Does anyone else get really anxious when they’re trying to heal from burn out?
TLDR: everything I need to do to heal from burnout is simultaneously making me feel anxious and depressed. Any advice?
Hey, I’m 23rd Autistic woman (diagnosed 2 years ago, so I guess still relatively new to learning coping mechanisms). I’m a third year art student and I live by myself (which I love). I’m currently going through quite intense burn out because of a huge third year project I’ve just completed and just too much life pressure in general. I’m constantly exhausted but I also can’t stop going to sleep at 3am because I feel so deregulated, everything feels difficult, even just making food or doing the dishes.
I’ve read previous posts on this forum about dealing with burn out and the advice has been really helpful, e.g. minimising social interaction, having your favourite textures around you, safe clothes, safe foods, rewatching fave shows etc. All of that is helping, but I also feel like it’s mimicking a depressive episode I had a few years ago (which in hind sight was also probs just burn out, this was before I was diagnosed). I’m constantly anxious and I feel like I’m broken or something. I want to get back to functioning properly, usually I’m really good at eating well and doing yoga to regulate my nervous system but atm I’m just running on fumes, eating whatever and not exercising cause everything is just too much effort. I love the fact I have my comfort shows and I’m staying entertained but everything that requires me to heal from burnout is also just making my mental state a bit worse?? I don’t get it.
Does anyone have any advice?
Posted Jan 25, 2026, 12:30 PM UTC