Mental Illness and Asperger's Syndrome

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Do you have any kind of mental illness in addition to your Asperger's? Do you think your Asperger's (either directly or indirectly, say, through the consequent social isolation) has exacerbated or even caused your mental illness?

I think Asperger's complicated my depression (cyclothymia). I think the latter came from my hormone cycles, and not necessarily as a result from feeling isolated and misunderstood. But the black and white thinking, lack of social awareness (emotional cues) kind of perpetuated the depressive cycles. I felt like everyone else was wrong when it was really internal. I delayed treatment (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) for years and got really bad.
Talking about depression is always a pain because others will naturally assume it's due to the stress of being a parent of an autistic child. The timeline predates my son's birth (let alone the realization he was "different"), though.

Yes, I have OCD and generalized anxiety disorder, and I suffer from depression. I think that Asperger's has contributed to the depression, as a result of some of my struggles with friendship and isolation. A lot of other things have been large factors as well, though.

I've been diagnosed bi-polar although I don't agree with the diagnosis. I only had my first mania when I was 19 and I was on two different anti-depressants, smoking weed, and doing the occasional bottle of Robo. So I think my mania was caused by stress (failing my driver's test and diminishing grades, and my family dissolving and having to move in with my girlfriend) and drugs.

I've been diagnosed with major depression and I do agree to that one. I've got a constant state of anhedonia going on where nothing pleases me, there are just degrees of sucktitude. I was on medication for it and it did work for a while but eventually it didn't. Currently I'm not being treated for it although I have a psych appointment on the 13th I think.

I also since last year have had fulblown social anxiety disorder. It got to the point where when I was around people (this was before I suspected I had AS which explains part of it) I thought they were sending each other disapproving signals about me via their body language (keep in mind I never had much body language if any, and when I started looking at body language while I was manic, I read too much into it) even if they were probably perfectly fine with me. This is untreated and undiagnosed.

I don't think much of my illnesses have to do with AS. Social anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, depression, and AS all run in the family. Makes me wish my parents would have thought of their precious child's mental make up before hand.

Depression - Yes I think that this is complicated by having Asperger's. The feelings of isolation and the difficulties trying to get people to understand definately didnt help.

OCD - This diagnosis is going down the tubes. It was previously used to explain my penchant for repetitive behaviour and need for consistancy in my life, but was always suspect because of my ability to interupt if I need to.

Anxiety Disorder - Possibly a symptom of AS, resulting from a combination of sensory overload and trying to function as an NT for so many years.

Social Phobia - A direct result of not understanding or being understood by society. Its much easier to just stay at home than to take the chance that I will need to explain myself and be unable to.

I have been diagnosed with depression, social anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder as well. I also have 'general anxiety disorder'.

My brother is suspect for bipolar as well as Asperger's. I also have mentally ill, non-Asperger's parents.

I have a social anxiety and Panic attacks. There are plenty of worse things to suffer from

who cares anymore

I've been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, depression and generalized anxiety disorder. None of this was caused by AS, but the AS definitely make it more difficult to manage. Even with meds I become emotionally disregulated easily which makes it more difficult to interact with other people and the more upset I feel the less I want to be around other people. The more I panic the worse my social skills are. The more isolated I feel the more depressed I feel.

I was previously misdiagnosed as bipolar but have recently been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I'm working on getting an AS diagnosis. I do believe that my AS, and growing up in a family full of probable Aspies, moving often before 6th grade, never being accepted, etc. all led to these currently diagnosed disorders.

I have been diagnosed with depression. It is under control.
I have generalised anxiety. My psychiatrist has mentioned it, but I don't know if it's ever been written down as an official diagnosis.
I have OCD traits.
I have been diagnosed with social phobia. I disagree. Not all avoidance is due to fear.

I was diagnosed with GAD, OCD, ADHD and Cyclothymia before the AS diagnosis came into the light.

It made better sense, especially since I only have certain traits of ADHD and OCD. My p-doc said that my OCD was atypical, because I have very few compulsions, but plenty of obsessions. That one sound familiar to anyone else?

I think it was the social isolation that really did it. That and everyone around me telling me for years that I was worthless and stupid.

The autism is me. So if it caused it, so did I.

But I don't really think I can logically say: "I made the world treat me like s**t;" inadvertently or not.

The world chose to treat me and the oddball friends that I later made in my life, like that. They didn't have AS, but they were different, like me. It's not our fault.

depression/generlaized anxiety

Yes, I do have a mental illness, I suffer from depression (and I suspect that I always will) although it can be controlled.

In the early 1980's I had a nervous breakdown and I know that Aspergers contributed to this because I was unable to cope with society.

Ed Almos

I'm prone to bouts of depression, though the worst depressions I've had were the result of:

1) One of my worst phobias becoming one of my obsessions
2) Going on the contraceptive pill

So I went off the pill and will never go near anything involving synthetic hormones again in my life.

I also suffer anxieties and severe phobias, and always have done. The phobia becoming an obsession was definitely part of the AS (the obsession part) so that's directly linked. In turn, these give me panic attacks.

I also have OCD tendencies, which I think are part of needing that control over things, especially when I get anxious.



BUT

All that said and done, all of this is well under control now as I learnt what made me tick, how I function, and how it's all linked. I've never taken any meds for any of them (though I have undergone hypnotherapy for one of the phobias, which is now gone... worked fantastically). It's all just been through 'the power of the mind' and through me observing closely how I work and figuring it out myself. It's now at a point where if I can feel myself going downhill into one of these things, I know how to stop myself and keep an eye on things, and then ask for help if need be. So it's not really a problem anymore like it was when I was younger.

Is Asperger's considered a mental, psychiatric or more neurological or developmental disorder? I have experienced depression off and on my whole life..

I've recently been diagnosed with a personality disorder too, but I think it is a wrong diagnosis that was done too quickly by someone who only saw me for 30 minutes... So, I have a diagnosis of ADD, depression and NLD (mild Asperger's == alot of people think it's the same thing ) and another diagnosis of a schizoid PD and depression. I really think my problem is more neurological than mental. (I also have numerous physical problems, but that's another topic) I guess depending on how a person views it, they could say it is mild Asperger's or a personality disorder -- but I don't think a person could have both. I don't think I have the personality disorder now that I've finally seen the actual report after the hearing and all... I'm more of an NLDer with alot of similarities to Asperger's.