What is BIMS?
Burnout, inertia, meltdown, and shutdown (BIMS) may be experienced by autistic people.
Inertia
Autistic inertia is feeling "stuck" or frozen and unable to do things, even though you know what you want to do. Inertia makes it hard to stop, start, and change activities. You might be unable to move, have difficulties planning or initiating the actions you need to do, or feel disconnected from your body and stuck in your mind.
Shutdown
Autistic shutdown is a response to overwhelming, stressful, or distressing situations. You might feel unable to move or speak when you’re having a shutdown.
Burnout
Autistic burnout is a loss of energy that can occur when you get pushed beyond your limit. Burnout can result from overworking, socializing, masking, and/or overwhelming sensory inputs.
Meltdown
Autistic meltdown is a “loss of control” caused by too many social demands, emotions, unwanted sensory inputs, or a combination of these. You may regret what you said or did during meltdowns, but sometimes you can't clearly remember what happened.
A Guide to Our Website
Our website contains content collaboratively made by a team of autistic adults, youth, and children, and autism researchers.
The ideas, descriptions, and strategies for autistic burnout, inertia, meltdown, and shutdown (BIMS) come from the autistic co-designers on our team. All autistic people experience BIMS differently. You might not relate to everything we describe, and that's okay!
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Our Goal
We are excited to share "BIMS Support Tools" created with and for autistic people. We hope these tools help you understand and manage your experience of BIMS, create a unique support plan, and communicate your needs to others.
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How to Use the "BIMS Support Tools"
Each aspect of BIMS - burnout, inertia, meltdown, and shutdown - is divided into content for Adults (16+ years) or Youth (8-16 years). These age ranges are general recommendations, so choose the tool that makes the most sense for you!
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We recommend reading the content (or watching the videos!) and then working through the downloadable handouts. The handouts ask questions about your own experiences, share strategies that our autistic co-designers have found helpful, guide you to make a plan, and help you advocate for yourself when dealing with burnout, inertia, meltdown, or shutdown.
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Choose the sections that are most relevant to you. Work on the handouts on your own or with a trusted person - like a family member, teacher, or therapist. Try to think of strategies you currently use and identify a few new ones you would like to try. Keep your plan private or share it with others. It's up to you!
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Help Us Make Our Website Better
We hope our website can act as a "living resource" - continually being updated with new information, research, and autistic perspectives. Please use the feedback form at the bottom of each page to provide us with your thoughts and comments. Let us know what works for you, what doesn't, and how we can make our website better!
