Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental diagnosis which means the brain develops and functions differently than most other people. There’s a common misconception that people with ADHD lack attention. The truth is, however, ADHD is really about difficulties regulating attention as well as their emotions. That is, controlling what to pay attention to and for how long can really hard from someone with ADHD. This can look like difficulty concentrating, focusing, or prioritizing tasks. It can also include things like procrastination, forgetfulness, lacking motivation or disorganization. (The fancy clinical jargon for these skills is ‘executive functioning’). Some presentations of ADHD also include ‘hyperactivity’ which can show up as fidgeting or being unable to sit still, but can also include restlessness, risk-taking, or racing thoughts.

Content creation is a field where you need to be juggling 100 balls in the air all at once. This can be really attractive to ADHD brains because they often thrive in spaces that are creative, novel, and need out-of-box thinking. 

However, it’s also a field where schedules, deadlines, task prioritization, planning, consistency, and organization – all those executive functioning tasks – are critical, and opportunities for distraction are everywhere.

A major vulnerability to occupational burnout for those with ADHD is Workload. Workload is the amount of work you need to do and your individual ability to do it sustainably. Because people with ADHD are prone to saying “YES!” to lots of projects – sometimes out of a sense of novelty and excitement and sometimes due to the pressure of people-pleasing or guilt – their plates frequently overfloweth with to-dos, deadlines, and commitments. 

The pressure of being overwhelmed with work can lead to mistakes, which can spiral into destructive thinking (e.g. I’m lazy; I just need to work harder; I must suck because everyone else can do this and I can’t), and increasing anxiety. Which leads to more mistakes. Which leads to destructive thinking and anxiety. And so on  until you just NOPE out of whatever it is. Or, as we say in the clinical world, engage in avoidance behaviors. Ignore those emails. Dodge that phone call. Neglect those deadlines. 

And all of this loops back and reinforces burnout thoughts and behaviors.

As mentioned above, this is just an overview of what there is to know about ADHD and burnout. If you want a deeper dive, into ADHD, the relationship between occupation burnout and ADHD, and tips, strategies, and shared ADHD experiences, here are a few expert resources to check out:

ADHD Comics [Website]

How to ADHD [Website]

Black Girl, Lost Keys [Website]

Autism is a neurodevelopmental diagnosis which means autistic individuals think, feel, and communicate differently than most of the people around them. Every Autistic person is unique in how they experience and express their Autism, however some common traits or behaviors include information dumping, being overly pedantic or precise, having an obsessive focus on a few different things, or not responding social cues the way most people expect. 

Content creation often requires routines and scripts, from the ritual of a tech check before a Twitch stream, to scripting out scenes and beats in a YouTube video. Autistic individuals thrive in spaces where there are these kinds of structures in place. As every content creator knows, however, something will always go wrong or deviate from the intended path, and the need to adapt on the fly can be difficult and even overwhelming. Similarly,  a lot of the work of being a content creator is set switching (sometimes called multitasking). As the number of tasks increase and the number of times switching between tasks increases, it becomes harder and harder for some Autistic creators to keep up, especially when it’s not in their routine. Similar to ADHD creators, Autistic creators can find themselves with too much on their plates (workload) and become so overwhelmed that they shut down. 

Another major vulnerability is the frequent need to mask behaviors in order to be accepted. Social inclusivity in the workplace is an area where a lot of Autistic individuals struggle; feeling isolated or disconnected from your creator community is major contributor to occupational burnout. 

To learn more about Autism, the relationship between occupation burnout and Autism, and tips, strategies, and shared Autistic experiences, please visit these fantastic Autism-focused resources:

The Awake Project [Website]

#ActuallyAutistic [Twitter]

Research on race, gender, and sexual identity and the development and impact of occupational burnout is mixed. Although there’s no clear guidance, there are three factors that seem to cut across how burnout develops and impacts people of different races, genders, and sexual orientations. Those risk factors are:

• When a person lacks a sense of connection or belonging in a workplace and amongst peers
• When a workplace’s values and practices are consistently in conflict with your own
• When rules, policies, and promotions are – or seem to be – distributed unfairly

Marginalized creators often face subtle and overt negative experiences on the job, many of which fall into one, two, or all three of the above risk factors. Feeling isolated or in competition with other creators, having to work within a system or platform that downplays your content, and having rewards allocated not because of merit but because of a mysterious algorithm are just a few examples of how this shows up in the creator space. While all creators may experience these things from time to time, marginalized creators are more likely to experience these negative experiences as a routine part of their workday. And when a workplace (in this case, a content creation platform) doesn’t prevent these experiences, it takes a ton of extra effort to just show up to work and exist in that space, let alone feel any sense of belonging, fairness, or meaning.

For example, hate raids are unfortunately common for those who use identity tags on Twitch, and gained a lot of attention in 2021. Streamers have also cited double standards in policy enforcement.

Despite a lack of clarity from academia, important conversations about these topics are ongoing. Below are some resources for examining burnout and the influence of and impact on race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Black Identity and Gaming Mental Health Panel

How to Grow and Navigate Twitch as a Streamer of Color

Streaming as a Hobby or Career

Am I Geek Enough: People of Marginalized Genders in Gaming