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Before you blame every new cognitive, sensory, and physical symptom on autism, ADHD, or burnout, consider what else might be happening in your body. Sometimes it’s Long COVID. Sometimes it’s something else. Either way, it deserves a closer look.
Short on energy? Start here.
If several of these are new for you, this essay is worth saving for when you have the capacity to read it:
You crash a day or two after effort, and the crash feels out of proportion. (This is called post-exertional malaise, or PEM.)
Rest no longer brings you back to your old baseline.
Ordinary places like stores or offices now make you dizzy, nauseated, or wiped out.
Your thinking goes thick, slow, or wordless faster than it used to.
Your heart races or you feel faint when you stand up.
The one thing to take away: your neurotype is real, and your body can change. New symptoms deserve a medical look. Pace yourself while you get answers.
Maybe the grocery store used to be a lot. Now it makes you dizzy.
Maybe you’ve always lost your train of thought. Now you lose words mid-sentence, in meetings, in front of people.
Maybe you always needed a day off after a big event. Now a walk around the block puts you in bed two days later.
And maybe, somewhere along the way, you decided this was burnout. Or your ADHD getting worse. Or proof that you’re “more autistic than you realized.”
You might be right. I’d like you to consider another possibility.
The pattern I keep seeing
As a therapist who works with neurocomplex adults, I’ve heard versions of this story over and over since 2020.
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