Depression and Anxiety w/ Asperger's

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Just curious. I read that it is extremely common for people with asperger's to develop depression and anxiety disorders. I've been diagnosed with both, as well as Asperger's.

Sorry if this has been brought up before.

I also have both, along with panic disorder.

Mine are not to bad these day's either. When I was your age, I was basically non-functional. I was having panic attacks constantly, probably 30+ per day, and that was when I was doing all I could to avoid them. When I was 30 I started on meds, and then I found out that PTSD was a major cause of the attacks. Only then, was I able to start to help myself.

I firmly believe that in order to fix anything, you must know what is causing the problem in the first place. Now I have decent control over them.

I was formerly diagnosed with Panic disorder, although i've only ever had a few full blown panic attacks. Once i discovered thats what it was I found it easier to talk myself out of one. Lately i've started to think (now that I know about asperger's) that a lot of the things i associated with anxiety and panic were partially due to sensory overload. I've never been diagnosed with depression, but i've definitely experienced it off and on throughout my life as anxiety and depression tend to go hand in hand.

I've been diagnosed with both depression and anxiety. I was taking meds but the side effects were so bad that now I just take St John's Wort and I've found that very effective. Discovering that I have AS has helped too, as before that I didn't know why I felt the way I did. I think I will always be prone to depression, but I hope I won't plunge to the depths that I used to.

I have OCD and panic attacks. I could also qualify for a GAD diagnosis, if that anxiety weren't better explained by the OCD/AS.
-OddDuckNash99-

I have neither.

Both. Clinical depression, social anxiety.

I have been diagnosed as having an avoidant personality disorder and I believe that to be accurate. I am usually cool and ratonal in emergencies, but if for some reason I get flustered my brain takes a holiday and doesn't return untill I've regained my 'cool'. That could take anything from minutes to an hour or more. Panic attacks have occurred but are a rarity for me.

I have OCD. I haven't been diagnosed with depression or anxiety although I think I do have a Social Anxiety.

Dx: GAD and Social Phobia

AS never came up, because it was not on the radar.
Not to say the psychiatrist was totally wrong, but I think AS/OCD explain many of the symptoms of the disorders he actually diagnosed me with.

Yep, i have Severe Depression, Severe Anxiety Disorder, School Phobia, and just to top it off with a cherry ontop AS, my wonderful platter that has made my "maze" know as life, even more confusing. My doctor also said that im am showing all the signs for ADHD, however because AS can have some of the same affects as it, he couldn't neccessarily rule out wether i do or don't have it, either way with all of them put together im like the Anti-Social person

forgot to mention that I've been battling depression pretty much my entire life.

Social anxiety, general anxiety, social phobia and a dose of PTSD.

People have been trying to pin GAD on me for as long as I can remember; but when I look at me and I look at other average people, I just don't see much difference in the anxiety they seem to feel and the anxiety I feel. Sure, I'm bad at reading their faces; but I can read their words just fine, and my level of anxiety seems entirely normal, especially since it doesn't interfere with my doing what I want to do. Isn't that the diagnostic threshold? If there's no impairment, there's no diagnosis. Just because I wear my heart on my sleeve and people can see that I'm anxious during a psychological interview that may change my life doesn't mean I'm always that anxious.

Technically, I'll admit I've had an anxiety disorder--two specific phobias--but these are so common in childhood that really it shouldn't count. Besides, they were extinguished because I deliberately exposed myself to the source of my fear. I used to be extremely afraid of dead bodies. I'm taking an anatomy class now. That's not the action of an anxious person.

The psychologists still seem to want to pin it on me, though, and worse, they want to medicate. No. I like my anxiety just fine, thanks. Anxiety is what kicks you in the butt so you do something instead of sitting there because you're content and happy and you haven't got anything to spur you to do anything about what you don't like in your life.

Why can't they tell the difference between healthy anxiety and the pathological type that makes you freeze up?