Are aspies likely to commit suicide?

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When you put two people from similar backgrounds and upbringing together, one with ASD and one NT, odds of which person is more prone to depression are definitely in favor of the aspie. Low functioning autists live in a world that's like an island in the middle of the ocean. Aspies tend to live on an island just off the coast...they can see "normal society" and attempt to participate, but are still a foreigner. That notion...being different and bloody well knowing it...can be quite the burden sometimes. So yes, if aspies are more prone to depression it makes sense they're also more prone to suicide. Especially when aspects of your life such as relations and work aren't working out.

No, most are self-aware of themselves and their environment, it just looks like they're in their own world; they're experiencing the world with full emotion, it's just hard to understand it when you haven't been there.

I see everything when I'm in my shell; I feel it all too.

Toughness counts. So to your original question - of course not!

I really am having a hard time deciding if their would be a statistical significance of an ASD'er or an NT's suicide rate.

Hmm... all I know was in high school the first 2 years were the worse, i lost the friends I had grown up with, I was not popular, tho i did have friends and some good times, even then I wanted the life of people like my parents, and I felt that I could never acheive, I could not date and really... the final thing to push me to the point where I considered it was actually reflecting on life itself, sounds weird, but at the time I thought that I had all these chances, and screwed them all up, and now life was going to continue to get worse, ill do nothing with my time and that was really hard, im glad years later i feel better.

Too this day I still really desire to reflect and think of ways I could fix the past, pretty dumb... but Im content in life because I know what I want and will fight to the death for it (family, and to be able to support them comfortably).

Yes. Thanks for that. The fact that I am socially stilted and appear withdrawn has nothing to do with not feeling emotions or being emotionally dead. Quite the opposite, in fact. My theory, as of today, is that I have hypersensitive emotions. I feel as if I am aware of too much, particularly other people's emotions. To such a degree that withdrawing is more socially acceptable than the alternative, which is a meltdown (cry, shake, tremble, bang my head, tear my hear etc).

Sounds like a really bad hangover.

What sounds like a bad hangover? Feeling other people's emotions? Yes, then I've had one my whole life. The meltdowns? I don't drink.

This can be argued in either direction.
Definitely we feel suffering to a greater dgree than NT's.
But we also have that spark of childlike joy inside us that makes us say "maybe tomorrow will be better."

I've had thoughts of ending it all. I was in a doctor's office for a bad sinus infection, (back in my Uni days) and he had a plant toxicity chart on the wall. Not the thing to show to depressed people ! !! I ran my finger down and across the chart to the plant with the greatest toxicity, and least nasty side effects.
Needless to say I never followed up on this information ....

Beautifully expressed. I feel so relieved when someone articulates what I can't. Good thing you didn't remember the name of that plant *wink*

Thanks, Sapphix.
This website is proof that things do get better. Back in Uni, computers were mainframes with card readers. None of us had a glimmer that we could all someday have one the size of a breadbox.
Now we can reach out to one another, and help one another...

And yes, I was in that pit of despair that so many ASpie men hit, "I'll never find a woman who loves me." I'm living proof that its possible!! ! (Married 17 years.)

I had a very rough time in junior high with some very large and very mean bullies who made life a living hell for me. I lived in constant fear for my life. While I was scared to death at that time, I found out I really did want to live because my family, especially my mother, supported me. Things got much better in high school, where I had good teachers who supported me. I also had pets to help me when things got difficult, especially one special cat. She was my best friend for 20 years.

Despite some tough times, I really didn't want to die. I think my experience made me go out of my way to protect myself and avoid stupid behaviors when I got older.

I attempted it a few times (obviously failed hahaha). I cannot bear the rejection and pain I face, the ignorance, the cruelty. Now that I have children depending on me, I will be forgoing any future attempts. Regardless if any adults care for me, my children love and need me, particularly those with autism in my family; I am the only one who really understands them.

I think we are more likely to decide about it but less likely to really commit it. The second comes from our over-sensitivity problem.

Definitely in my case, I was depressed most of my life even if I didn't seem to be.

Death and suicide became early fixations for me, in a way they still are.

I hated who I was and didn't want to be me anymore, I was tired of constantly being in emotional pain that I could nothing about, believed I would never get anywhere in life so that life was pointless, etc. I strongly believed nobody would ever love me in any capacity, that I was hated by all the world, etc.

I was suicidally depressed especially during my late teens because of having no friends, been constantly tormented at school, having parents that didn't understand, terrible doctors I went to, etc. Things greatly improved when I had a few "trials by fire" that made me grow up and deal with some things as a matter of survival (once got stuck in a city and had to leave within 12 hrs for example and only had access to a phone to call relatives and such who couldn't physically come and get me). College and finding my niche made it so much easier and today things are much better.

I read some research by Simon Baron Cohen on this topic. he found that due to faulty coping abilities, Aspies who are already very susceptible to depression also lack the faculties to cope with depression, thus in the inclination toward suicide is higher than that of NTs. it was actually suicidal feelings and that article that made me seek out WP to begin with... it was no use talking to 'normal' people...

Just for your information this is a necro post (long dead) so the person you quoted is probably long gone as well-- wrong planet suicide let's call it to keep it on topic. WP may not be the best place to discuss suicide, there are some wonderful people here, but the board is obviously predominately autistic and many times shows the "lack of empathy" for which autistics are known. TBH, most feel empathy but express it poorly-- you're more likely to get a debate about the merits of suicide than any kind of helpful approach you could use in your situation. In fact you'll probably run into people here that are just as miserable or more so than you feel at the moment-- certainly not the professional medical help you need if you're clinically depressed. All that said, feel free to PM me if you ever need to unload-- I'm of the opinion the more autistic people there are in the world the more it smites society, and that makes me happy enough to continue on.