Burn out

So I haven’t written in a while because I have been suffering from burn out.

For me burn out has been when my body finally tells me that I can no longer go on and it gives up. I struggle to get out of bed and everything in my world is just overwhelming. .  It can show up in physical symptoms of extreme stress, including digestive shut-down, inflammation, adrenal fatigue, and a compromised immune system. This has happened to me twice this year and it is so frustrating having my body tell me that it just can’t keep up.

Both times I have had to take time off work and required help from family and friends to support us whilst I have taken the time my body needs to recuperate.

I know I’m not alone in this, I know that many mothers of special needs children suffer as I have. I read an article today written about a study done on mothers of autistic children and it was found that they have the same stress levels of a soldier in combat. They found that a hormone associated with stress was extremely low, consistent with people experiencing chronic stress such as soldiers in combat, the researchers reported in one of two studies published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

If you have a child with special needs it adds another dimension of busy to a home. It can be the long winded meltdowns to the unruly amount of appointments you have to attend. It can also be the communication between you and the care givers your child has outside the home and the planning it takes to make that happen.

We are our child’s voice and we advocate for them but we also need to make sure we care for ourselves so that we can continue to do so.

For the rest of this year I have reduced therapy and communication with teachers is via email unless urgent. I have also reduced my work hours and have been in regular contact with my doctor to make sure I am doing everything I can for myself to recover well and set a plan in place to reduce the chances of burn out in the future.

The biggest help for me when I am going through this is the amazing support we have had. It has also been helpful to acknowledge my strengths and weaknesses and accept help when it has been really needed.

I hope someone reads this and realises they are not alone, you can ask for help and you are doing an awesome job.

Thanks for reading

Jess xx

*picture above is from experiencelife.com