Are there aspies who never (or very rarely) feel depressed?

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Can you tell me more about that? I'm the same way. I've been avoiding sugar and other high glucose index stuff for over five years now. If I have a little of it the reaction is very obvious.

there is such a thing as non situation based depression. bi polar people suffer from it a lot, and then there are other types of depressions, milder ones but longer lasting, that have to do more with chemicals in the brain than the situation.
i get depressed easily, but with a reason - usually. sometimes i get depressed for no reason too, but it's rather mild and no suicide thoughts or anything horrible like that.

I get depressed sometimes, but it's not usually depression for no reason. It's usually brought on by something specific, and if I can figure out what that is, I can usually deal with it. There have been a couple of big losses in my life that caused long-term depression and those were difficult to overcome.

Most of the time I work at it with self-talk and getting involved with something new, or finishing something old (I have trouble with finishing things, and doing so usually gives me a lift), or cleaning house or doing something healthy, and I manage to dig my way out of it.

There are times I think it's good to wallow in something for a while before getting back to normal, it's a time when I do a lot of deep thinking - soul searching - and it's easy to shut out distractions mainly because I'm not interested in anything else during those times. It can be a bit scary, and I can see how it would be truly awful not to be able to get out of it on one's own, so I really sympathize with chronic depression.

Still, I have never been a cheerful, perky person. I tend to be serious, and a lot of times other people mistake that for depression or a bad mood. It's just me.

Oh, I see your point. It's more on a personal level and not a general level. Generally, there are aspergians who get depressed for "illogical" reasons, but many don't. You specifically, do not become depressed for (NT perspective) illogical reasons. I personally have had experiences when NTs were confused as to why I would become depressed due to something that they wouldn't care about. Sorry about that.

Sorry for being blunt though. I was just trying to explain how I know it's not depression in me. I tend to react bluntly if anyone seems to be saying I might be depressed because before I knew AS was there, I got a lot of that from doctors, and my own mother, who was diagnosed with depression. She definitely developed it over time, but I now think she may have actually been on the spectrum and developed depression because of her treatment by doctors who never considered there might be something else going on. We'll never know for sure now, because posthumous diagnosis isn't possible.

I went through a lot of crap because of insistence that I must be depressed, when in fact I just display what looks like suppression due to AS, and that caused a lot of anger issues in me so I tend to react when it comes up sometimes. It actually took me a long time to convince doctors it wasn't depression, but once I figured out how to explain it, virtually all agree now it isn't.

It's also taken me a long time to fully grasp "illogical" depression. I do now, and it must be a really hard thing to live with. I do wonder though, as I do about my mother, how much of what people on the spectrum think is "illogical" may actually be logical reactions to their life experiences with ASD's. Maybe some of us are just treated so badly there is good reason to feel like crap about ourselves. If one can realize that, the next step is learning how not to let it bother is so much, if possible.

In fact, I can't answer this question because I mostly suppress my perception of "mood".

I can feel good or bad about something, but the question how I feel makes little sense to me. That is, I can still feel "sick", "tired" or "full of energy" (physiologically), but not "happy" or "sad".
When something good or bad happens to me, I grant myself a few hours to cope but with it, but then I tell myself to forget about it emotionally and go on. That's my strategy to avoid depressions.

That ^^ is a pretty good summary of what I'm like as well, except that in extreme circumstances it can take me months to deal.

Most of the time I'm content, and that's good enough for me. Elation comes rarely, and when it does, I enjoy it, but I don't expect it to last, because it never does. Elation or situational depression are, for me, surface emotions that wear off. True contentment may not look like much from the outside, but it runs very deep.

I think it's important to acknowledge or express our feelings, although some feelings are only appropriate to share with ourselves (or maybe a best friend, spouse or therapist). We all have our dark sides. It's when someone identifies with or mistakes their dark side for their whole self they can get into trouble. This is why I keep a journal, and keep it private. I sort out my thoughts and feelings through writing. I have written my way through to the other side of a mood many times.

I'm still not all that good at putting strong feelings or moods aside when I need to deal with other people, but it's rare that is a problem, it's just that when it is, it's a big problem, and at those times I really need to find a way to be alone and work through them. Easier today than when I was working with other people. After my sister's sudden (violent) death about 24 years ago, I was sort of a zombie for a year or so before I realized how deeply depressed I was. Then I had to spend some time getting in touch with my grief, and that was tough to do and keep working. In neither condition - the numb zombie mode or the active grieving mode - was I much good for anything. Meditation and journaling helped. In fact, it was through meditation that I came to the realization I still had a lot of grieving to do.

It is, if they exist. But if they don't? I really don't react emotionally to very much at all. Very few things invoke strong emotions in me. Something like your sister's death would do it, but not much else. It really isn't suppression with me, it's just that doctors and some other people who don't understand me think it is because I'm not displaying what they think I should be. If it's not there, it's just not there. A lot of things in life that do bother most people, just don't bother me, or bother me far less than other's.

I never write anything down, but I will talk with the right people. I've never liked the idea of putting anything in writing I wouldn't want anyone else to read. One never knows whose hands it could end up in. Talking things out helps a little, but not much. Time helps more than anything. Just hanging on until whatever it is passes has served me quite well over time.

Even when the skies are cloudy, the sun rises every day. That's all I have to remember. That eventually, the clouds will part and I'll see the sun again. It never fails.

I'm a feeling type, so maybe that has something to do with it. It's where I live most of the time, but also where I'm most introverted, so I have to deal with my feelings, and I do that best internally.

I agree on the who will read my journals, believe me. I think about it sometimes. In fact I've been in the process of going through some old ones and deciding what to shred. But I doubt anyone would be all that interested anyway. That kind of thing is only interesting when written by famous people. Even close family are unlikely to want to read most people's journals, when all is said and done.

Last edited by BlueAbyss on 25 Dec 2012, 10:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I think people with AS tend to have various kinds of long-term problems, such as not fitting in with other people, and clinical depression can often be caused by such problems. Once the brain gets used to the depressed state caused by specific problems, it sort of becomes a habit and even when there's no specific reason to be depressed, the brain gets into that depressed state. And some psychiatrists said that that state is caused by some brain chemicals, which get secreted wrongly and make you feel depressed. So, I think it's natural that people with AS, having various difficulties in life, get into (clinical) depression.

As for me, I don't even know if I am feeling depressed or not. I am feeling down and lonely most of the time, without friends and with very low self-esteem. I feel anxious about many things, too. But I am feeling ok enough to keep a job.

Having said all that, I have seen many posts on WP that said they were happy to be alone etc, which didn't seem to be coming from depressed people (though of course you can't judge only based on that). So, I believe that there are quite a few people with AS who are not depressed.

I don't feel depressed at all and I rarely feel that way. Sometimes I realize I may have been depressed and didn't even know it such as this year because we had less income and my husband was not working and it was very stressful for me. Even as a kid I was depressed and didn't even know it. I was still happy and still played and did other things. As an adult I still went to work. I have always had depression for a reason because it doesn't come for no reason. Plus how can you tell if you are actually depressed than just not liking where you live and how your life is because you are single? I think the only time I felt true depression was in 2006 and I was starting to mess up more at work and acting like I was on drugs because I wouldn't process things as usual or even hear people so I had to have them repeat themselves. I would also forget what I was doing and one time I found myself at Wal Mart and couldn't remember why I was there and had no memory of stopping there. Then I remembered I was there for cat food. I was like this because of my ex and how he was in our relationship and I was practically his mother. I didn't like our relationship and was not happy and he didn't want to do anything to change and he just wanted to stay home and play on his computer all day long and night until he goes to bed. then get up and get right to playing again. I was told this was all depression and the hearing issue part was because he always had loud bass on from his game with these huge speakers he used. All these problems went away when I kicked him out. The other times I just felt unhappy and I was labeled as being depressed. I eve had moderate depression at age 16 according to my shrink I saw and I had no psychical symptoms of depression and I still went to school and did my school work, cleaned, played video games, watched TV, did the computer.

No depression for me, because:

I live in my own little world.
I control that world.
I choose to keep it positive.