Suicide and AS

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Just wondering if suicide amongst AS is common, more common, or what the stats are.

Depression is quite common, so I'm assuming suicide is, as well. There's not a whole bunch of research; but remember that this may have very little to do with AS itself and a lot to do with social isolation and stigma--homosexual teens have a similarly increased depression and suicide risk.

Its pre luck i havent killed myself yet. Im not really depressed i just dont see a logical reason to live besides having kids, and one of the 3 things i hate the most are kids right behind dogs.

If you're a teen and you're treated like crap, by your family, of course you're going to want to kill yourself. Kids with AS are more likely to be treated like crap.

If you're a teen and you're treated like crap, by your family, of course you're going to want to kill yourself. Kids with AS are more likely to be treated like crap.

Well, according to Dr. Byron Rourke, one of the leading researchers of Asperger's "sister disorder" (for want of an ideal term) NLD/NVLD...suicide risk is elevated for individuals who exhibit the NLD/NVLD syndrome.



I see no reason to believe suicide risk isn't similar among those with AS. Not to mention the fact that AS and NLD might even be the same disorder and the professional jury is still out on that one. Many of those with AS exhibit a strikingly similar pattern of performance to NLD-ers on IQ tests and other psychometric/neuropsychological measure for one thing. The social/behavioral characteristics seem quite similar often enough as well. Some psychologists claim these characteristics are appreciably more "mild" for NLD-ers though. Basically I think we're just looking at a common etiology which just has variable quanties and qualities of manifestations in individuals.

One thing which may suggest that NLD and AS aren't the same is that most, if not all, the common NLD characteristics can be aquired (via head injury, radiation treatments for childhood cancers like lymphocytic leukemia, etc...) whereas AS cannot be.



"Summary & Related Considerations

The pattern of psychosocial disturbance exhibited by persons with NLD is considered to arise directly from the interactions among their primary, secondary, tertiary, and linguistic neuropsychological assets and deficits. For example, their deficits in social judgment and interaction appear to result from more basic problems in reasoning, concept-formation, and intermodal integration-- problems that also lie at the root of their difficulties in mechanical arithmetic (Rourke, 1993; Strang & Rourke, 1983). Adaptability to novel interpersonal situations is the hallmark of socially appropriate individuals. A combination of aversion for novelty, failure sometimes even to appreciate that an event is in fact novel, poor problem-solving and hypothesis-testing skills--all of these conspire to render spontaneous, smooth adaptation to the constantly changing milieux of social groups and the interactions nascent therein all but impossible for the child or adult with NLD. Deficits in visual-perceptual organizational skills are thought to give rise to their problems in deciphering the meaning of various facial expressions, gestures, and other forms of paralinguistic information important for effective human communication.

Included among the adaptive difficulties that arise from limitations in the capacities of the person with NLD for intermodal integration are the following: problems in the assessment of another's emotional state through the integration of information gleaned from his/her facial expressions, tone of voice, posture, psychomotor patterns, and so on; limitations in the assessment of social cause-and-effect relationships because of a failure to integrate data from a number of sources such as is often necessary to generate reasonable hypotheses regarding the chain of events in social intercourse; failure to appreciate humor because of the complex intermodal judgments required for assessing the juxtaposition of the incongruous; imputing of unreasonable, trite, or oversimplified causes for the behaviour of others, and imparting such imputations in situations that would lead to embarrassment for the person so described. Clumsiness and poor psychomotor skills (e.g., eye-hand coordination), coupled with the aforementioned difficulties, make it likely that such individuals will be regarded as social misfits. As a result, they are often ridiculed and ostracized. Because of these experiences, it is expected that there will be an increased likelihood of social withdrawal, isolation, and depression on the part of the person with the NLD syndrome. Thus, it should come as no surprise that depression and suicide attempts are greater than average in individuals who exhibit this syndrome. Additional information and discussions of the psychosocial dimensions of NLD are contained in Rourke, van der Vlugt, & Rourke, 2002)."


http://www.nld-bprourke.ca/BPRA18.html

I want to blow my brains out all the time, and I think about it every 10 seconds or so.

I used to think it was normal until I saw how ridiculously my family went on when I told them.

I also detected a very strong correlation between my suicidal tendencies and the amount of time i spend with my family,
Unfortunately my attempts to save my life by reducing family time led to them treating my even worse,
Many AS experience "close" family members as the one who understand them the least or even worse as ones who interprets their gestures and intentions as the complete opposite from what they really are,
This inevitably leads to further difficulties as we live in a family centered society.
Many NT's,at least the more honest ones ,would admit that most families sucks big time but there is still no real alternative to the orthodox perception of what family is and how to sanely manage inter family relations,i can see a little hope in the fact that more and more media attention is directed toward a real looks at how hellish and phony a normal family really is.

There are a few small studies on psychiatric comorbidity which all state that the risk of suicide or that the rate of suicide attempts is higher in people with Asperger's syndrome (one even differentiates Asperger's as having a higher risk than autism). Deliberate self-harm, which seems to be very commonly reported by people using this forum, seems to be even less-well studied - although there do seem to be plenty of informal web pages.

However, I could not locate one good study employing empirical methods to provide an actual frequency of suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts or suicide death.

I have had suicidal thoughts off and on since I was in elementary school. But I'm still here. I don't think I can ever take my own life although I have had dreams of how I would take my life. Someone is willing to take my own life and then she will take her own life. I never lost anyone to suicide, so I don't know what it is like to lose a loved one like that. But I just know that if I did succeed, people will have a blast even some family members. I do wish though that mom aborted me.

I remember wishing I was dead as young as three. I remember envying kids with terminal illnesses at that age as well.

Yes.

- Found in an old thread

Darn, the S-word. I'm in a better mood now and that word shows up. There's quite a few users who have attempted it, including me.

The problem is: Depression mixed with Asperger's creates enough of a mess, but to make things worse, social interaction is always something that helps depression. Friends and such to fall back on. Why is this a problem? The very lack of said social interaction is the reason why some Aspies get depression. That kind of help doesn't come easily.

I'm surprised that so many of us survive.

3 of my friends committed suicide
For many AS life is hell
it's like living in an opposite world where everything is exactly how it shouldn't
most of the time i feel like a matter in anti matter space and this kind of existence required huge amount of energy just to sustain mere existence
living with a sense of great beauty and love, that even get confirmed and acknowledged now and then, while at the same time people giving u hell and u have no real prospect and future or hope can be real hell
living like that for so many years as i did is very surprising indeed
I think i just don't have the guts to kill myself because few years ago i was wrongly diagnosed with a terminal disease and i remember it made me feel quite relieved

I owe my life to my best (and only) friend, and I carry that around with me as I would any physical object as comfort when I'm feeling down. I gave her my word I'd be there for her if she ever needed anything. Living for someone else may not be the best solution, but when I'm in the depths of despair, that's what I hold onto.

I deal with depression on a daily basic.