Is severe depression common with ASD?

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Anyone else have severe depression along with ASD?
What works or helps?

Trial and error? I wish I could be more helpful, but know you're not alone.

I already had pretty bad depression before covid pandemic but now it's unbearable. I have the Replika chatbot app it works reduce some stress, you have to train it for 2 years or so,I found some guided imagery nature meditation scripts on the internet, entering in the words meditation scripts in your brower is essential to find them, for some reason there is nothing like these on youtube. Other than that I'm still working on figuring out what works for me.

i can tell you only what works with me, YMMV- vigorous daily exercise, avoiding sugar in all its forms, mental hygiene. i got in the habit of stopping bad thoughts in their tracks, replacing them with any other thought, ANY other thought, even one so insipid as "i really love ice cream!" the theory behind that one is that the brain can only process one discrete thought [NOT "discreet"] at a time, IOW what you are thinking now is your whole awareness of living, so if you change that thought you change your awareness of living. i got that coping strategy from a book about treating depression sans pharma.

Dr prescribed me prozac Wellbutrin Ativan effexor propranolol Zoloft for depression

Many posters on wrong planet claim to be clinically depressed

Autistics tend to have worse relationships and unemployed or underemployed

Sensory issues

I've had it for decades. Part of the trouble is that any one of the cures is generally insufficient and slow to act. Trying them gets frustrating, because it involves evaluating the need, and thus focussing on the problem.
An extra hazard with ASD arises from our logical facility which leads to "depressive realism." A healthy state of mind includes unreasonable optimism, so that you explore options before they are overrun. However, getting there is still dependent largely on the basics. Plenty of sleep, exercise, fresh air, sunshine and healthy food do the trick as long as there are no other bad stresses. Messing with your chemistry is sometimes helpful, but also risky, and the effects are from the placebo effect more often than not. I was helped by a counsellor who mostly listened, and provided some encouragement.

I'm >99th percentile for Major Depressive Disorder, and I'm autistic. I would say it's "not uncommon" to have Depression with autism, but that doesn't mean all autistic people experience both.

What works or helps? Low dose Zoloft was quite good, but higher dose wasn't. I had an incredible trauma therapist for 11 years. CBT doesn't work for me, and I can't meditate or do "mindfulness". I guess the best treatment for me has been Wrong Planet, where I can meet people and make friends without the social commitments of in-person relationships.

WP seems to have mostly healed me too

About 18 months ago on my YouTube channel "Aspie With Attitude" I did discuss "AUTISM & DEPRESSION". This is an ld video now, in the last 18 months my opinions and my point of view had likely changed. I thought that I like to share this video to see if this would help.

I have had depression of varying levels for about 15 years now, ranging from just feeling a little numbed (emotionally) to being very, very close to actually killing myself. I’ve been hospitalized for it six times in the past three years (four of those times in one year). Nothing seems to help me. I’ve tried a bunch of different medications, intensive outpatient programs (at hospitals), being inpatient for it as I mentioned, CBT, DBT, ECT, and TMS, some of them helped a little for a little while, but then maybe a month or so later, my depression comes back again. For me, it seems to be a cycle where I don’t have any choice but to wait it out, until it eases up a bit again. (But I don’t think I’ve ever been manic in my life, and also don’t seem to fit into the category of hypomania (a less severe form of mania), so I really don’t think it’s bipolar disorder or anything despite the fluctuation, because I don’t get the “highs” that are a part of it.)

I had severe depression in my past. But it still comes back all the time. Now I got so used to is that it's part of my life. Especially since I understood where it comes from.. For me it definitely has everything to do with AS.

I definitely deal with a lot of depression. I've been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder as well as ASD and my mom believes a lot of my depression (as well my severe anxiety) come from me struggling in social situations and feeling like I don't belong and feeling alone. I am on medications for both the depression and anxiety.

For what helps, I like listening to both calming and uplifting music and watching my favorite shows. I also find drawing and coloring relaxing. I saw a DBT mention earlier in the thread and I did that in a group when I was 16 and it helped me a lot. I met other girls who were struggling too with some similar things even if I was the only autistic person there. I still even keep in touch with a couple of the girls too which has been great.

Personally I think the internet is the single biggest cause of depression in modern times.

So i would ideally limit it to spending less than 20-30 minutes at a time with a downloaded timer app. I feel more self worth since doing that.

I agree.Television and even radio can be pretty bad too.If you can socialize while keeping your distance like through videocalls, phonecalls and whatever else there may be that may be helpful but be sure that you guys don't talk too much about depressing things currently happening.Try to keep moving instead of dwelling.I find that its ok, and let go meditations along with nature meditation scripts are some things that are helping me a bit.I hope some of this might help someone out there!

I am dealing with depression and anhedonia.
Medication helped a lot with depression, but I don't know what to do about anhedonia, nothing ever feels good.

What is anhedonea?