Is depression common in aspergers and how does one know?

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Hey.

So for 2 years now(It's actually 2 years since I susepcted I might be an aspie), and increasingly so, I have seemed what could be depressed. I have been very restless, I don't feel joy with what I usually did, very tired, huge food consumption increase and some moodswings.

Even small things can throw me off course. If I make a small mistake, a problem comes along or if things aren't as I expect them, I simply stop thinking and things goes around in circles. And I have a hard time making descisions.
I'm not suicidal at all though.

So I'm wondering, is despression common for aspergers and how does one know if it's something that one should seek help about?

I have struggled with depression for many years ...since i was a child....before I ever even knew what Aspergers was....or ADD (which is what I am diagnosed with...despite symptoms that are more AS-sih)
Figuring out that alot of my lifelong developmental struggles were related to my possibly having a developmental disorder that I had no real control over kinda helped me with depression a little bit....but not having closeure in knowing exactly what it is has caused me a bit of stress/depression.....so it is sorta give and take....

I seem to get the depression from my (very AS-ish) mom....who has struggled with depression her whole life and her two sisters are on anti-depressants...but she does not believe in using pharmaceuticals....

anywhoo.....it is my understanding that it can often be co-morbid...but not inevitably...

Yes, chronic depression is a common side effect of AS.

You live in a society designed and operated by people who think differently than you do, and who expect you to behave as they do, or be treated as defective. What could possibly be depressing about that?

I've had a problem with depression for a long time. I tried going on "happy" pills but that didn't seem to really do that much good. I think it made me more tired than anything, and I seriously don't need to be anymore tired than I already am. I've also read that depression is common in aspergers because it is tough to try to deal with being different in society, which I think is definitely true.

I have been depressed all my life, or, at least bipolar. I have been on paroxetine for the last 10 years.

My experience began with depression and a distinct sense of not being on the outside... and that is where my process began. Subsequently, there have been additional diagnosis and changes as the attempted approaches were grossly unsuccessful. But the depression in omnipresent; sometimes it doesn't wreak havoc, but it is still there.


M.

I was always depressed... or at least since my mind first began to really cognate. My mother said I was always very subdued, rarely crying hard but laughing even more rarely, and that I isolated myself from people. I don't know how much of this was depression and how much was being borderline AS, but I certainly showed clear indications of both from a very young age. It was clear I had classic depression since I was about three.

Yes it certainly appears that way. I have felt the same way as you for the longest time. Restlessness, hopelessness and extreme mood swings. The smallest comment or event can throw me off to the point where I can't function or concentrate. All the consoling words in the world from family and good friends couldn't alleviate or help me and it seems to be a state i'll never really snap out of. I wake up feeling down on myself and constantly put myself down in my head. My father, who is almost exactly like me and whom I suspect has a touch of Asperger's just like me goes through this too, which really leads me to believe that depression is just something i'll have to deal with for the rest of my life.

Not to say there aren't happy moments in my life, just that there's more down times than up. In the past two years, i'd say i've only been happy for about three to six months in total.

Is it worth seeing a shrink and try out therapy or drugs for these kinds of things, or are people like us doomed?

The question seems to be whether depression is part and parcel of AS or a result of trying to 'fit in'. Personally, I've had times throughout my life where I was seriously depressed. Sometimes I think it was a chemical imbalance, and certainly there were times I got sooo frustrated trying to understand people and why they act the way they do. One of the happiest times was when The Missus and I vacationed on a lovely island, and I had the feeling of being totally free of society and it's expectations. I wanted to stay, but unless I get some money from the lotto I won't be able to accomplish that...

Yes, I suffer from depressive symptoms frequently (it's kind of always there lurking in the shadows). I remember reading a few years ago that the suicide rate for people with Asperger's syndrome was quite high (15% if my vague memory is of any guide). Bipolar disorder is one of the few disorders with a higher lifetime prevalence of suicide.

I would like to introduce a new word: psycho-fuel . What is depression id not a absence of psycho-fuel? What is psycho-fuel?

For all my opposition to psycho-jargon, I would like to in introduce this neologism: psycho-fuel. Or at least open a discussion about the availability of those forces which make for our attachment to life in the most difficult condition. We talk much in these days of fuels, all the world, civilization, “democracy”, ecosystems, biodiversity, appearing to depend on the availability of fossil or alternative fuels.
But what is behind psycho-fuel? Dopamine, endorphine, good parentage, rfeligious faith (whatever that is)?. Mens sana in corpore sano (or viceversa)? What makes a human (or an animal for that) lost in the desert without food, water, maps err to the limits of his forces and against any odds of salvation for indefinite periods of time? What is hope after all? What is psycho-fuel? What makes me write this, which shoul not be at all an academic interrogation or a matter of chat? When psycho-fuel runs short you take paroxetine, or liquors, or illegal drugs.