Is anxiety and depression your biggest problem with ASD?

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Currently, depression is my biggest problem. I have taken care of anxiety, social awkwardness and sensory issues (in my case, they are mostly related to noise, specially people talking loudly) by locking myself inside of my room since July 2014, when I quit my job. Yes, I know it is a terrible idea and not even worthy of being called "solution", but my original intention was to take a few months off to avoid a meltdown of gargantuan proportions that I felt building up from my years of commuting, studying and working (I was starting to behave like a complete as*hole towards random strangers on the street for trivial reasons and that made me afraid of the day when I would not be able to control myself).

It worked, in part. The meltdown was avoided and the deletion of my Facebook account, coupled with my abandonment of parkour (a physical activity; Google it if you are interested) ensured that I have been almost completely cut off from the outside world and my acquaintances since then. The unexpected side effect was the increase in my depression. I believe it is because now I have too much time for introspection, which is not a good thing when you are depressed. I have been spending most of my time trying to enjoy playing video games, trying to resume my work on a book I want to write, trying to find a new job (I never thought it would be so difficult to find something) and, most of all, walking in circles in my room while I daydream about the day when I will become a hermit.

Honestly, I cannot say if I did the right thing or not. I feel like I traded extreme anxiety for extreme depression and I am not sure which one is less worse.

Daydreaming about becoming a hermit is still the most enjoyable thing I do during the day, though. My last camping trip (alone, without a tent, sleeping on a rock in the middle of a river) was the most enjoyable thing I have done in years, so I am determined to make my daydreams come true and do that sort of thing every day until I am killed by a jaguar or something.

While above is true, that's not how I originally interpreted the question. I thought the OP was simply asking whether anxiety/depression were our biggest problems with, for lack of a better term, simply being.

easily

The OP asked if anxiety and depression are your biggest problems with autism, but anxiety and depression are problems separate from autism, not problems with autism. Social cognition deficits are core characteristics of autism, so social cognition deficits may be someone's biggest problems with autism. Or one of the other core characteristics of autism may be someone's biggest problem with autism. Intellectual disability is not someone's biggest problem with autism. It is instead a problem that some autistic people have. Anxiety and depression are other problems that some autistic people have. There may be interactions between autism and other disorders in an individual, but it is important to distinguish between other disorders versus autism. An alternative question would be if anxiety and depression are your biggest psychological or neurological problems.

Loneliness, is by far, the worse part. It is not the same as depression. It is a feeling of isolation, no matter how many people are around you, that I think is most difficult to live with.

Anxiety and depression are two of my biggest problems, but not my biggest problems with autism...social difficulties, sensory issues and perhaps executive functioning issues would be. Then I have PTSD which makes all of those worse and has some of its own symptoms as well.

Relating to others is my biggest problem because it directly stems from my ASD and is therefore a cause, anxiety and depression are just effects of that. ASD and anxiety and depression are different things. If an ASD person was born and lived in a world where they were accepted and properly accommodated and not mistreated for their state there would be severely less anxiety and depression issues. Maybe someday

I suppose depression is my biggest problem. But this is generally caused by my inability to have a social life. Anxiety can be an issue at times but as long as I take care with the things that make me anxious then I can control it.

Anxiety, panic attacks and stress in general are my biggest problems. Plus, I've regressed as I've had so many panic attacks within the past 2 years it's not even funny. I am dependent on my parents, and even thinking of the future could send me into a panic attack or a crying fit.

anxiety and depression are the most serious problems, but they are just symptoms of the inability to connect with people.

It is the lack of genuine social connections and relationships that cause all of our problems. Any human would eventually develop anxiety and depression if they had an invisible glass wall between them and every other human on earth.

I honestly believe the best asnwer for us is to find fellow aspie friends that we can break the wall and relate to.

This is not true.
Anxiety and depression are real and distinct from autism.
The inability to connect with people will contribute to depression in autistic people who also suffer from depression, but it is not caused by autism.

I think it might be helpful to consider anxiety and depression in the same light as epilepsy and migraine in relation to autism.

The rates of both epilepsy and migraine are higher among autistics than in the general population, but, just like depression and anxiety, epilepsy and migraine are only experienced by a minority of autistics and neither condition is a core characteristic of autism.

There may be some shared alleles that play a role in the development of these conditions, but it would be wrong to conclude that autism is the causal factor in the depression or anxiety experienced by some autistics--a contributing factor to the way the pre-existing tendency to depression and anxiety plays out, yes, but causal, no.

It's all kind of comorbid of each other, don't you think part of the reason I am anxious or depressed is this inability to connect and socialize with other people? Its all connected to each other.

I could be mistaking but I took their post to meant they feel their depression/anxiety has more to do with an inability to connect with people, not that it would be the case for everyone. Also unlike epilepsy, which doesn't tend to have emotional causes depression thus so it could be said having trouble relating to people because of autism would contribute to depression in some people....where the same could not probably be said of epilepsy.

I understand what you mean, I also have trouble with anxiety and depression -- and of course, the social problems inherent in autism make those things worse. It's also true that when I am very anxious my ability to control or moderate the severity of my autistic traits is markedly reduced.

But it's also true that there are autistic people who experience the same kind of social deficits who do not suffer from anxiety or depression. Further, there are people who suffer from anxiety and depression who are not autistic.

So I think it is reasonable to say that these are distinct and separate things, even though you and I don't experience them that way because they are wrapped up in our experience of life.

So I think it is likely that you experience anxiety and depression because you are predisposed to do so by your particular genetic configuration rather than because of your autism. In any bout of depression or anxiety, your mind may dwell on social difficulties that you have because of your autism and in this way, I think it makes sense to say that your autism contributes to your anxiety and depression, but, for the reasons given above, I don't think this is the same as saying those social difficulties cause the anxiety and depression.

One consequence of this distinction is that I think it is worth pursuing treatment for the symptoms of anxiety and depression in autistic people without first trying to somehow eliminate the social communication problems that are a core feature of autism.

In her book on cognitive behavioral therapy for adults with aspergers, Dr. Valerie Gauss describes the negative consequence of therapists attributing the depression and anxiety reported by some of their autistic patients directly to their autism. Because there is no treatment for autism, some practitioners simply did not treat these debilitating conditions in their patients. When they recognize that depression and anxiety are distinct from the autism, they can treat them and this is beneficial to their patients.

Maybe--I often misinterpret details of what people intend to communicate. But I think the distinction is still worth clarifying.


I am not sure that it's right to say that depression has emotional causes rather than emotional effects. This is a bit tricky because depression is a word with multiple meanings. Minor depression, "feeling blue," is a normal emotional state.

Major depression--the kind that leads to total lack of energy, drive, enthusiasm and pleasure, the kind that drives one to prolonged and detailed plans for suicide--that is not a normal emotional state and does not result from the normal play of emotions.

There may be an immunological role in some cases of major depression. There is likely a genetic role in many others.
http://depressiongenetics.stanford.edu/mddandgenes.html