What is the source of depression in people with autism?

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I don't think it's really the autism in itself. Some people don't have a single person supporting them emotionally in childhood, and I think this makes a huge difference. I guess the neurotypical have a higher chance of finding some sort of support or understanding even if their family is dysfunctional.

I wonder if there are lotsa happy autistics out there who don't hang out on WP because they don't need support because they already have it.

Not having the presence of real sexual pleasure with decent company, along with satisfaction in their lives.

Not having a sense of belonging
Being excluded and ostracized constantly
Having no extended family to rely on for anything
Being used, abused, and taken advantage of
Being bullied endlessly
Being made to feel worthless, like I don't matter

This is why I like you and your posts so much Esmerelda!

And I heartily agree with you 100%, absolutely and positively.

This goes for me as well, 100%. Someday we'll be free of this stuff MagicMeerkat.

A bird that cannot fly will be depressed.

A horse than cannot run will be depressed.

A human that cannot socialise will be depressed.

I agree with you too. Cats are so much more pleasant than people.

The problem is meeting the right people, having s good start in life, and having a positive demeanour. Assertiveness helps.

Autistic people almost never have a good start in life. You can have a positive demeanor all you want, but if you are autistic, people will sense that something is off and you will still end up screwed in life.

I've had a bad time too in parts, but I keep going as best I can.

I think it has to do with when people look down at you a lot. The thing that people don't realize about autistic people is that we're a lot more self aware then they think. I don't know about anyone else but I know when people are looking down at me so much to the point where I can almost smell it. I don't by any chance suffer depression but most of my family does.

I do my best too and I know that there are a lot of things that are out of my control, human nature being one of those things. It's unfortunately human nature for the weak links to be weeded out and cast aside. The stronger members of society will have most of the resources while the weaker members are lucky if they get crumbs.

I hate being looked down on. I can also tell pretty quickly when someone is looking down on me. I wish people would treat me as an equal, but most of the time they do not.

Yeah if we're going to just get,crumbs, why not from delicious sour dough bread? Mostly its moldy dollar store bread.

Well, this conversation has deteriorated nicely.

I tried to draft a summary of various contributions to this thread, which is below. As I went through the thread, though, there were a lot of duplications. For instance, ostracism, lack of social support, etc. So if your contribution is not listed by name, it's probably because I didn't see how it differed from an earlier one or it was just getting too difficult to tabulate all the posts.

Learned helplessness, Martin Seligmann, including ability failures, social failures, sensory problems without control over them.....Bea
Problems with personality development.....Bea
Overload.....Skibum
Seclusion, social disconnectedness.....Aavikkorotta; also bustduster
Effect of masking on personality development.....Trogluddite
Don't confuse burnout with depression.....Trogluddite
Futility and hopelessness.....KK
Inability to “fit in” socially.....Kiprobalhato
Brain chemistry.....Ezra
Mistakes and failings due to multiple disabilities.....Pokeystinker
Lack of resilience and social support.....Temeraire
Loss of a “love object” / significant other.....Nick007;
Difficulty connecting with even well-intentioned others.....Starcats

Hopelessness has been theorized as a central cause of depression in the research of Lyn Abramson and Lauren Alloy - sort of a special case of learned helplessness. In stressful circumstances, persons who reported feeling hopeless were more likely to be clinically depressed than those who reported struggle but hope for the future.

My weak point in terms of psychology is personality development theories, but I think we can state that as a person's sense of identity develops, it's critical whether they view themselves as efficacious and capable of being loved and admired, or on the other hand they view themselves as helpless, unlovable, and unworthy. This is true (I propose) whether the developing child is neurodiverse or neurotypical; whether they make eye contact or don't; whether they have sensory issues or not, etc. So the ideal raising of autistic children, in this view, should stress helping them develop competencies, confidence, and a sense of worth.

It suggests that extra help in school with social skills, help dealing with sensory issues, and extra support for family unity in families with autistic children, are all worthwhile interventions.

I haven't said much about the difference between psychosocial causes of depression and biological. Yes, it's usually a chemical "imbalance" or difference in the brain, at least when depression is severe. In some cases this is inherited. In other cases, the chemical imbalance results from the psychosocial causes and the spiraling downward of depression.

One of our commenters suggested it's important to distinguish between burnout and depression, because they can look rather similar but respond best to different interventions. Another commenter suggested, though, that burnout (or overload) leads to depression. I suggest this takes the following course: burnout (=inability to function) causes demoralization and discouragement at one's ability, and that sense of helplessness/hopelessness triggers the depression.

I'll take a pause and let folks respond if they care to.

I think you are accurate in your assessment. I would like to add social rejection and being misunderstood, undervalued and underestimated to the list. I think there is a tendency for others to the treat people on the spectrum, with the except of those with visible or obvious impairments, poorly in general.

As to why people with visible disabilities and impairments are treated better, most would say it's because the other person better understand the person is disabled, however I have a more sinister theory. I believe that, at least in American culture, those with visible disabilities are more often treated more kindly than those with invisible disabilities, because in our culture, it's considered socially unacceptable to treat those with visible disabilities poorly, and doing so would cause social ridicule, and thus embarrassment. I don't think it has anything to do with empathy. If NTs were as driven by empathy as they claim (in comparison to those on the spectrum), then there would not be instances of injured individuals who are in need of medical assistance being ignored by numerous passerbyers as they die on the street. The passerbyers in these instances often ignore the person even when it's obvious they are in medical need, because a social precedent has been sent to do so by the first person who did not stop, and they conform to the social precedent. Because of that, if one person stops to help, then other people who would have otherwise not have, stop to help. In some areas, those who stop do not help though, they rob, and then others proceed to rob.

Just the other night I passed a man who was sitting leaning up against a wall who could have passed for dead. I stopped and turned around and observed numerous other people pass him. No one stopped to check on him so I did. He was alive. He had fallen asleep in that position with his headphones on. But most people don't stop.