Week 6 kept the books. This week is about what happens when they don’t balance for long enough. Before the two-week break, you’ll write a runbook: decisions made in advance, by the version of you who can make them, for the version of you who can’t.
Three time scales#
The course separates three things that all get called “being overwhelmed”. The distinctions are the course’s; only the third has a research definition behind it, and that comes next.
| State | Time scale | What it looks like from inside |
|---|---|---|
| Overload | this afternoon | input arriving faster than it can be processed: noise, people, decisions |
| Shutdown | this evening | output stops: words are hard to find, messages go unanswered, the room needs to be quiet |
| Burnout | this semester | the budget has been overspent for weeks, and rest on top of the same load isn’t refilling it |
These are planning time scales, not recovery deadlines. The table separates an immediate demand for quiet from a load that has been accumulating for weeks.
Where this table is wrong#
The table above has three rows. The literature names four phenomena, and calls them BIMS: burnout, inertia, meltdown and shutdown (Phung et al., 2021). Two of those — inertia and meltdown — are not in the course’s table at all.
The three scales are an incomplete map. Phung and colleagues interviewed eight autistic children and youth and found BIMS described as a multi-faceted experience with emotional, cognitive and physical components, and one often misunderstood by the people around them.
Eight young people is a small study and it is not about adults, so nothing here is a claim about how common any of this is. Use the emotional, cognitive and physical components as prompts for your runbook, and leave room for a state this course didn’t name.
Burnout, defined by the people who have it#
Autistic adults have long discussed “autistic burnout” among themselves, while the academic and clinical literature barely mentioned it. Two studies have since defined it with the people who experience it.
Raymaker and colleagues used a community-based participatory approach. Their participants described autistic burnout as chronic exhaustion, loss of skills, and reduced tolerance to stimulus. It came from cumulative load and barriers to getting relief from it. Participants linked recovery to acceptance and social support, time off or reduced expectations, and doing things in an autistic way, including unmasking. The authors note the danger of teaching autistic people to mask (Raymaker et al., 2020).
Higgins and colleagues reached an agreed definition with 23 autistic adults over three survey rounds: exhaustion, withdrawal, difficulties with executive function, generally reduced functioning, and more pronounced autistic traits (Higgins et al., 2021).
Both studies found it distinct from depression and from ordinary work burnout. Both name masking and an unaccommodating environment among the causes. That is the thread from week 6: the ledger’s costs accumulate, and the recovery research says the way out is removing load, not adding rest on top of it.
Overload is measurable, not just describable#
“Overload” has been the course’s word for something students describe. It has also been measured.
Strömberg and colleagues surveyed 98 Swedish adults — 62 autistic, 36 non-autistic — about sensory experience and communication in health care settings. Autistic participants reported greater discomfort with background sound levels than non-autistic participants in the same settings, and felt more misunderstood by providers (Strömberg et al., 2022).
The study compares reported sensory discomfort in a specific setting. That setting is also one this lecture is about to tell you to contact. Hold that until §6.
In the room — name your own early signs (6 min)#
Two minutes, on your own, no discussion: write the first three things you notice when load is climbing. Not what you feel — what you do, or stop doing. Phung et al.’s three components are a prompt: something emotional, something cognitive, something physical.
Then four minutes in pairs: share one sign if you want to, or use this fictional one: “Nico rereads a message three times and leaves the reply in drafts.” Discuss what someone else could actually notice from outside.
If the sign would be hard for someone else to notice, write down how you could tell them when it appears.
Recovery, for everyone in the room#
In occupational health research, Sonnentag and Fritz separated four kinds of recovery experience from work (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007):
- Detachment: not thinking about the work.
- Relaxation: low activation, low effort.
- Mastery: something challenging that isn’t the work, like a skill, a craft or a game you get better at.
- Control: choosing what you do with the time.
Their research is about employees recovering from ordinary work stress, and the course does not claim it treats or prevents burnout. It is a useful planning checklist: a break with all four in it is a different break from a fortnight spent half-doing the readings.
Here is how the distinction can change a plan. These are course examples, not four activities everyone must find restful.
| Experience | A possible choice | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Detachment | Silence course-chat notifications for a chosen hour. | Does work still enter through another channel? |
| Relaxation | Sit somewhere quiet without a task to finish. | Has “rest” acquired a target or a deadline? |
| Mastery | Spend half an hour learning a guitar chord for your own interest. | Can you stop, or has it become another obligation? |
| Control | Leave Saturday morning unallocated. | Is the time actually yours to choose, given work or care commitments? |
The runbook#
A runbook is what an operations team writes so that, at 3am, nobody has to think. Yours has six sections. Write it this week, while writing is cheap.
| Section | What goes in it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Early signs | What you notice first, in your own words | “I stop replying to the group chat. Loud rooms get louder.” |
| First three actions | Things that need no decisions | “Headphones. Eat something. Cancel the optional thing.” |
| Messages | Pre-written, saved, ready to send | See below |
| Who gets told | Names, and what each needs to know | “Housemate: need quiet. Tutor: may miss lab.” |
| What gets dropped | Load to remove, in order | “1. Social plans. 2. Non-assessed reading. 3. Replying within a day.” |
| Recovery | What refills, from past experience | “A day with no plans. The long walk. The game.” |
Fill in what gets dropped before adding recovery activities. A runbook that only adds things to a full week hasn’t changed the load.
A fictional runbook: Nico’s Thursday#
Nico has a lab at 14:05, an optional meal at 18:00, and a paid shift at 20:00. The shift cannot be dropped today. Nico has written this while planning the week; it is a practice case, not a diagnosis.
| Section | Nico’s entry |
|---|---|
| Early signs | Rereading messages; leaving replies in drafts. |
| First three actions | Silence the social chat. Eat the snack already packed. Go to the quiet study room booked for 17:00. |
| Messages | To the meal organiser: “I’m skipping tonight. Nothing’s wrong between us. No need to rearrange.” |
| Who gets told | Meal organiser: absent. Housemate: needs quiet after the shift. |
| What gets dropped | The optional meal, then tomorrow’s unassessed reading. |
| Recovery | The quiet half-hour that has helped Nico before; review whether it helps this time. |
In the room — run the runbook (12 min)#
Two minutes, in pairs. Read Nico’s case. Mark the fixed commitment and the two things that can be dropped.
Four minutes. Run the first three actions and message on paper. List every fact you would still need before following them. The test is whether someone can act on this document, not whether the document sounds reassuring.
Three minutes. New fact: the booked room closes unexpectedly. A quieter library space is available until 19:00, but Nico’s phone is almost flat. Revise the first actions and where the message is kept. Do not solve the problem by cancelling the paid shift that the case says is fixed.
Three minutes. Swap with another pair. They try to follow the revised version and identify one remaining decision. Record it as a limit or make the instruction usable. A runbook with a known gap is better than one with an unacknowledged operator dependency.
Pre-written messages#
Composing a message costs exactly what runs out first. So write them now and save them where you can send them in two taps. The wording is the course’s; edit it until it sounds like you, then stop editing.
To a tutor. Subject: [NT101] Lab: absent Thursday. “I won’t be at Thursday’s lab. I’ll work from the lab page and email by Monday if I need anything. No reply needed.”
To friends or a group chat. “I’m going quiet for a few days. Nothing’s wrong between us. I’ll message when I’m back.”
To someone you live with. “Rough day. I need the room quiet tonight. It’s not about you.”
Each one tells the recipient what is changing and what response is needed. It may save a follow-up message; it cannot guarantee that nobody will ask one.
In the room — draft one message (8 min)#
One minute. Pick one template above. Use your own situation privately, or write for Nico. Nothing needs to be sent to another person.
Four minutes. Draft under 40 words: what is changing, what the recipient needs to do, and when they can expect to hear from the sender if that is known. Save it where you can reach it; a phone, a printed card or another reliable place is fine.
Two minutes. Read it as the recipient. Remove a sentence only if the remaining message still contains what they need. “No change needed” is allowed.
One minute. Test opening it again. Note anything that would make it hard to use on the day. Thursday’s lab finishes the set, or uses its reduced path.
When it’s more than a runbook#
Both burnout studies report that it can bring thoughts of suicide. A runbook is not care, and this part isn’t a protocol.
Strömberg et al. found autistic adults reporting more sensory discomfort and feeling more misunderstood in health care settings than non-autistic adults did. That was Swedish health care, not this university, and it is not a reason to avoid asking for help — it is a reason to plan the ask while you can, which is what the runbook’s messages and who gets told sections are for.
If you’re thinking about suicide, or you’re not safe, tell someone today. In Australia you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or text 0477 13 11 14, any time. In an emergency, call 000. The policies page lists the university’s own support services, and your tutor and convenor will help you reach them. Getting help to people who ask is what those services are for.
If time remains#
What should a university stop asking students to decide for themselves when they have the least capacity to make another decision?
Optional discussion. Finish by 15:55.