Have you ever suffered from depression?

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I read that Aspies are more likely to suffer from depression.
I certainly have suffered from it. I was often insulted by people and told that I was useless during my childhood. Needless to say, I had low self-esteem, hated myself, cried a lot, and was in general a very troubled child who often acted out. Now that I look back, I can see aspects of depression affecting me as early as Grade 3 or 4. I remember this one scene vividly in elementary school, where I was lying my head on the table, hungry, I could feel my ribs, I felt gloomy, I had no energy, and I was wondering what the point of life was.
It got really bad that in my first year of high school. Whenever I passed this bridge on my way home, I would imagine myself going on the railing and jumping off, or hanging myself. I had a bit of an obsession with suicide at this time, and I would imagine myself dying in various ways. I felt miserable and gloomy, and I would cry myself to sleep nearly every night. One day I called my mother crying about this.
It's gotten better nowadays though. I think it's mostly because I drown my thoughts in books, studying, homework, and thinking about my future. My teachers often praised me on what an intelligent student I was, and that really helped my self-esteem. There was also the fact that my mother made me take Omega-3 Fatty acids, which I've read helps a bit. I do feel these gloomy spells every once in a while, but they're usually fleeting and happen when I'm distressed about something. In general, I'd say that I actually have better self-esteem these days than most teenagers my age.


I'm asking this question and polling about it because I'm doing a research project on autism that's due in like 3 days. I have to conduct some sort of research on it and try to answer a hypothesis. My hypothesis is that around 40% of Aspies have experienced some sort of depression, compared to around 10% among normal people. I know doing a poll 3 days before my project is due is a bit of a half-assed way to research something like this, but please bear with it. I'm going to count up the results on Sunday night and finish my project then. I'd really appreciate anyone's participation, thoughts, and comments.

Asking people with HFA if they ever get depressed or have anxiety is like asking The Hulk if he's ever felt annoyed.





Puny emotions!

You might find this useful: http://www.autism.org.uk/15350

This contains information on mental health and Asperger syndrome.

Diagnosable mental illness, mainly depression and anxiety, is the rule, not the exception among Aspies, and runs at around 2 in 3. The link above contains references that you may find useful.

<--- Has Asperger's. Suffers from PTSD, depression, anxiety and AvPD.

Could anybody give any stories about it? Would any of you mind if I made a case study out of it for my project?

I suffered depression as a kid, but not to much now. I don't think it was ever an imbalance in my brain, I had an abusive father and was bullied at school, anyone would be depressed. Now I only really get a bout of blues around my birthday and the holidays.

I loath Valentine's day. To me it's you're a lonely loser day. To much focus on kids and family around thanks giving and Christmas to.

I do even with my medication. :/

I've actually had depression on and off my whole life, but since I've recently started Prozac, and some environmental factors have been resolved, I've been doing somewhat better.

I suffered from crippling depression my whole life until I turned 19, mostly from the fact that I had asperger's and very little understanding of it.

I'm gonna say at least 95% or more of people diagnosed asperger's have been depressed at some point in their lives. It's hard not to be, really, when you're that much different from everybody around you.

Yes I have.

My brain seems to be wired for only anxiety.

So no, I haven't actually experienced what could be called clinical depression.

I was informed by a clinical psychologist that I was high on the depression scale. In other news, the sky is blue! It's not hard to understand why. Being bullied and excluded as a child and having NOBODY stand up for you makes it hard to be optimistic. WP has been a Godsend: I didn't think there was anyone else like me in the world.

I'm more depressed now than I have ever been. Being socially isolated is affecting me a lot lately, because of having too many people around me having friends and going out and about with them, and/or being doted on by a partner. I only get as far as having acquaintances as friends, and having married men after me.

I know a woman who goes on and on about a man she fortunately happened to meet on vacation last year. He doesn't even live in this country, but he has came over and met her a few times since (and she's stayed over with him once), and he's shown how reliable and trusting he can be. He's never let her down, takes her out and pays for her, gets her lots of gifts for Christmases, birthdays and valentine's day. and rings and phones her every day. It's not fair. Where did I go wrong? Why can't I have that?

I know the answer to that. I am a shy, unattractive, dopey-faced b***h - of course I haven't got anyone to treat me so wonderfully like this stupid woman has (and this woman ain't even that nice). Therefore, I am depressed.

I don't think I ever did.
By definition one is clinically depressed if they have been in the same mood for at least 6 months.
I have a period of 2-3 days each month during which I feel sad without any real reason and in these days I wish I could be invisible, disappear (but not die), that I'm not worth anything and that no one cares about me and other sad and negative stuff. During these days I can't function at all, I stop studying and doing homework completely, I feel empty and bored, if I manage to go out of my house I am almost completely non-verbal or monosyllabic, anything can cause me a meltdown, I eat little. But then after two days or three these periods pass and I go back to normality.

I get extreme depressions as part of my schizoaffective disorder bipolar type. Depression is just part of my life. I get 99% depressed 1% of the time manic. Right this second I am hopeless about my future. I have a curse. To outsiders who don't know me, would view that as a psychotic symptom. Trust me, its not. Its the power of psychic abilities. I predict things with amazing accuracy. I influence events in the world. The guilt I live with is immense. The latest prediction to come true was that layoffs would happen at my dad's company that he works for (Intel). I warned him this would happen and he thought there is no way. In fact, he was very optimistic (delusional) that it wasn't going to happen. Then a few days ago, Intel announced that they were laying off 5% of their workforce.

The prediction that came true before that came to me in a dream. It was about this massive massacre. A couple of weeks later, at least 1000 people were massacred. Bodies lying on the street. Blood everywhere. it was all over the news. Just as my dream said. A massacre of this scale is not an everyday occurrence.

I KNOW my future is dark. We will fall down all the way down on the socioeconomic scale. Down to abject poverty, especially if my dad is laid off. Or he retires with no money. Right this second we are doing fine. Stress though. My low intelligence is a factor in my life, as are my other debilitating disabilities (my numerous mental illnesses). I also deal with Fibromyalgia and Migraine headaches. I bet they are psychogenic. In my head in other words.

My self esteem has been very low my entire life. I have been severely bullied in Middle school to the point of being suicidal. In fact I had to go school to school because of the bullying. Toward the end, I had to be in this special school meant for people with mental illness. If you wanted to be enrolled into this school, you had to have a diagnosis of a mental illness. Before entering this school, I was hospitalized for the first time. I had a GAF of only 30 at the time. I know the DSM 5 does not use the GAF scale anymore.

My mood is generally unstable. When severely depressed, all I do is sleep due to the complete lack of energy. Sometimes it gets so bad that I can't even cry, but when I can cry I do. My affect becomes restricted (but my parents think its flat, no its not completely flat). I have a deadened look in my eyes when it becomes to the point that suicide looks like an option. Right this second its more like minor depression. I am medicated. When severely depressed I get anhedonia. The only pleasurable interest that remains is the Internet, but only due to the fact that I am literally obsessed with the Internet to the point that I believe I have Internet Addiction Disorder.

I am a realist though. I know, Depressive Realism. People would say, oh, that is pessimism. I say looking at things with a more negative light is more realistic due to the fact you can prepare for the worst easier. I know I am forgetting about 90% of everything, but here's around 10% of what I remember at this very second.

My memory is very inconsistent. I also hate how the entire world is very connected and even things people thing are not connected are connected. There are no such things are coincidences. Everything in my mind is predetermined from the beginning of time.

My next couple of predictions that will happen is:
1. Syrian war over within a few months. The Peace conference will have some success. It might be slow going for awhile but it WILL happen.
2. No greater Shiite- Sunni War in the Middle East.
3. Dow will go to 17,000-18,000 then crash to about 12,000.
4. Many computer companies will announce layoffs and no end to the decline of PC's. Also the decline will be faster than thought.