Aspie Teens more suicide prone?

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I want to ask an unpleasant question; are aspie teens more suicide prone than NT's? It occured to me while answering a post on these forums, where folks have shared their pain and understanding.

I would not be at all surprised, considering how exceptionally painful it is or has been for us during the teen-age years.

from my overall experiences I would say

most suicidal = Bi-polar(or other mental disase) > Autistic > NT

so while some may have suicidal thoughts Iwould feel like less would do it because heres y thing I feel normal to myself

I FEEL completely normal and love myself its the way i fit in with the rest of the world that makes me feel badly and some days it cans eriously take its toll

someone who has a mental disease like bi-polar can go to some serious high's and low's and are probably the a lot more likely to have suicidal thoughts an acts then someone on the spectrum

healthy NT's are probably the least likely to comparitively to other people statistically like if you had the same amount of people of each

In terms of hard evidence (i.e. large diffuse and long range studies), I don't think I've heard of any actual "tendencies." I am aware that there have been three of four high-profile suicides of AS kids, one or two of them from this board, but I wouldn't call that a trend (given the population of AS kids (which I think is about 30 percent of the population...might be less), but in most of the cases I've seen, there was something else going on.

You can't just look at a suicide, or at the circumstances (i.e. the teasing that our kids have to go through), or the fact that they have AS and say that it's a trend. We have some Aspi kids who might get very angry, or very depressed, but would never think of suicide. Suicide (unless it is an attention getting device that goes wrong) is quite complicated, and in fact, very little is known about it in the general population, and there aren't that many statistical studies (though there are one or two) about NTs and suicide. I think the stats of Aspi suicides tend to get lumped into the NT suicides. You'd have to do a very careful search of the NIMH site, because if those stats exist the National Institute of Mental Health is where you'd find that stuff. Lacking that, the New England Journal of Medicine (but that requires an expensive subscription.

All that being said, there might be a much higher frequency of bullying of our kids than NTs, but there are no statistics that I know of to prove that either.

Good Luck.
Btdt

Yes, people with AS are more prone to committing suicide than normal individuals (I think I read it in a research paper by Gillberg, or a handout I received, one of the two).

you know i bet dying really isnt that bad, being a ghost would be cool. i'd watch girls get undressed and go to my favorite sportscard shop after hours and handle all those sporstcards i cant afford

Sorry to disappoint you, but that's not what happens. So no floating around and peeping-tom for you!



That said, I think Aspies would be more suicide-prone only because we're less accepted by peers, and the more miserable they make our lives, the less we want to continue living under that torture.

With strength and perseverance , it can be overcome and be a force to be reckoned with!

I guess it would be worse to be bi=polar and autistic. I think I was somewhat bi=polar as well and was quite depressed as a teen but never suicidal.

I was suicidal as a teen but I didn't know I had AS then.

As much as a talk about or think about killing myself, I only say it when I feel really, really down. I doubt I could ever do it, since I feel like I might miss something important later in life, look back at all of this and feel relieved it's over.

Ditto.
I am a teen still, but as a younger teen [13-14...maybe 15] I was highly suicidal.
I attempted it a few times...thankfully, it failed or I would not have gotten a diagnosis of AS and met some great people here on WP.

I think that AS teens are more prone to suicide that the average population of teens. Reason being, we are not that "low functioning" to be considered "disabled" by the general public, there for are bullied, ridiculed, excluded, isolated etc etc and may become depressed and/or suicidal [not in all cases, though].

Or, the AS teen may not be bullied, but still feel "left out" [may be feeling like they don't belong, that they are a waste of space...just general self critisizm] and that may lead to depression and/or suicidal thoughts/behavior. Although most teens will experience the thoughts of not belonging and being a waste of space...in my personal experience I have noticed that having AS seems to intensify these thoughts.

I think it's actually a stage in many Aspie's lives. The teenage years are when people and life, and yourself, start treating you like the pits, as you are self-aware enough to realise that you are different, and in the case of many, not know exactly why, which makes it all the more painful for them. Of course this suicidal nature can vary due to lifestyle, location and beliefs, but I believe that there's a 35% chance an Aspie will develop suicidal tendencies during their teen years, and an 85% chance of depressionistic feelings at some point (severity for both percentages varies).

Back when I was younger, I was suicidal. It was really bad for me, at school, I stuck out above the crowd, and was miserable. I tried a few times before I was even a teen. Suicide was a constant for me, back when I was 13-14, but as I got older, I realized some things, came to grips with myself, and got over it. I could either feel persecuted for the rest of my life and be miserable, or move on, and work for a better life.
I moved on, thankfully.

After realizing a few things and doing some research, taking matters into my own hands, I've managed to become quite happy. I'm a high school graduate, and graduated on time. I've buried my past as deeply as I can, and look to the future. I'm currently doing some work on books, and I wrote an article which has appeared in a popular youth magazine. I hope to achieve a small measure of success, and a comfortable living on doing what I love; Writing.

But I digress; I do think that Aspies in general are more suicidal. Just my opinion.

We made it! And we never have to go through our teens ever again. I'll drink to that.

I'm loving my teen years at the moment. Fortunately nothing has made me really go for the departure. Teens are a wonderful time, too bad other people f*** it up for us.

I kind of feel like not waking up again.

I'd drink to it as well. Just Coca Cola, though. Less than half a year to go... Then I'll really drink to that.