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Depression and anxiety are taken far more seriousy than AS

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Jacoby
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04 Mar 2015, 11:10 am

Depression and anxiety are things most people know and can relate to while ASD is not, anxiety and depression are thought of as illnesses that can be cured whereas ASD is a condition that can't. Lucky for us, we usually get all 3. :|



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04 Mar 2015, 12:31 pm

The_Walrus wrote:
Depression and anxiety ARE more serious than ASD.

Sometimes the difficulties of living with ASD cause depression and anxiety, but that's the problem, not the ASD itself, imo.

Nobody goes straight from "ASD" to "suicide".

I am not playing down our daily difficulties but just being realistic.


Both have different levels of severity so a blanket statement can not be made. Severe autism is worse than mild depression and visa versa. If your sensory is so bad that it that your arm feels like like needles or knives are sticking them that is difficult.


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Apple_in_my_Eye
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04 Mar 2015, 8:58 pm

Depression is vastly more common than ASD. That's why most psychologists & psychiatrists know so little about ASD -- they're not trained as if they're going to see a lot it, especially compared to the number of depressives they'll see in a career.

Also, a lot of people have at least some moments of sadness or depression so they may have some inkling of the experience (though those mild experiences can also cause them to get it wrong, sometimes). But, even then they are plenty of people who disbelieve the experience (of depression), and think that all suicides are to get attention and other such fallacies. So, even with a relatively common condition there are a lot of know-nothing haters out there. If you'd posted that to YouTube I think the comments would be overwhelmingly negative. So, people not getting or being dicks about ASD is more or less to be expected.

Ultimately, empathy is a myth; it's just sympathy in disguise because most people have similar lives, and will self-select away from people they can't relate to. People generally just can't understand experiences they haven't had, so having rare ones is likely to be a difficult and often misunderstood experience.



BeyondLogic
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04 Mar 2015, 10:57 pm

"Anxiety taken far more seriously"?... I can't say that has been my experience.

Everyone I've ever known or met (with the exception of doctors/psychologists) seems to believe that one who suffers from anxiety is weak, needs to get over it, or is making it up for some reason. That has been the attitude that I have consistently come across.