. There is no clear and obvious straight line path to healing, and then you are done. And, the medical system is sadly lacking. So, you have to be pro active on your own behalf, like what you are doing by posting here. Cause we do get it. And we have ideas for you to test out.

Leaf

[Hidden in reply to Leaf100]

Thank you for taking the time to reply, appreciate your thoughts and feedback 🙏

[catrabb1t]

Sorry you are going through such a hard time. Very stressful.

Autistic burnout and brain injury fatigue must be so hard to deal with. Experiencing it and recovering must be so hard. Recovering when you have responsibilities is even harder. You are now in a fragile place after years of masking your autistic differences and brain injury on top of that is difficult.

Have you found info relevant to autism and brain injury?

I wonder if Headway has advice? If they do not have such info then please gently remind them that not everyone is neurotypical and would it be possible for them to raise this issue to work on it to have info for neurodivergence.

I would guess that your sensory differences could be more sensitive which could be debilitating in all areas of your life. Your social and communication will be further affected bringing stress, confusion and fatigue. You will probably need more alone time than when your were experiencing burnout, but work and home life demands must make that impractical and impossible, but you do not have a choice if you simply cannot do things.

Give Headway a call. They really do help with emotional support and might be able to help in other ways too.