Autism Parent Burnout Is Real: How to Recognize It and Actually Recover

It's 2am. The house is quiet. Your kid is finally asleep — maybe after a long wind-down, maybe after a meltdown, maybe after an hour of scripted TV you've now heard four hundred times. The house is quiet and you should be asleep. But your brain is still running. Your body won't settle. You're lying there cataloging tomorrow: what transition is going to be hard, whether the substitute teacher will understand the routine, whether the occupational therapy appointment is going to go okay or whether you'll spend the drive home holding it together while your kid cries in the backseat. You've been "on" for so long you've forgotten what off feels like. This article is for you. Not your child — you. If that sentence made you feel guilty for a half-second, that's information. Keep reading.