Standardtherapien für die psychische Gesundheit können für autistische Erwachsene unzureichend sein. Autistische Menschen tarnen sich oft und verbergen ihre natürlichen autistischen Eigenschaften, um sich in soziale Situationen einzufügen. Übermäßiges Tarnen erfordert immense Anstrengungen und führt oft zu tiefer Erschöpfung, dem sogenannten autistischen Burnout.
Standard mental health therapies often fall short for autistic adults, study suggests
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**Standard mental health therapies often fall short for autistic adults**, study suggests
A recent study published in Nature Mental Health suggests that autistic adults experience varying results when receiving standard psychological therapy for depression and anxiety. Some individuals showed improvement, while others saw their symptoms remain stable or worsen. The findings indicate that factors like ethnicity and difficulties with daily living tasks play a role in how well these therapies work, highlighting a need for more tailored mental health care.
When looking at background factors, the researchers found that higher levels of difficulty with daily functioning before treatment began were linked to worse outcomes. Individuals who struggled heavily with social leisure activities were less likely to experience rapid or gradual improvement in their severe anxiety.
Social leisure activities involve doing things with other people, such as attending parties, dating, or entertaining guests. **Autistic people often engage in camouflaging, which means they hide their natural autistic traits to fit into these social situations. Excessive camouflaging requires immense effort and often leads to the deep exhaustion known as autistic burnout.**
For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-025-00567-4
Camouflaging sounds like what I’ve usually heard called “masking” – is there a difference?
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I dont hide myself. The results are mostly positive.
On one hand, I’m constantly thrown out of groups. My life has featured persistent, unrelenting rejection, for its entire duration. I’m quite aware it will never stop.
On the other hand, I get to live authentically. When I look at the people throwing me out, I see folks who are trapped by their needs to maintain an image. I see folks trapped by their need to belong to the group. I get to enjoy a sort of freedom they can scarcely imagine.
But building to where I am today was rough. Im close to mentally invulnerable, but it took every sort of torture to produce.
Tell me something I don’t know.
Ain’t that the truth. But it’s good to see the facts behind autistic burn out. Wait, would CPTSD be potentially altered by burn out? I find it harder to mask than I used to. (Though part of it might be damage to my short term memory and focus systems due to TBI)
I feel like anyone with ASD could have told you this hahaha. Masking starts to become subconscious and it makes things very stressful.