Autism Stigma, Camouflaging and Burnout: A Three Circles Model of Imbalance
Lachlan Greig, Sarah P. Coundouris, James N. Kirby, Julie D. Henry
Autistic camouflaging, suppressing authenticity to avoid discrimination, is linked to negative mental health outcomes, yet its emotional mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using the tripartite model of emotion regulation, we examined whether an imbalance of high threat, high drive and low soothe is linked to camouflaging and constitutes a pathway from internalised autism stigma to autistic burnout. Autistic adults (
Lay Abstract
Understanding autistic camouflaging (suppressing authentic self-expression to pass as non-autistic) is critical for developing effective support, as camouflaging contributes to burnout and poorer mental health. This study examined whether feeling threatened, but driven to succeed socially, while lacking inner reassurance, might explain how internalised stigma (absorbing negative beliefs about autism) leads to camouflaging and, ultimately, to autistic burnout. We recruited 191 autistic adults (half formally diagnosed, half self-identified) who completed an online survey measuring their experiences of internalised stigma, their experiences of feeling threatened, driven, and soothed, their camouflaging behaviours and their burnout symptoms. Our findings showed that the more internalised stigma a person reported, the greater their burnout. We also found that an emotional state dominated by threat and drive, with little soothing, was linked to more camouflaging. Importantly, these factors formed a chain: internalised stigma was associated with this threat/drive dominant emotional state, which was associated with increased camouflaging, which in turn was linked to higher burnout. Importantly, camouflaging on its own did not connect internalised stigma and burnout; this only occurred when including the specific emotional state in the model. However, internalised stigma also had a direct and substantial link to burnout, independent of camouflaging. These findings suggest that internalised stigma may harm autistic people in two ways: by creating an emotional state that drives exhausting camouflaging and by taking a direct toll on well-being regardless of how a person responds. This points to the need for both systemic efforts to reduce autism stigma and psychological interventions that help rebalance the emotional systems involved. Compassion-focused therapy, which is designed to strengthen the soothing system, may be a particularly well-suited approach for supporting autistic people experiencing the emotional patterns identified in this study.