Neurodivergent Burnout Learning Hub

Courses in the Burnout Theme

Burnout Basics
An accessible introduction to what burnout is. Learn about symptoms, causes, and myths that often keep people stuck. Includes a self-reflection tool to help you spot early warning signs and recognize patterns before they grow overwhelming.

🪞 Your Burnout: A Personal Deep Dive
Burnout shows up differently for everyone. In this course, guided reflections and exercises help you uncover your unique burnout profile — your triggers, energy drains, and the personal situations that wear you down. You’ll create your own recovery blueprint, tailored to your life.

🛠️ Burnout Recovery Strategies
When you’re already burned out, rest alone often isn’t enough. This course gives you step-by-step tools to regulate your nervous system, restore balance, and rebuild your daily routines. You’ll learn how to pace recovery, introduce micro-rest, and create sustainable habits that prevent re-collapse.

🛡️ Burnout Prevention Strategies
The best way to protect against future burnout is prevention. This course teaches practical methods for setting healthy boundaries, balancing energy input and output, and designing routines that protect your mental health. You’ll also explore relapse-prevention skills and build resilience for long-term stability.

🤝 Supporting Someone with Burnout
Burnout doesn’t only impact the individual — it touches families, friends, and workplaces too. This course offers concrete ways to support someone you care about through burnout without burning yourself out in the process. Learn what to say (and what not to), how to create safe spaces, and how to gently encourage recovery while respecting their pace.

Neurodivergent Burnout External Resources

🔥 Autistic Burnout Research (AASPIRE)
https://aaspire.org
One of the leading research groups studying autistic burnout, lived experiences, recovery patterns, and accessibility barriers.

🧠 Autism Research Institute – Burnout & Overload
https://www.autism.org
Evidence-based articles and webinars on autistic burnout, sensory strain, cognitive load, and long-term support strategies.

🌍 Spectrum News – Autistic Burnout Reports
https://www.spectrumnews.org
Independent science journalism covering studies on autistic burnout, energy regulation, masking strain, and overload recovery.

📘 CHADD – ADHD Burnout & Executive Overload
https://chadd.org
Resources explaining ADHD-related burnout, emotional exhaustion, decision fatigue, and patterns of chronic overwhelm.

🔬 ADHD Evidence Project – Comorbidity & Burnout
https://adhdevidence.org
Summaries of research on ADHD, workplace stress, emotional dysregulation, and how executive function strain contributes to burnout.

🇬🇧 National Autistic Society – Autistic Burnout
https://www.autism.org.uk
Guidance on recognising autistic burnout, symptoms, triggers, and support approaches for daily life.

💼 NICE Guidelines – Workplace Stress & Mental Health
https://www.nice.org.uk
Evidence-based clinical guidance relevant to burnout overlaps, workplace adjustments, and chronic stress in neurodivergent adults.

🏥 Mayo Clinic – Chronic Stress & Fatigue
https://www.mayoclinic.org
Reliable information on stress physiology, fatigue, and how long-term overload interacts with neurodivergent processing.

📗 Psychology Today – ND Burnout Articles
https://www.psychologytoday.com
Public-facing articles on autistic burnout, ADHD exhaustion, masking fatigue, and recovery cycles.

🌱 Stanford Neurodiversity Project – Workplace Stress
https://med.stanford.edu/neurodiversity.html
Research and applied guidance on reducing overload, improving workplace environments, and supporting neurodivergent adults.

📚 Neurodivergent Burnout Research Reference Library
Scientific studies on autistic burnout, ADHD‑related burnout, and work‑related stress in neurodivergent adults.
All items below are real, peer‑reviewed papers. The title of each paper is a clickable link to the abstract or full text.

🧠 Core Definitions of Autistic Burnout

Raymaker, D. M., Teo, A. R., Steckler, N. A., et al. (2020).
“Having All of Your Internal Resources Exhausted Beyond Measure and Being Left with No Clean‑Up Crew”: Defining Autistic Burnout.
Community‑based participatory study using interviews and online content to define autistic burnout as long‑term exhaustion, loss of skills and reduced stimulus tolerance, distinct from depression and occupational burnout. PubMed

Higgins, J. M., Arnold, S. R. C., Weise, J., Pellicano, E., & Trollor, J. N. (2021).
Defining autistic burnout through experts by lived experience: Grounded Delphi method investigating #AutisticBurnout.
Grounded Delphi study with autistic adults as “experts by lived experience,” producing a consensus definition: a highly debilitating condition marked by exhaustion, withdrawal, executive‑function problems and increased autistic traits, driven by masking and an unaccommodating world. PubMed+1

Mantzalas, J., Richdale, A. L., Adikari, A., Lowe, J., & Dissanayake, C. (2022).
What is autistic burnout? A thematic analysis of posts on two online platforms.
Thematic analysis of autistic people’s own posts describing triggers (chronic overload, masking), symptoms and recovery strategies around autistic burnout. PMC+1

Ali, D., Bougoure, M., Cooper, B., et al. (2025).
Burnout as experienced by autistic people: A systematic review.
Systematic review of 48 studies (≈4000 autistic people) showing autistic burnout is characterised by chronic exhaustion, loss of functioning and recurring crises, often linked to camouflaging, sensory/social overload, stigma and everyday demands, with support and rest as key protective factors.

🌊 Models, Risk & Protective Factors in Autistic Burnout

Mantzalas, J., Richdale, A. L., & Dissanayake, C. (2022).
A conceptual model of risk and protective factors for autistic burnout. Autism Research.
Proposes the Conceptual Model of Autistic Burnout (CMAB), integrating autistic traits, chronic social stress, camouflaging, environmental barriers and supports using the neurodiversity paradigm and Job Demands–Resources framework. PubMed+1

Higgins, J. M., Arnold, S. R. C., Weise, J., Desai, A., Pellicano, E., & Trollor, J. N. (2023). Confirming the nature of autistic burnout. Autism.
Empirically tests proposed definitions and features of autistic burnout, further distinguishing it from depression and general occupational burnout and clarifying symptom clusters like exhaustion, withdrawal and executive‑function difficulties. ResearchGate+1

Øverland, E., Hauge, Å. L., Orm, S., et al. (2022). Exploring life with autism: Quality of life, daily functioning and compensatory strategies from childhood to emerging adulthood: A qualitative study protocol. Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Study protocol linking masking/compensatory strategies, chronic stress and poor person–environment fit with reduced quality of life and autistic burnout, especially in school and early adult transitions. Frontiers

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📏 Measuring Autistic Burnout

Arnold, S. R. C., Higgins, J., Weise, J., Pellicano, E., & Trollor, J. N. (2023). Towards the measurement of autistic burnout. (Accepted manuscript, AASPIRE Autistic Burnout Measure development).
Co‑produced survey with autistic adults to develop early Autistic Burnout Severity Items and test the initial AASPIRE Autistic Burnout Measure, linking burnout severity to masking, depression and other traits. UCL Discovery

Mantzalas, J., Richdale, A. L., Li, X., & Dissanayake, C. (2024). Measuring and validating autistic burnout. Autism Research.
Compares the AASPIRE Autistic Burnout Measure with the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory in autistic adults, finding both can screen autistic burnout, and highlighting relationships with masking and mental‑health symptoms. Wiley Online Library+1

Bougoure, M., Zhuang, S., Brett, J. D., et al. (2025). Measuring autistic burnout: A psychometric validation of the AASPIRE Autistic Burnout Measure in autistic adults. Autism.
Large psychometric study (n=379) showing strong reliability and validity of the AASPIRE Autistic Burnout Measure, with scores correlating with autistic traits, camouflaging, occupational burnout, depression and anxiety. PubMed+1

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💼 Burnout, Work & Neurodivergent Adults (ADHD & Autism)

Turjeman‑Levi, Y., Itzchakov, G., & Engel‑Yeger, B. (2024). Executive function deficits mediate the relationship between employees’ ADHD and job burnout. AIMS Public Health.
Field study of 171 employees: ADHD symptoms predict higher job burnout, and this link is largely explained by executive‑function difficulties in time‑management and organization (physical fatigue, emotional exhaustion, cognitive weariness). PubMed+1

Oscarsson, M., Nelson, M., Rozental, A., et al. (2022). Stress and work‑related mental illness among working adults with ADHD: a qualitative study. BMC Psychiatry.
Interviews with adults with ADHD describing chronic stress, emotional dysregulation, feeling overwhelmed, repeated exhaustion and long‑term sickness absence, highlighting burnout‑like patterns and need for workplace accommodations. BioMed Central+1

Nagata, M., Nakashima, M., Takahashi, Y., & et al. (2019). Effect modification by attention‑deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms on the association of psychosocial work environment with psychological distress. Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Shows that for workers with higher ADHD symptoms, low job control and poor social support are more strongly linked to psychological distress, pointing to elevated burnout risk when work environments are unsupportive. Frontiers

Tomczak, M. T., & Kulikowski, K. (2024). Toward an understanding of occupational burnout among employees with autism – the Job Demands–Resources theory perspective. Current Psychology.
Uses Job Demands–Resources theory to examine burnout in autistic employees, highlighting sensory overload, social demands and lack of support as key job demands increasing burnout risk, and accommodations and understanding as critical resources. ResearchGate+2Semantic Scholar+2

Hayward, S. M., McVilly, K. R., & Stokes, M. A. (2020). Sources and impact of occupational demands for autistic employees. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Explores how sensory, social and organizational demands at work contribute to stress and fatigue in autistic employees, reinforcing pathways from environmental overload to burnout. ScienceDirect

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🧩 Burnout, Masking & Mental Health in Autistic People

Higgins, J. M., Arnold, S. R. C., Weise, J., Pellicano, E., & Trollor, J. N. (2021). Defining autistic burnout through experts by lived experience: Grounded Delphi method investigating #AutisticBurnout. Autism.
Shows that autistic burnout is often driven by long‑term masking, lack of environmental fit and chronic invalidation, with strong links to suicidality and misdiagnosis as “just depression.” PubMed+1

Ali, D., Bougoure, M., Cooper, B., et al. (2025). Burnout as experienced by autistic people: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review.
Synthesises evidence that camouflaging, stigma, sensory/social overwhelm and alexithymia are key contributors to autistic burnout, while self‑knowledge, rest, solitude and community support are protective. ScienceDirect+1

Øverland, E. et al. (2022). Exploring life with autism: Quality of life, daily functioning and compensatory strategies… Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Conceptual overview emphasising how chronic compensatory strategies (especially masking) can reduce quality of life and contribute to autistic burnout in young adults. Frontiers

Neurodivergent experience hubs:
🌀 Neurodivergent Anxiety
🔥 Neurodivergent Burnout
🌧️ Neurodivergent Depression
🌟 Neurodivergent Self-Esteem
🌱 Neurodivergent Self-Care