Depression more common in Aspergers, not Autism itself???

Page 3 of 3 [ 44 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3

dougn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Aug 2008
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 773

02 Oct 2008, 9:47 am

I have AS and depression.



SabbraCadabra
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Apr 2008
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 7,785
Location: Michigan

02 Oct 2008, 1:07 pm

In high school a social worker wanted to diagnose me with depression and put me on medication...I was confused because for the most part, I was fairly content...but my parents said that depression means you don't like to be around large crowds of people, and stuff like that. I didn't really have that problem either, so I just kinda shrugged.

I think he also came to that conclusion because he pointed out my tics and poor emotional skills.


_________________
I'll brave the storm to come, for it surely looks like rain...


anbuend
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 5 Jul 2004
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 5,039

02 Oct 2008, 1:18 pm

I don't think depression is properly acknowledged among people who have more trouble communicating their feelings. It can be passed off as 'just the autism' even when it involves severe aggression or self-injury as part of it. I also think that at least some of the so-called accidental deaths of autistic people are suicides. I know of one man who learned to type, and his parents didn't believe he could do it, and took his communication device away from him, and he walked in front of a train right after. It's just that many autistic people are not ascribed the intellectual or emotional capacity to be suicidal, so their deaths are written off as "not understanding". I also know of one man who used to deliberately refuse to take his migraine medications, thinking the headaches would kill him if he didn't take them. That was just written off as not understanding the point of them. Etc.


_________________
"In my world it's a place of patterns and feel. In my world it's a haven for what is real. It's my world, nobody can steal it, but people like me, we live in the shadows." -Donna Williams


sartresue
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Age: 70
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,313
Location: The Castle of Shock and Awe-tism

02 Oct 2008, 4:27 pm

anbuend wrote:
I don't think depression is properly acknowledged among people who have more trouble communicating their feelings. It can be passed off as 'just the autism' even when it involves severe aggression or self-injury as part of it. I also think that at least some of the so-called accidental deaths of autistic people are suicides. I know of one man who learned to type, and his parents didn't believe he could do it, and took his communication device away from him, and he walked in front of a train right after. It's just that many autistic people are not ascribed the intellectual or emotional capacity to be suicidal, so their deaths are written off as "not understanding". I also know of one man who used to deliberately refuse to take his migraine medications, thinking the headaches would kill him if he didn't take them. That was just written off as not understanding the point of them. Etc.


And the moral of the story is...topic

...that we All Autistic people should have the resources made available to them to check for depression. Thanks, anbuend.


_________________
Radiant Aspergian
Awe-Tistic Whirlwind

Phuture Phounder of the Philosophy Phactory

NOT a believer of Mystic Woo-Woo


CockneyRebel
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 117,693
Location: In my little Olympic World of peace and love

02 Oct 2008, 6:20 pm

I was diagnosed with severe depression, ten years ago, this past spring. I've gotten much better, over the past ten years.


_________________
The Family Enigma


samtoo
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 May 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,762
Location: England

03 Oct 2008, 8:09 am

I think I constantly on and off have mild depression...
When I was 18, there was a 3 month phase when I think I was switching from mild depression to severe depression... it was nasty. I felt wronged, like someone had just committed an injustice on me and gotten something out of it, leaving me in the dark. I felt extremely insulted and hurt.

Because I alternate so much, and feel very elated at times too, I sometimes think I might be mildly bipolar, but that's something for psychologists to decide - I can't say one thing or the other on that subject...

Anyways - things are going pretty well right now... but I still fall into a ditch from time to time... it doesn't tend to have a hold of me for long though, but I take short breaks out of it then fall back into it again. :roll:


_________________
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.


dougn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Aug 2008
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 773

03 Oct 2008, 5:24 pm

samtoo wrote:
Because I alternate so much, and feel very elated at times too, I sometimes think I might be mildly bipolar, but that's something for psychologists to decide - I can't say one thing or the other on that subject...

It sounds to me like you may have cyclothymia. See here.



samtoo
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 May 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,762
Location: England

04 Oct 2008, 7:33 am

dougn wrote:
It sounds to me like you may have cyclothymia. See here.


I've often wondered about that... I spent a long time pondering over whether or not this is the case... well - I can't come to a conclusion. I mean of course I can't - I'm not a professional psychologist.

It's hard to know where I stand sometimes... :shrug:


_________________
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.


ALADDIN_1978
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2007
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 159
Location: U.K.

04 Oct 2008, 9:30 am

I do not know about autism. I was kind of depressed at the age of 10/11. I became depressed at the age of 15. I had a nervous breakdown. I improved but have had several relapses. I was diagnosed with AS at the age of 25.



kleodimus
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Feb 2008
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 636
Location: eternal darkness

04 Oct 2008, 10:21 am

i am always told i act depressed...



earthmonkey
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 5 Jun 2005
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 432

04 Oct 2008, 6:08 pm

anbuend wrote:
I don't think depression is properly acknowledged among people who have more trouble communicating their feelings. It can be passed off as 'just the autism' even when it involves severe aggression or self-injury as part of it. I also think that at least some of the so-called accidental deaths of autistic people are suicides. I know of one man who learned to type, and his parents didn't believe he could do it, and took his communication device away from him, and he walked in front of a train right after. It's just that many autistic people are not ascribed the intellectual or emotional capacity to be suicidal, so their deaths are written off as "not understanding". I also know of one man who used to deliberately refuse to take his migraine medications, thinking the headaches would kill him if he didn't take them. That was just written off as not understanding the point of them. Etc.


This. Reminds me of my childhood (though fortunately I didn't die). It seems that people are used to seeing depression in tears and the emotional outpourings, and so when those steps happen inside the head, then everything gets filtered through the expections of "what autism looks like".

In the junior high I would often be in this separate room, and I would be there most of the day, repeating something, or having seizures or sitting there stimming, looking out the window. I would plan out scenarios of how to kill myself, and eventually just walking out the school and getting lost. Nobody knew and nobody cared, and those who cared didn't have a clue, as long as they got their government funding for my getting to school.


_________________
"There are things you need not know of, though you live and die in vain,
There are souls more sick of pleasure than you are sick of pain"

--G. K. Chesterton, The Aristocrat


886
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,664
Location: SLC, Utah

04 Oct 2008, 6:31 pm

i'm diagnosed with depression and AS.

high-functioning autism could probably easily have depression, i know a few members here are that way. i don't know about low-functioning.


_________________
If Jesus died for my sins, then I should sin as much as possible, so he didn't die for nothing.