Does autism make it harder to get out of depression?

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I find it a lot harder to get out of depression than my NT peers seem to, or at least that is my analysis.

As we tend to fixate on things and past events, I suspect that makes it harder for us to "let go" of things that bring us down.

Personally the reason for that is that other people are the cause of my (more or less constant) depression, and since people will keep being neurotypical there is no reason the depression-status would change.

But one can get a long way with thinking the right way. It is important to understand what truly motivates one to take action, because action is a sign of not being depressed.

I was in depression for one and half year, and although I have mostly recovered (I have an almost "normal" life and don't take medication any more) I still don't feel great at times. But the important thing is that while I was struggling to get out of depression, I had no idea I could have an ASD, and therefore many of my own reactions and psychological mechanisms were difficult to understand for me and people wanting to help me (my lover, my few friends, my family, my therapist). Since understanding why you made a depression exactly in the first place is an important part of how to durably get rid of depression, it considerably hampered my recovery.

In other words, I don't know if having AS in itself make it more difficult to get out of depression (although it would seem a reasonable hypothesis, simply because of the induced general social misfitness if nothing else), but I think that having an ASD and not knowing it will likely lead you to depression sooner or later, and will prevent you from getting better.

I've been in and out of depression for 10 years. I don't really know if it's depression as much as just feeling lonely, isolated, and feeling like a loser due to never having friends, and everyone that ived tried to be friends with has back stabbed me or was just taking advantage of me. Basically, like someone mentioned above, my depression is caused by people around me or the lack of people around me.

It does for me. I have a lot of NT relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbours around me, and I have always felt that their chances of going on vacations and doing other interesting things with their lives are much higher than mine because they have a higher ability to socialise and make friends than I have, and so have people to do these things with. But me, I've got to either do everything alone or not at all, and sometimes things aren't always so fun alone. When you think about it, it can be so depressing.

Sometimes I feel like I haven't got a friend in the world. I have let that phenomenon frighten me. Also my future looks bleak; I can see myself dying alone when old and being found as a mummified skeleton by repo men. I really strongly want to be cremated but I might not know a single soul to tell that to when I'm old, and so will be buried instead, which is what I don't want.

Oh, it's all doom and gloom.

Although I have suffered with at least some form of depression with me having Aspergers (hardly a coincidence?) and it has been at least kept in check, thanks to serotonin reuptake inhibitors, it surfaces from time to time, especially when I'm around NTs that make up my family and when I'm public but it seems to flare up only a few times but fortunately not to the point where it dominates my daily life. Depression is such an atrocious disease which even though it can be at least kept in check, but given my inability to relate to NTs , it is very reasonable that depression and some form of ASD are related in some yet unknown but perhaps its no surprise that our frustating desire to relate to people can in some way contribute to depression.

What do you call depression please?

It seems to vary, at least between myself and other people.

I just feel sad and a little hopeless regarding my social situation sometimes (I don't feel as though I am ever going to find someone to love or even have a good conversation with about mutual interests ever again, let alone get to share wonderful times pursing said interests together and making the most of life with each other...simply because I am so unusual there is no match for me which leaves me feeling lonely). Other people think they are worthless and hate themselves. They seemed to be convinced they are defective which is daft really because they pay too much attention to society when society is an ignorant narrow minded judgmental prick.

Anyway..what is depression to you?

To me depression is:-

overwhelming feelings of isolation

feeling that NTs have got it better than me

I make too much effort and the outcome is always disappointing

fed up with Asperger's, I want to be like them

does Asperger's mean I have no hope, or is it just luck?

I don't know anything, I can't even update my computer properly

I can't go on living this stupid life

questions: ''why me?'', ''what is life all about?'', ''why am I here?'', ''what did I do to deserve this?''


It just goes on and on. That is what depression feels like for me.

The true beauty of people with Aspergers Syndrome is that when they do connect with others that connection is very genuine, because they do not have a pack mentality - AS people do not have the social constraints that in fact limit the love neurotypicals share. AS people do not love for status or prestige, they love only if they truly love. I tell myself this when depressed. It makes me remember why I truly love myself and want to keep going, because love is, to me, the ultimate meaning of life. Love is just as much a matter of loving yourself as loving others.

The fact that you have a label in itself can be depressing, imho. In most of my life I lived without one, but after I discovered something is wrong with me (ASD is a disability after all), I had found it increasingly difficult to stay out of depressive states. Nevertheless I strongly believe that as we get used to it we can make more out of our lives than before.

I actually feel the same way. It is good to know precisely how one is different, but at the same time it can be very depressing to realize just how bad of a situation you are actually in - I did not fully realize this earlier, i.e. how much of an influence AS has on a person's life. A "normal" life is almost about nothing but being social.

well, there is "normal" depression (that everyone experiences at some points in their life, as when grieving a loss), and "clinical" depression which does not pass as quickly or when it is supposed to (and then there are the variations of bipolar where one might cycle quickly or slowly through depressive states on a regular basis).

i've read that anxiety and depression have a high comorbidity with AS. but, i've seen plenty of NTs in psych hospitals with severe chronic depression that didn't have an AS diagnosis nor struck me (then or now) as having AS, although of course some might have. i wasn't exactly looking for autism in adults at the time. i have a (once) close friend who went in for shock treatment last year due to intractible chronic major depression and suicidality (including a suicide attempt last year). i can't think of anything about her that would strike me as AS. PTSD for sure, but not AS. obviously not a diagnosis but just saying.

i think having AS may in itself create problems with clinical depression, which may have to due with our neurology. we may have more trouble processing emotion, letting things go (fixating, as was said by prior poster), or be more sensitive to emotional harm, or be targeted more frequently due to our failure to read social cues. or, it's just as possible that having AS simply predisposes us to more life difficulties which then create more losses and pain and anger and that leads us to depression more frequently. or both.

This.

To say something positive, I think solving or at least trying to solve the emotional garbage that most of us carry forward like some unbearable burden on their shoulders can indeed help. We all tend to over-rationalize things but there's a point when our rational minds must accept that they must deal with the emotional side of ourselves too. It's a very delicate matter. In fact, doing a personal research on one's emotional side is like a journey, with highs and downs and a lot of exiting new experience. Tormented souls will certainly benefit from it and find it worthwhile right from the start. How you do it doesn't really matter. Just observe your emotions and do a systematic research on them by following your best intentions and instincts.

I write a few notes about my personal version of the above. I have an official ASD diagnosis and I've fully accepted and embraced it yet somehow I've come to understand that I must somehow distance myself a little bit from my diagnosis emotionally to be able to function to the standards I desire. I've done it partly by realizing that high functioning people on the spectrum share many features with people who can be regarded and labeled as 'introverts' by the ruling social standards (e.g. social withdrawal, special interests, sensory sensitivities, shyness, preferring thinking over action). Another idea that helped that some high functioning autistics may have some positive traits in common with schizophrenic people (I wouldn't even dare to guess their proportion after posting my thoughts on it here and elsewhere). Apparently for some it's hard to imagine that from the inside ASDs and schizophrenia spectrum disorders may look very much alike: you are surrounded by people who can't understand your thoughts (that are logical from your point of view), your emotions, that you are falsely misinterpreted, while at the same time you have an immense and beautiful inner world, and intense special interests that provide pleasure for you. Some mentioned before that ASD people find it difficult to let go their emotions. Schizophrenic people also have difficulties with letting go emotions and thoughts. Most of them experience anger that are directed inside (guilt) and/or outside (anger). A disturbed emotional self can cause a whole lot of unwanted "side-effects", too often without being fully realized by the person concerned. Somehow I feel much better knowing all this, it gives hope.