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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 16h

Here's a short description of how #AutisticBurnout starts. It think it often comes from a piling up of external and internalized stresses for a long period of time, usually due to a lack of acceptance, or support, in how we as Autistics function, and think, and experience the world. 1/2

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 22h

𝐀𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 is another skill that is necessary for recovering from autistic burnout. In my workshops and courses, I give frameworks, and share the method, but the 𝙙𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙨 are going to be different for all of us. 1/5 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

As Autistics, we often learn at a very early age to simply numb our experiences, to numb the perceptions of how bad it really is. Or we fight the signals and everything feels like you’re battling the world constantly, all the time. 1/6 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Another invaluable skill to fully recover from autistic burnout is 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩. You can develop the skill of attuning to what your internal state is in the moment, of what your needs are, what your emotions are, what your desires are. 1/2 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

As #Autistics, if we only focus on the sensory things that hurt us, the times we’ve gotten social cues wrong, the times we’ve been left out, wrongly accused, misunderstood, etc. it’s natural (I know, I did this for years) to think that nobody understands, and 𝙞𝙩’𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧. 1/3

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I’m Heather, I’m Autistic and ADHD, and I know this burnout stuff so intimately because I’ve been through two major, life-halting burnouts, and a dozen smaller ones throughout my life. 1/11 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Autistic burnout isn't the problem, it's the solution. It's the major wake up call, the kick in the ass, the hit the wall, rock bottom moment that will get you to actually finally fix the things in your life that don't work, that haven't been working for a long time. 1/5 #AutisticBurnout #Autistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Trying new things is uncomfortable, but it is 𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡 when you're recovering from autistic burnout. 1/4 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Rest is more than sleeping. Anything that gives you energy counts as restorative. 1/2 #ActuallyAutistic #Autistic #Neurodiversity #BurnoutRecovery

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Every time you shed a bit more ableist-NT baggage from the CAN’T world, (the C̲apitalist, C̲olonized, A̲bleist, N̲eurotypical, and T̲raumatized world), you’ll get a bit of your energy back, and can transfer that to building your PLAN world (a p̲ositive l̲ife for your a̲utism and n̲eurodivergence). #Autistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Whether you work with me, with someone else, or figure it out on your own, there is no version of autistic burnout recovery where you get to skip the deep work and just get handed a burnout-free life. But you don’t have to muddle through it on your own or do it without a map. #AutisticBurnout

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

To recover from two major, life-halting #burnouts (and a dozen smaller ones throughout my life), I went whole hog, making huge changes fairly quickly. But I don't think that was necessary. In fact, it was 𝙖 𝙛𝙚𝙬, 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡, 𝙠𝙚𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙩 𝙪𝙥 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚, that made the biggest difference. 1/6

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

AuDHD folks, what does 𝙨𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 actually look and feel like for you (sensory and neurodivergent needs factored in)? #AskingAutistics #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Neurodiversity

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Getting enough energy back to keep masking isn't true burnout recovery. Really getting out of autistic burnout means reducing the dissonance between the version you've presented to the world and your inner experiences. For more on this topic, check out my video: buff.ly/aQh8UVO #BurnoutRecovery

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Autistic Burnout Recovery Is About Reducing Dissonance

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The version of the person that comes out the other side of autistic burnout is someone who’s more themselves, not less. Someone who’s more honest about what they need, more boundaries, and less willing to push through things that don’t work for them. 1/3 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Most of the strategies for autistic burnout recovery I’ll be talking about, are going to be things you can do even when you don’t have large chunks of supported rest. I’ve had it both ways. 1/5 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The single most impactful thing that a supporter can do is to believe the person in burnout, and to say so not once, but repeatedly, in simple terms: “This is real. This makes sense. You’re not making it up.” 1/3 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

In Beyond Autistic Burnout, the course where you learn a practical system for sustainable recovery from Autistic burnout and break the cycle so you never have to go through it again, we walk through these steps: ---> #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

For those of you in burnout: this is real. You’re not making it up, and you’re not exaggerating. This is a thing that thousands of people are going through. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥. 1/3 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

A comment I got in one my recent conversations around the 5 stages of #Burnout and Recovery workshop: “Our internalized ableism tells us that we can’t allow things to hurt or to be hard. I often have to remind myself that my disability can actually be disabling.” My response to this --->

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

When you don't have the energy or the words to explain autistic burnout to the people in your life, this free guide will do the explaining for you. buff.ly/RtLQzjY #AutisticBurnout #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A question I've gotten around burnout: “Can spending too much time and energy on a special interest become exhausting and potentially worsen autistic burnout? It feels enjoyable, but it also takes up a lot of time and can be a bit exhausting.” 1/5 #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #AutisticBurnout

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The 5 Stages of Autistic Burnout --> 1. The Narrowing - when burnout is approaching, but it could still be prevented, if identified early, and action is taken... #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A question I've gotten around #burnout: “I feel like in order to heal and to go through the stages, I need to drastically change my engagement in social life. I struggle at social settings, but at the same time, it’s really what I want. I am very confused. Do you have any thoughts on this?” 1/5

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

There are five key, holistic, interrelated solutions specifically for the challenges that we face as Autistics and AuDHDers, especially when you've struggled for decades. They are ---> #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Making the Beyond Autistic Burnout course has been hard, and took a long time. Part of that is because I had to systematize all of the experiences that I’ve had personally and that I’ve worked with other people about, and that just takes a lot of work to figure out. But also... 1/7 #AutisticBurnout

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

How to fake eye contact. A tutorial for autistics. I occasionally get asked by autistics for help on making eye contact. Here's what I typically tell them. --> #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurospicy

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Internalized ableism is so pervasive in our society that it’s affecting you in ways you’ve been trained not to notice. Ways that you may be discriminating against yourself, and giving yourself a harder time than you really need to. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙖𝙪𝙡𝙩. 1/3 #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲? Learn the skills and techniques to get out of autistic burnout for good! Enrollment for Beyond Autistic Burnout is OPEN. 1/10 #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

What if you stopped blaming yourself for things that aren’t actually your fault? What if you stopped pushing yourself so hard, getting on your own case, denying yourself accommodations, discriminating against yourself in ways that have been so normalized you don’t even notice you’re doing it? 1/2

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Internalized ableism, as I see it, is a deeply ingrained way of thinking that creates unnecessary pain and distress by comparing your current reality with some fictional ideal of what people "should" be able to do. It’s that “should” thing that’s really the key. 1/2 #ActuallyAutistic #Autistic

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Dissolving Internalized Ableism

What internalized ableism is, how it affects us, how we have more power than we realize, and some starter tips to dissolve it bit by bit.

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Many of the things that would help a neurotypical person in burnout are the very things that cause autistic burnout in the first place. And that’s why the recovery path is also different. #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

There are five stages of Autistic Burnout and Recovery. I go over all five in a workshop that you can access for free: buff.ly/zApJKdq #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

If you're experiencing #AutisticBurnout and you want to recover, you're not asking for the Moon. You don’t 𝙖𝙗𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 a pile of money and a team of silent, robotic servants to magically appear and take care of all your needs, forever, without any human interaction. -->

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I hear from people all the time who say: "I don't have #anxiety. I have a genuinely awful, horrible situation. And I'm not making it up." And they're right. It's not invented. It's not all in their head. And... 1/3

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

A common experience with later identified Autistics who start figuring out all the sensory stuff that they've been shutting out, is that instead of things getting better, everything is more annoying. 1/5 #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurodiversity

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

There are several holidays associated with fireworks, and while they can be pretty to watch, the loud and sudden sounds can be triggering for some people. And other people have difficulties with the bright lights, or other sensory issues, painful associations, or PTSD triggers. 1/3 #Autistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

You deserve to have tools that work for your nervous system, during events like Grito de Dolores, going back to school, even the change in weather. And it is okay to get help with sensory overwhelm. And it is possible to make this part of your life better. #ActuallyAutistic #Autistic

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

If fireworks and holiday celebrations are overstimulating, triggering, or painful for you, I’d like to offer a technique that can help regulate your nervous system through the stress, rather than gritting and bearing your teeth and complaining about the world, when fireworks are going on: -->

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

It's Grito de Dolores this week, and if your community is one that celebrates, there might be more stimuli: fireworks, people talking, the pressure to socialize. 1/2 #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurodiversity

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

As you're recovering from #burnout, if you're doing it in a way that's trying to deconstruct the reasons that you got into burnout in the first place, you might find that you'll still sometimes recognize that you've kind of reached your limit but you're gonna push on anyway. 1/3

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Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Coach @autismchrysalis.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Genuine recovery for autistic burnout requires two things happening at once: 1) unlearning the old messaging and 2) building new ways of operating designed for an 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 nervous system, instead of borrowed from a world that wasn’t built for you. #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #ActuallyAutistic

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