After a bit of a break from long-form content, I’m so excited to be back with a solo episode that’s deeply personal and incredibly timely. I’ve missed connecting with you more intimately through the podcast and am looking forward to bringing you more episodes like this in the coming months.

Lately, I’ve been diving into the topic of neurodivergent burnout, something I’ve experienced firsthand and that I know many of you can relate to. I’ve written two blog posts on the topic and shared a companion video on YouTube—and even tested out long-form content on TikTok for the first time!

This episode is a heartfelt exploration of what burnout can look like for those of us who are gifted, ADHD, autistic, or otherwise neurodivergent, and how we can begin to recover and reconnect with our energy and purpose.

About My Experience of Burnout:

Over the last three years, I’ve been working through the most intense burnout of my life. It started during the pandemic and lingered far beyond, as I struggled to return to the rhythms of daily life in a world that never truly went “back to normal.” Like many neurodivergent individuals, I found myself caught in a cycle of urgency, executive dysfunction, emotional exhaustion, and identity loss—especially as a twice-exceptional adult who spent years masking and pushing through.

Throughout this episode, I share how I began healing by shifting my energy focus, consuming more uplifting media, and building out my self-regulation toolkit. These small but impactful steps helped me start to climb out of burnout and reconnect with my values and purpose.

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Giftedness * Identity * Intensity * Neurodivergence * Positive Disintegration * Relationships * Self Care * Self Regulation * Twice Exceptionality

In this episode:

What neurodivergent burnout really is and how it differs from general burnout
The impact of executive dysfunction, sensory overload, and masking
The “gifted kid burnout” problem and how identity gets tangled in achievement
How urgency culture creates cycles of burnout and crash
Using the “circle of influence” vs. “circle of concern” to refocus energy
Shifting media consumption and moving from doomscrolling to hope scrolling
The importance of community care and authentic connection
Building a personalized self-regulation toolkit for long-term energy balance
Learning to ask for help and receive support without guilt
A reminder: burnout is not a personal failure—it’s a survival response

Burnout is an all-too-common challenge for neurodivergent people, and it often looks very different from what the general population might expect. For autistic people, ADHD burnout, and other forms of neurodivergent burnout, it’s not just about long hours or hard work—it’s about the constant effort of navigating a neurotypical world without adequate support. The neurodivergent mind processes sensory input, social interaction, and executive function tasks in different ways, often leading to sensory processing issues and emotional exhaustion. Many autistic adults and neurodivergent individuals experience a greater risk of burnout due to the compounding effects of chronic stress, loss of skills, and a deep lack of motivation when support systems are not in place.

While neurotypical people may recover from burnout with rest alone, a neurodivergent adult often needs more nuanced strategies to heal—ones that take into account their unique neurodivergent traits, sensory experiences, and cognitive abilities. Burnout can also exacerbate mood disorders like anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Unfortunately, many family members, employers, and even mental health professionals may overlook these common causes, failing to provide the school accommodations, social support, or safe place needed for recovery. Whether it’s through personal experience, insights from advocates or participation in online communities, it’s clear that understanding the term neurodivergent and how it manifests is crucial. Supporting autistic children, ADHD individuals, and all neurodivergent people in reaching their full potential means meeting human needs, addressing sensory processing issues, and creating an ideal world where burnout is not the norm—but a sign that something deeper must be healed.

If you’ve been feeling like you’re constantly pushing through exhaustion, struggling to find balance, or wondering why everything feels so hard—you are not alone. Neurodivergent burnout is real, and it’s not a reflection of your worth or capability. It’s a signal that your needs deserve more care, compassion, and community support.

Let this episode be a gentle reminder that your intensity is not too much, your rest is valid, and your healing matters. I’d love to hear from you—what topics would you like me to explore further on the podcast? And if you’re ready to start building your own toolkit for energy balance and self-regulation, check out the PowerZone Toolkit Challenge, now available anytime you need it.

🎧 Listen now and take your next step toward recovery and reclaiming your energy.

Transcript

* Rough Transcript *

Aurora: It feels like we’ve all been experiencing a collective burnout, but if you’re neurodivergent, it can be especially intense because we’re so used to adapting for a world that wasn’t built for us.

Gifted & Neurodivergent Burnout in Unprecedented Times

Aurora: Hello! I am super excited to get back into some solo episodes again. It’s been quite a while. I’ve missed connecting with you more deeply through the podcast and I’m looking forward to sharing more episodes like this in the coming months. I’m also getting back into more long form blog posts and video. If you follow my blog or YouTube channel, you may have already seen that I’ve been Diving deep into a topic that’s been incredibly personal and timely for me -neurodivergent burnout.

I shared two new blog posts last week, and this episode is actually adapted from a video I also posted on my YouTube channel. And I’m even trying long form on TikTok. So if you’re more of a visual person, feel free to check it out there too.

This topic has really resonated with so many of you already, and I’d love to hear from you what other topics you’d like me to explore more deeply on the podcast or in a blog.

Let me know what’s been on your mind and what you’ve been navigating lately.

And one more exciting update, my PowerZone Toolkit is now available as an Evergreen Challenge free on my website. So if you’re looking for practical tools to support your self regulation and energy management, you can now jump in and get started anytime that works for you at embracing intensity. com slash toolkit. Enjoy!

The world is on fire and yet somehow we’re expected to just keep going?

If you’re gifted or neurodivergent and feeling utterly exhausted, this video is for you.

This past year, I’ve been coming out of the longest and hardest burnout of my whole life, about three years, and it started during the pandemic like many of us and

I struggled to get back into the day to day once things resumed back to normal,

but in reality there never was a normal and things certainly aren’t back to normal now.

It feels like every time there’s this glimmer of light or hope ahead, something comes up and makes things even worse.

But the thing is, if we get stuck in that darkness, then we can’t make sustainable change. We need to take care of ourselves and those around us in order to make a positive difference.

Some of the things that have helped me recently include focusing where my energy is most impactful, shifting my media consumption, especially around social media.

Building community care and expanding my self regulation toolkit.

So what’s one small shift you can make to protect your energy today?

What Is Neurodivergent Burnout?

Neurodivergent burnout isn’t just about overworking, but from chronic adaptation without the supports that we need in place.

Executive dysfunction, sensory overload, masking and emotional labor can all drain our energy.

If you have ADHD, you might go through cycles of hyper focus and then complete shutdown.

If you’re experiencing autistic burnout, you might be drained from sensory overload or masking.

And if you’re experiencing gifted burnout, you may have had your self identity wrapped up in your achievements and feel burnt out and exhausted when you can’t achieve the way you used to.

So if you’re struggling with exhaustion, brain fog, or emotional shutdown,

It’s not just stress.

One of the most helpful things for me has been building my self regulation tools,

which you can explore in my PowerZone Toolkit Challenge.

The Gifted Kid Burnout Problem

Aurora: As someone who wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until the pandemic, I kind of skated through school until I hit college and then I crashed and dropped out, which was my first neurodivergent burnout.

The gifted kid burnout meme started as a relatable joke, but it addresses a real problem, which is when we never learned how to use our executive functioning or sustained efforts and all of our self value was wrapped up in production, then when we can’t meet that level of production anymore, we start to feel like we’re not gifted anymore.

But especially twice exceptional adults who have both giftedness and other neurodivergent, sometimes we hit a wall where

after years of relying on our strengths to get by, our challenges start to catch up with us.

But our worth is not defined by our accomplishments.

Relying on Urgency

Aurora: For me, what led to a cycle of burnout almost every year was relying on urgency to get anything done.

But when everything starts to feel urgent, we tend to shut down and do nothing at all.

And if we rely on urgency to accomplish anything, At a certain point, we’re going to run out of energy and hit that wall and not be able to produce any more because the only solution we had was to force ourselves through urgency.

That can put us through a cycle of chaos where we push ourselves through urgency and then we hit a wall and so we end up in this cycle of All or nothing, pushing or crashing. And that’s just not sustainable.

And burnout is not about laziness. It’s our nervous system shutting down to help protect itself

from stress. But it’s important to note that your brain is not broken. You are not lazy.

And burnout is a survival response.

Navigating Burnout in Uncertain Times

Aurora: We can’t control everything, but we can control where we focus our energy. At least to some degree.

When everything around us feels super overwhelming and urgent, it’s easy to lose focus and not know where to begin. One of the concepts that I found really useful recently was the circle of influence versus the circle of concern. And right now, our circle of concern Is huge. There’s this huge amount of stuff going on in the world that we are worried about for very good reason, but so much of it is things that we can’t influence right now.

So if we do focus on the things we can influence, which is that circle of influence, then we can make small changes that might actually make a positive impact in a way that’s sustainable.

If we focus our energy on the entire circle of concern, the problem is that we end up getting burnt out around things that we can’t do anything about immediately anyway.

One of the things that’s really helped me to focus on my circle of influence is to do an energy audit and look at how I’m spending my time on things that are energizing versus things that are stressful and draining, and make sure that I’m working in things that are energizing so that I can counterbalance those stressors.

And this is super important right now because it helps us sustain the energy to keep going and make a positive difference where we can.

So, instead of getting caught up in all of the things we can’t do anything about, stop for a moment and think, what is one tangible thing I can do right now to make a difference?

Shifting Our Media Consumption

Aurora: Another thing that’s been really helpful for me in managing my energy, in dealing with burnout, in all of the chaos, is to shift my social media consumption. Because doom scrolling isn’t going to fix the world, but it will burn you out.

So instead of doom scrolling, try hope scrolling. I personally have been using social media for focusing on places that give me actionable steps and things I can do. And also profiles that bring hope and show me positive things that are happening in the world.

I’m also reading more deeply into books on collective liberation and rest is resistance.

Staying in a crisis cycle 24 7 is not sustainable. And if we stay in that cycle, then we can’t Make any positive difference as well, because we’ll be too burnt out to do anything about it.

And in reality, they want you to be overwhelmed, because they want you to shut down and not fight back.

So be intentional with who you follow and how you engage.

And shift from passive consumption to action driven engagement.

So as you’re browsing, ask yourself,

is this content fueling action or just fueling anxiety?

The Power of Community Care

Aurora: And while self care is important with burnout, self care is not enough. We really need community care, especially right now.

Isolation fuels burnout. So we need places where we can be authentic and unmask.

Healing isn’t just an individual

process, it’s a collective one. We need support from others and we need to support those around us.

We were never meant to do this alone. We need to find other people who get it and support each other together.

Building Our Self Regulation Tools

Aurora: And then finally, one of the best things that’s helped me to deal with my own burnout is building my self regulation tools.

And it’s important to realize that self regulation doesn’t mean calm. It means self expression and ability to meet our needs. It doesn’t mean focusing on self control and forcing ourselves to do things. It means finding ways to support ourselves and getting our own needs met. I’ve seen a lot of criticism from people about the concept of focusing on executive functioning and self regulation as somehow being something to make us more socially acceptable, but for me, focusing on self regulation and executive functioning is really about So, finding ways to support myself in meeting my own needs and expressing my needs as well.

Not in masking them or trying to fit some sort of societal ideal.

So three of the things that have helped me to build my self regulation tools include doing a personal energy audit, looking at the five areas of energy balance and how I’m spending my time so that I can see where I’m spending my time in ways that are depleting me and how I can add more ways that energize me.

And also by adding more tools to my self regulation toolkit. Things that help soothe, things that help energize, things that help me to get my needs met and communicate with others.

And also learning how to ask for help and receive.

Because I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to realize that. I don’t have a great relationship with receiving. I would much rather give than receive, but that’s not sustainable either. I kind of have an allergy to the concept of transactional relationships, and so the second something starts to feel transactional to me, then I don’t want to ask.

But I also realize that only giving It isn’t sustainable either.

So learning to focus on what my needs are and how to ask for help is really crucial to overcoming burnout and preventing it moving forward.