Do you think depression in Aspergers is different from NT?

Post Reply New Topic

Do you think that depression in Aspergers is different from NTs?
- I think it is somehow different. This is my opinion -
NT get into depression only when they feel something very bad happening which they never expected. Sometimes they can get over it very easily and quickly.
But depression in Aspies or Autistics is already ready to happen, will happen and did happen. Mostly it just won't go away. But maybe, somehow, it can improve after a long period of time of practice.

You took the words right out of my mouth. I was going to post those exact words.

I feel depression is different in both NT's Aspies mostly from the neurological diffrences but, also how the people in both communities deal or mange his/her depression treatments etc...

They estimate I was depressed from the age of 2, although I wasn't properly diagnosed and treated until I was 35. It makes me wonder what triggers a depression in a 2 year old?

Aimless "It makes me wonder what triggers a depression in a 2 year old?"
- At that age, maybe it could be the tantrums, rejections, crying and sad feelings that your parents think you already had the depression then? Just a thought.

No, it was my withdrawal. I also had expressed suicidal ideation at age 5 (setting myself on fire) and the circumstances were not a situation where I was angry when I said it. I crawled into my father's lap and told him I thought it would be best if I did that. I really hated myself and thought I was worthless from an early age. Perhaps it was because my parents,good people who did the best they could, followed the professional advice of the time and punished me for my bed wetting. So I was being punished for something that was out of my control. There's no way to tell if I was clinically depressed actually at age 2, it's just speculation from the distance of many years.

Aimless, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get the withdrawal feeling at that young age? For me, I only started feeling so bad or depressed from around age 11, when I started to realize my failure in studies and loneliness.

i could be said to be "depressed" when i give up trying to hammer my way through something.

when i realize i have not the strength to remove even the first brick in the wall of my room of isolation so i at least can see some light, i put my hammer down and slump into a "whatever" mode.

i do not feel "sad" when i am depressed. i just feel unable to move to where i want to go so i give up and get tired and choose sleep as the only way out of my claustrophobic containment.

i think NT's are overwhelmed with sadness because of some external inadequacy when they are depressed, and they are incapacitated by it and that makes them less able to fight with hope, but in my case i realize the hammer of my ability is not able to chip away at the wall of my isolation and i just throw it away and go to bed and give up and feel defeated by my inability to break out into the light of the day of external reality.

i have a safety valve of humor that suddenly flips it's lid and makes me see things in a comical way when i feel defeated, but the hinges on it's lid are getting rusty and worn.

Last edited by b9 on 08 Jan 2011, 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think it would be more accurate to say my unexpected circumstances were simply more inevitable.

For me, the answer is a bit different. I feel like NT's and Aspie's both become depressed for many of the same reasons, and that the feelings they experience when depressed are very similar. However, what I feel is different between NT's and Aspie's is the way they process depression. I feel that NT's tend to be a bit less self-aware, and therefore have more difficulty pin-pointing the root cause of their depression, and that sometimes, they tend to be much more capable of living in self-denial (could again be lower self-awareness) of their problems than Aspie's tend to be.

Not everyone experiences depression and the road to recovery in the same way. I suspect that even Aspie's have varying responses when it comes to this subject. For me, the road to recovery was very much about identifying specific behaviors and feelings that caused my depression, and then working to modify my behaviors or understand and resolve my feelings. Herbal medications helped to balance my chemistry, but I had work to re-frame my experiences in a positive fashion in order to create lasting changes in my brain that would help me overcome and continue to battle depression.

I don't really know. Perhaps evidence of autistic traits. My mother said as an infant I didn't cry for attention, only when I was hungry or needed my diaper changed. When I was a toddler, she said I "didn't talk" but I don't know if there was a clinically significant delay. I also have considered there was a traumatic event I have suppressed. I wonder if it's possible to be born with depression. Stress is the trigger and my mother had pneumonia when I was in utero. Just guessing. Perhaps just inadequate socialization. My mother had 3 other very high maintenance children when I was a baby. Since I didn't cry for attention, she said it was easier just to stick me somewhere.

Partially

Most of the time, people with autism seem to get "depressed" merely from being overly stressed (or so I've seen from this forum...) However, an aspie could get as equally depressed over something natural in life as much as a NT could (i.e. death of a family member.)

For me, being depressed seemed my natural way of being. It wasn't any particular thing that happened, It was just existing that was so hard. I do well on medication, but still I think mild depression will always be a part of me.

I think depression in aspies and autistics are caused by our inability to function as how we see others function. Depression are negative feelings. If I knew of my asperger problem when young, and if I could think that I need to do something, I would tell my family members, relatives and their friends that I needed their help, that I need them to teach me whatever they can about life that would help me That I need them to treat me as how they treat each other in order that I can survive as a normal person and be more like them and independent.
Just think, in a few years time, with this formula, I would have been a much better and happier man. Problem was, I only knew I have asperger last year and I'm 52 already. So I ended up in misery for not doing anything all those years.
Most of you are still young, do something, ask for help because you all still have many, may years to improve. Tom Cruise said he was helped by Scientology, but I know it's very expensive there. If my family say they love me, I'm sure they'll do something like this to help me.

No - I think there's no difference between NT depression and ASD depression, really. Some Aspies can get depressed because of being stuck with AS and wishing things would be better for them if they were NT. I even feel like that. But sometimes being NT doesn't necessarily mean a full happy life. I know lots of NTs who are depressed, and it's not over anything in particular. My brother is NT and he's depressed over nothing really. He's had a good childhood, now works somewhere he likes, has friends, but he's still stuck in this unreasonable depression.

No - depression is depression. It's not divided up into ''Aspie depression'' and ''NT depression''. Some Aspies can be happy and confident all their lives, and some NTs can be unconfident and depressed all their lives.

I bet some Aspies on here don't know what an ''unconfident NT'' is. I do, because I know loads of unconfident NTs.

I have struggled with depression my entire life. Apparently it was triggered when my father passed away, I was eight then.

Anymore though the source of my depression seems to stem from my utter lack of success and the realization that it is highly unlikely this will ever change.

I have tried over a dozen meds for depression. Literally all of them did nothing to improve how I felt, they just made me feel more apathetic. Sure I wasn't feeling as depressed, but I also didn't get as excited or intrigued. They nullified my special interests and this in turn made me feel even worse.

To me it would seem that depression in NT's and Aspies would differ. I make this assumption based on the effect most antidepressants have had on me. But I really don't know.