Okay, so I’m on leave from work due to burnout. It’s week 4. I learned I was AuDHD last year. I have a watch which measures “body battery”. It’s a little vague but relates to stress.

Yesterday I sat on the couch in silence, scrolling and playing mobile games from about 8:00 am until about 15:45 when I got up to do some gardening. I did eat lunch and breakfast and used the bathroom so I did move a bit.

My watch gave me a message saying I had a good rest period (which is the +22 at the bottom there).

I’ve been making a conscious effort to not push myself to do anything. I’m taking care of bare minimum things and trying to make time for some enjoyment too, because that’s the advice I received. I’m hoping the need to sit and do very little is a temporary thing. I don’t like being idle. I don’t like that my partner is picking up more slack than normal. I like the satisfaction of completing tasks.

I thought Sunday was a good day too, but my watch said very differently (and so did my body as I was very worn out mentally and physically on Monday). I sat on the couch with my coffee for a few hours then went out and did some gardening (from approx 10:00-17:00, then sat for about an hour and then did pottery from 18:00-20:30. Here is what my watch said about my day:

I spent most of the day outside doing light activities 😭The gardening I was doing was not physically strenuous. Again, I’m purposely being low stakes, easy peasy. I have a stool and a bucket and I sit on my stool and do weeding, putting the weeds in the bucket which I periodically walk over to the compost.

My heart rate is shown below. It looks like pottery was the stressor lol. One additional factor is I think I might have missed my vvyanse dose that day.

I don’t want to be a non compliant patient and refuse to rest, so I’m telling myself it’s only temporary. However, I am worried that I need to slow down permanently to remain healthy and I hate that.

Part of what I am using this time for is to see if I can learn to hear my body cues better without all the pressures of work. Yesterday I felt like I had overdone it on Sunday even though Sunday didn’t feel tiring. Maybe that’s a win?

Another thing I wanted to do is to get back into an exercise routine and worry that this is in conflict with rest. Perhaps I should hold off on that a bit. I know my nervous system has been in overdrive for years at this point and that resting from that is different from resting from physical exertion, and that I have been encouraged to exercise so maybe it’s not actually in conflict? My body feels fucking awful (stiff af).

The good news is that my resting heart rate is lowering again (I’m so ashamed by my lack of aerobic exercise 🙈)

Has anyone here (specifically people with autism and/or ADHD) managed to figure out rest? Got any wisdom you can give me? Bonus question if you are late diagnosed and had to change your life around. What did it look like?

  • i078
    10·
    3 天前

    I just want you to be aware that Garmin’s stress measures physical stress NOT mental. Having food increases physical stress as your body needs to work to digest, but it can also lower mental stress. Don’t confuse one for the other.

    Doing light work might physically be more demanding, and Garmin will tell you what’s up there. But there is nothing that’s able to look into your skull to determine how it’s going there.

    Slight sidenote is that there is some relation between the two, but that’s for smarter people to explain

    • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.onlineOPEnglish
      1·
      3 天前

      I just want you to be aware that Garmin’s stress measures physical stress NOT mental. Having food increases physical stress as your body needs to work to digest, but it can also lower mental stress.

      I don’t think this is entirely accurate. It’s a measure of physiological stress. Burnout (as far as I understand it) is the point where the physiological impact of mental stress starts impacting your ability to live a normal life.

      I’m not shilling for the brand or anything (which is why I didn’t specify what it was) but from their website:

      Stress levels (0–100) are estimated by the Garmin Human Performance Lab engine, primarily using a combination of HR and HRV data. This data is recorded by the optical heart rate sensor on the back of your device.

      Divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, your ANS [autonomic nervous system] regulates your physiological systems to best match the expected demands of your current situation. The sympathetic branch dominates when it’s time for action. Your pulse quickens, blood vessels dilate, digestion is interrupted, and adrenaline flows. This is sometimes referred to as the fight-or-flight response. In quieter times, the parasympathetic branch is more dominant, and your body enters what is referred to as rest-and-digest mode. This is when your body can repair itself and replenish resources depleted during more hectic times.

      …

      Stress levels are not measured by your Garmin device during physical activity because the strain of physical activity itself can be considered stressful. The impact of physical activity is best measured and understood in other ways. Public speaking and running up a flight of stairs can both send your heart racing, but the underlying reasons why are fundamentally different.

      …

      You can configure select Garmin devices to alert you when your stress level is unusually high. The alert encourages you to take a moment to relax, and the device will prompt you to begin a guided breathing exercise with the relaxation breathing timer.

      Elsewhere:

      Food intake, as well as stimulants like caffeine, has no impact on your Body Battery.

      Anecdotally, people have shared that alcohol or eating greasy heavy meals or large meals before bed have raised their score. In my examples above I ate more on Monday (lower stress day) than I did on Sunday. I also know I took my stimulant meds in Monday but think I forgot Sunday.

      I understand that this is all an approximation and wasn’t even really why I got the watch to begin with. I needed to replace my Fenix and didn’t need all the features so I got a much simpler version that had a HRM. I had previously used a chest strap because I was (unknowingly) being very autistic about triathlon and wanted data to improve my swimming. The stress/body battery/ HRV is interesting to me because the approach my therapist takes is based on polyvagal theory so outside of this I know I am displaying signs of being in flight/freeze way more often than is needed or healthy.