The Intersection of Asperger's/Autism and Depression

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This one's a doozy.

How many of you are comorbid for an Autism Spectrum Disorder and depression or dysthymia? I myself have Asperger's and dysthymia, and let me tell you, the dysthymia part is quite a problem. It's like all the fun of a depressive episode, but it's not as severe and so nobody pays attention to you when you're desperately calling for help. When you're already socially impaired, this can be a problem. Asperger's can, in isolation, be harmless, but in the presence of depression the two can feed off each other in some sort of monstrous feedback loop. When you add anxiety and/or manic states to the recipe...

Do you find yourself losing interest in your special interest because the depression basically just sucks out your will to live? Being that I have dysthymia, which is a chronic condition (it's like depression, but forever~), it basically mutes or caps my interests. I'll get super excited about something and I'll learn everything about it and then suddenly - what's the point? It's all useless anyway. We're all just gonna die. Happiness is an illusion. I then proceed to lie in bed and/or go on the internet and refresh the forums I go on. It's a very passive life, which I am not satisfied with at all.

What are your experiences with this particular comorbidity? How do the two play with each other? Does one mask the symptoms of the other?

'According to the DSM's definition of dysthymia, it is a serious state of chronic depression, which persists for at least 2 years; it is less acute and severe than major depressive disorder.'
Not 'forever~'.

Anyway, I don't know if I have AS and I've been diagnosed with depression but I think dysthymia is a more accurate label. But I know what you mean with regards to diagnosis and special interests.

I have bipolar II, major depressive disorder and suspected AS. It is not fun at all. I'm trying to cope with therapy and a cocktail of medications. The antidepressants do nothing, the mood stabilizers (for the mania) work, and the therapy (with an autism specialist) is helping a little.

The depression is by far the worst part of it. My therapist said that even though she only works with autistic patients, she deals with depression more than anything else. It's highly comorbid with autism.

I have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, but I think I have dysthymia, with an occasional major depressive episode on top of that. My mom has it, too.

I wonder how much the stress of both the disability and stigma of autism plays into depression.

Yes, I have this combination. The answer to question, how do the two interact, is not well. Not well at all. In order to feel comfortable and safe, I need to follow my routines. When depression is in full swing, I lose motivation to perform the activities of my routine, but also feel the fear and panic of not having completed them. I have OCD too, which ties into this as well. Depression says "f**k it", OCD says "i must do these things or bad things will happen". When that happens i will attempt to use my coping mechanisms to distract myself. Sometimes they help. Sometimes more extreme measures are required (self harm). More often, the three things (depression, OCD, AS) combine to trigger something my p-doc explained to me as "double depression". Which sucks. A lot.

I exaggerated for a sort of morbid comic effect. Depression is a difficult subject to make light of.

But you are right - it does not last forever. The impression I had gotten of dysthymia was that it was basically a condition that would last one's entire lifetime and would start in childhood or adolescence (probably got that impression from its former name, "depressive personality").

Man, I can relate to this. Since I was 5 or so, my biggest source of entertainment has been video games, and would play them every day, for hours a day, obligations permitting of course. I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder a few years ago(Also, diagnosed ADD when I was around 5), never been assessed for Asperger's though. Still, the depression definitely affects my interest in things that previously I quite enjoyed. Very rare do I find a game entertain me enough to play it for more than an hour or so, and then never turn that game on again. Despite this, I still find myself reading up on, and looking forward to new games, only to end up not playing them when they come out, even if I did buy them. I have impulsive purchasing problems, combined with a waning interest, and I end up wasting money. So instead of actually playing games, I spend my time online reading message boards, reading websites about games, talking in Steam chat rooms about games, and.....not actually playing them. I end up going back and forth to the same websites, see that nothing changed, and repeat. I don't tend to do much during the day. Lately though I have found a game that held my interest, and have been playing it more, and even though there are other games I am looking at that I want to play I am hesitant to stop playing this one in fear of falling back in to the same pattern of buying games, not playing them, and being bored and simply not caring enough to be willing to change anything. I am slow to initiate change.

I am currently on an antidepressant, it definitely helps, but its not perfect. I still have days that are worse than others, such as one a few weeks ago where everything annoyed me, to the point where I nearly had a meltdown in the middle of Taco Bell simply because my burrito wasn't folded closed well enough and was leaking, until I calmed myself down by realizing how utterly stupid that is to get mad at, but I was close.

Dealing with major depressive disorder and Asperger's, I can say that the stigma is probably doubled.

First, my Asperger's went undetected for most of my life and contributed to my depression, which I linked to my social issues (I thought they were character problems). Then, my depression started at a early age and hasn't let up, and it's very severe depression. Well, in the culture I'm in, it's something to shrug off and ignore, and no one wants to support you or be understanding.

So, labeled with a character problem because of Asperger's and a character problem because of depression, and suddenly your mental illness becomes mental "sin," for which there is no excuse.

And yes, my special interests pretty much dropped. They still are the only thing that make me happy, but I just don't have the energy for them.

I really agree with MrStewart, because I also have OCD. It's a mess. You don't have your energy to get involved in your routines, you don't have the energy to enjoy your special interests, yet the OCD pushes you to repeat, repeat, repeat, all while you have to hide it to avoid the stigma of people who can't handle real life problems.

Not a good combination at all.

Exactly. However, since going through the whole process of doing psych evaluations, learning my diagnoses, I have found I have better understanding of why the different things coming together makes me feel, well, crazy, sometimes. Just identifying triggers and learning how to adapt to them with the help of my therapist seems to be helping. It was much worse when I had no idea what was happening, only that I felt numb and often suicidal.




Yep, I've done the same thing with waning interests in the past. It's your thing, your security blanket, but part of you is losing the love, but you need it, but you don't want it and on and on. I will say, though, that this waning interest is not necessarily permanent. Sometimes if you pull back from it for a while, the spark will come back. And sometimes not. So it goes.

Not everyone recovers.

I have both AS and depression...though I am not sure if I have dysthymia or chronic clinical depression or what but I've had some sort of depression as long as I can remember and it goes from tolerable but still nasty to the point I can't get suicide off of my mind.

I have AS, depression, and bipolar. I hate myself so much.