First aid for ADHD burnout
What is ADHD Burnout?
ADHD burnout is like ordinary old burnout, but as neurodiverse people we’re more at risk of it because we’re often running closer to overwhelm and extreme stress on a regular basis. Burnout is a state of unsustainable pressure and overwhelm that continues long enough that it affects every part of your daily life.
Signs of burnout include:
Feeling sick at the thought of everything you have to do
A growing feeling that the world is hostile and demanding
Believing that you have to do it all yourself or something bad will happen
ADHD paralysis or freeze - there’s so much to do you can’t do anything at all
Can’t wind down, and struggle to sleep, or do self-care or basic hygiene
Exhaustion, physical aches and pains
You may be using hypervigilance and constant stress as a way to give yourself the urgency needed to do stuff. Changing this pattern takes deeper work, and is something that ADHD coaching can help you with. This blog post is instead offered as a form of first aid, to stop you imploding.
Take action right away
It’s vital to take action as soon as you find yourself going into the ‘red zone’. The longer you push your nervous system way past its limit, the bigger the potential crash, and the more time it takes to recover. So for the sake of all the things that matter so much to you, please take burnout seriously!
If you can feel that you’re close to burnout, you need to lower your stress levels immediately. Usually this means taking some things off your plate.
Of course, you don’t believe this is possible, otherwise you would have done it already. But if you don’t do this, you may soon become literally unable to do any of the things you feel 'obligated' to do.
Emergency burnout response
Here is an emergency procedure for when you’re at a high risk of burning out.
Do a brain dump of all the things that you feel you need to do.
Get 3 different coloured highlighters, or cut the paper up so that there is one task on each piece of paper.
Go through and assign each task to one of these three categories: A) it has to be done and it needs to be me, B) it has to be done but someone else can do it or help, or C) if it's not done it sucks but will be okay. So choose a highlighter for each colour, or make 3 groups of pieces of paper.
If you can't work out which category each is by yourself, ask a safe person to do this process with you. You’re aiming to have some things in each category, rather than everything in category A.
Take category A and write your new to-do list.
Take category B and pass on tasks or ask for help.
Take category C and emotionally let go of each task. Remember to let anyone affected know. This is uncomfortable but not as uncomfortable as trying to do it all and burning out and then letting people down without any notice.
Step away from the edge
Once you hit the burnout zone, it takes a while to get back. You need to soothe your nervous system on a daily basis. Choose a few activities that cool you off and build them into your day, to bring you back from the edge.
For a good overview of how to do this, here’s a great article on recovering from ADHD burnout.
You can learn how to burn bright - without burning out!
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