The framework in three sentences. These three exhaustions feel the same from the inside, so sorting by symptom goes in circles. What separates them is what they respond to: each one has a recovery that works and at least one that does nothing at all. What has already been tried, and what it actually did, says more than any symptom list.
1. Name the one thing
What is the single worst symptom right now?
Not the whole cloud. One. If you cannot choose, pick the one that would change the most if it lifted.
2. Find the start
When did it start? Give a month if you can.
What changed in the two months before that?
Look at three things on their own: how much was being asked of you, how loud or bright or crowded your days were, and anything that shifted with your cycle.
3. The response test
What have you already tried, and what did it actually do?
Write the result, not the intention. “Took a week off, felt better for four days” is useful. “Tried resting more” is not.
What you tried
For how long
What actually happened
Real time off
Cutting sensory or social load
More structure or systems
Medication change
Anything that improved sleep
4. Read the pattern
Tick every line that matches your last three months.
Points toward ADHD burnout
Time off gave real relief, then it wore off
A new or novel thing can still switch me on
I can find the month my load went up and never came back down
My skills are intact, they just cost more to reach
Points toward autistic burnout
A quiet week off changed nothing
Things I could do last year I actually cannot do now
Noise, light or texture I used to tolerate is now unbearable
Even the things I love have gone quiet
It has been like this three months or longer
Points toward the physiology
Good weeks and bad weeks do not match how hard I have been working
My sleep is broken even when nothing is wrong
Heat has become a problem
My cycle has changed, in length, timing or flow
Which column has the most ticks? And is there a second one close behind?
Two at once is the common answer, not the wrong one. It means one intervention was never going to cover it.
5. What to ask them to test
Tick what you will request. Ask for the numbers, not the word normal.
Thyroid function
Ferritin, not only a full blood count
Vitamin D
B12
Sleep apnoea screening
If the worst days cluster before my period, ask about PMDD
Read this before you use the rest of it. In the first study to measure autistic burnout, 98 percent of the autistic adults reporting burnout also met the screening threshold for depression. This worksheet is built to help you ask a better question, not to rule anything out on your own. If you have been at the floor a long time, or the thought of it not lifting has started to feel like relief, that is a conversation to have with a person this week.
6. The one page you take in
Write it here. One worst symptom, one start date, what you tried and what it did, what you want tested.
