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A quiz from ND Hive. Companion to “AUDHD Burnout in Women.”
What this is
AUDHD burnout in women is not regular burnout. It is not even regular ADHD burnout. It comes in phases, and the recovery for each phase is different. This quiz tells you which phase you are in right now so you stop applying the wrong intervention to the wrong stage.
This version of the quiz adds the AUDHD-specific load axes (masking debt, sensory accumulation, cycle interaction) that the standard ADHD burnout quiz does not capture.
Takes 5-7 minutes.
How this works
Pick the answer most true for you in the LAST WEEK. Add the points. The score maps to a phase. Each phase has different recovery work.
The questions
1. How does work and responsibilities feel?
- A. Hard but I’m functioning. (1)
- B. Exhausting. I’m running on fumes. (2)
- C. I’m faking it. The output is dropping but I’m hiding it. (3)
- D. I cannot do basic tasks. Things I used to do effortlessly are impossible. (4)
2. How is your relationship to interest and dopamine?
- A. Some things still excite me. (1)
- B. Less interest in things I usually love. (2)
- C. Almost nothing excites me. Even hyperfocus stuff feels flat. (3)
- D. Total flatline. I do not feel pleasure or interest in anything. (4)
3. How is your sleep?
- A. Mostly normal. (1)
- B. Disrupted, but I sleep. (2)
- C. Sleeping too much OR too little. Either way, not restorative. (3)
- D. Sleep is broken. I either can’t sleep or I can’t stay awake. (4)
4. How is your social capacity?
- A. I can show up. (1)
- B. I’m canceling more than usual. (2)
- C. Even text messages feel like climbing a mountain. (3)
- D. I have not initiated contact with anyone in days or weeks. People are reaching out and I’m not responding. (4)
5. How is your sense of self?
- A. I feel like myself. (1)
- B. A little disconnected. (2)
- C. I do not recognize the version of me showing up. (3)
- D. I have lost access to who I am. The “real me” feels far away or unreachable. (4)
6. What does rest do?
- A. Helps. I bounce back. (1)
- B. Helps a little. Recovery is slower than usual. (2)
- C. Doesn’t help. I sleep all weekend and feel the same. (3)
- D. Nothing helps. I have rested for weeks and I am not getting better. (4)
7. How loud is the shame?
- A. Quiet. (1)
- B. Background hum of “should be doing more.” (2)
- C. Constant. I am failing at my own life. (3)
- D. So loud I cannot hear anything else. I have lost belief that I will ever be okay again. (4)
AUDHD-specific load questions
8. How is your sensory tolerance?
- A. Normal for me. (1)
- B. Lower than usual. Lights and sounds bother me more. (2)
- C. I am avoiding situations because of sensory load. Crowds, restaurants, fluorescent-lit spaces. (3)
- D. Everything is too loud, too bright, too much. I cannot leave the house some days because of it. (4)
9. How is your masking capacity?
- A. Mask is on, performance is fine. (1)
- B. Masking takes more effort than usual. I notice it now. (2)
- C. Masking is dropping at home and in private. I am barely holding it at work. (3)
- D. The mask is off and I do not have the energy to put it back on. People are noticing and I do not have capacity to manage their reactions. (4)
10. If you have a menstrual cycle, how is the cycle interaction?
- A. The week before my period is harder but manageable. (1)
- B. The week before my period is significantly worse than usual. (2)
- C. I am tracking my cycle just to predict when I will be unable to function. The hard weeks are getting harder. (3)
- D. The whole cycle feels like a hard week now. Hormonal patterns I used to ride out are flattening me. Or: I’m in perimenopause and nothing makes sense anymore. (4)
If this question does not apply (you do not have cycles, you are post-menopausal), skip and add 1 point as a baseline.
11. How is your interoception (your body’s signals)?
- A. I notice when I’m hungry, tired, or need to use the bathroom. (1)
- B. I forget to eat or hydrate sometimes. (2)
- C. I do not realize I have not eaten or used the bathroom for hours. I find out when something hurts. (3)
- D. My body’s signals are completely offline. I am running on autopilot and only realize I am depleted when I crash. (4)
Scoring
Add up your points.
11 to 18 points → Phase 1: Strain. You are tired but you are functioning. Standard recovery applies. Sleep, lighter schedule, body doubling, real meals. Pay attention to the AUDHD-specific load (sensory, masking, cycle). The standard ADHD burnout protocol is not enough on its own.
19 to 27 points → Phase 2: Depletion. You are past tired. The system is running on reserves. Recovery requires actual time off, not just “lighter days.” You need weeks, not weekends. AUDHD-specific recovery: lower the sensory load, drop masking in safe spaces, track the cycle.
28 to 35 points → Phase 3: Functional Burnout. You are masking the depletion. Output has dropped but you are hiding it. This is the dangerous phase. You can sustain it longer than you should and the crash will be bigger. Recovery requires honest disclosure to at least one person plus meaningful schedule reduction. AUDHD-specific add-on: stop the female-coded caretaker default. The household emotional labor is part of what is killing you.
36 to 44 points → Phase 4: Collapse. This is full AUDHD burnout. The “real you” is offline. Rest alone will not fix this. You need: medical support, dramatic load reduction, professional help (AUDHD-informed if at all possible), and sustained co-regulation. This is not solo recovery territory. Reach out.
What to do at each phase
For complete phase-routed recovery actions, download the Burnout Recovery Plan worksheet here.
Phase 1 (Strain):
- Sleep 8 hours
- Cut one optional commitment this week
- Body double through your hardest day
- Eat real food
- Lower one sensory input (dim a light, turn off background music)
Phase 2 (Depletion):
- Take real time off (a week if possible)
- Cancel anything that isn’t a hard commitment
- Tell at least one person what’s happening
- Sensory regulation: quiet, dim, predictable
- Drop the mask in private spaces
Phase 3 (Functional Burnout):
- Stop masking. The masking is part of what’s keeping you here.
- Disclose to one trusted person at work AND one trusted person at home
- Block off recovery time on your calendar, treat it as non-negotiable
- See a doctor (rule out medical contributors AND get hormones checked)
- Reduce your active project load by 50 percent
- Refuse the caretaker default. The household runs on you. It needs to stop running on you for a while.
Phase 4 (Collapse):
- This is medical territory. See a doctor and a therapist (AUDHD-informed if at all possible).
- Take a real leave from work if at all possible.
- Reduce demands to zero where you can.
- Daily co-regulation with at least one regulated human.
- This recovery is measured in months, not weeks. Trust that.
- Crisis: 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, US). Available 24/7. Call or text.
Reminder
AUDHD burnout in women is real. It is not “regular burnout but worse.” It is a specific neurological depletion that requires specific recovery, layered with sensory accumulation, masking debt, cycle interaction, and decades of female-coded compensation.
The most dangerous phase is 3, functional burnout, because you can sustain it the longest. AUDHD women specifically blow past this phase repeatedly because the world rewards the masking AND the caretaking. The crash that comes after is always worse than addressing it earlier would have been.
You are not lazy. You are not weak. You are not too much. You are not not enough.
You are running on a deficit nobody trained you to recognize. Recovery is real. It just takes longer than you think.
Be witnessed in your recovery. Try a Hive Session free for 7 days →
Back to “AUDHD Burnout in Women” →
Download the Burnout Recovery Plan worksheet →
A quiz from ND Hive. Built for AUDHD women who have been told to “just take a vacation” by people who have never been here.