do most people with asperger's have depression as well?

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Depression made me to go Doctor, who diganosed that I am Aspi

I think we might be more prone to depression, but I don't think it's the chemical imbalance sort. It seems a lot of aspies have probs with the medications for depression (not all, there are some who have great results, but their depression probably comes from what depression medication is actually made to treat). When you think about it most the things that aspies deal with daily are the sorts of things that will irritate or depress an NT if more than one happens in a given day. The last doctor I had (the one that told my previous one where he could stick his medical degree for putting a first timer on a max dose too, man she's awesome) put it really well. Depression that is caused by your life just sucking isn't going to be helped by pills. The pills just make you notice a lot less until you notice you aren't noticing anything and that's where a lot of the medically induced suicidal thinking crops up.

I have a lot of experience with depression, both as a patient and as a professional working in the mental health/developmental disabilities field. I fall under the "broad autistic phenotype" (or so I was dx'd) but I was told I was "so close" to meeting full criteria for Asperger's that it was difficult not to just say that's what it is. <shrug> Regardless of the label I was given, depression is something that I've lived with off and on since around 8th grade, and have had professional help in managing since my college days. For me, a lot of it has been environmentally- and situationally-induced depression, though there is clearly a neurological component to it as well. I do take a mood stabilizer that seems to work fairly well, most of the time (sometimes we have to add an antidepressant to it when things start heading downhill).

I think that folks with ASD may be more susceptible to depression when things change in uncomfortable ways or suddenly - I experienced long-term major depressive episodes after moving cross-country on two different occasions and the culture shock was *enormous*, for example. But in general I don't think that having an ASD predisposes anyone to being depressed. At least, in all my years working with mental health/DD populations, I've not seen a larger-than-average incidence of folks with ASD and comorbid depression or anxiety. Some, sure, but not enough to raise an eyebrow over. Haven't seen much research on the subject, either. Think I'll have to go check that out...

I think that the reason that we're more likely to develop depression, is because of the way that we're treated by our parents, teachers and our peers. We're handed a lot of poo poos on a smelly platter. No wonder a lot of us, turn out to be depressed, as we get older.

I think the symptoms of ASDs and clinical depression can overlap and it's the overlap the causes a kind of spiraling feedback loop and chronic depression. For me the main co-morbid symptom is an emotional detachment from activities that lie outside my narrow range of current interests.

This depressive emotional detachment extends to social interaction that is already effected by the ASD. The more bored and emotionally detached I become the harder it is for me to come up with anything to talk about with anyone and the less interest I have in listening to other people discuss their interests. I really have no "safe" person I can just call up and talk to when I'm feeling really down. Yet when I get super depressed I really need an extra push from somebody else. I can't really make myself do anything on my own when I get into a deep depression. If I'm shut off from all human contact I'll find myself spiraling into an extremely dark state of existence and it can happen suddenly and precipitously.

Anyways. I'm rambling. I don't know exactly what my point is. In my case I'm pretty sure depression and ASD are related, but unlike others I don't think it's related to bullying, social rejection, or a difficult past / PTSD. It's more of an existential depression that arises out of boredom / dissatisfaction with life, lack of "reward" feelings, etc... There's some kind of chemical / biological imbalance going on but I have yet to find an effective anti-depressant medication. At this point I'm looking into electroshock therapy, or possibly a less dramatic/harmful type of electrical stimulation therapy. I'm a little hesitant about something that could damage my intellectual capacity since much of my livelihood has depended on thinking and creating. I don't ever want to become a vegetable, even a happy vegetable is not worth living as.

Being formally diagnosed with depression at 14 was the first indication that all was not well in my life. I've been on Zoloft for the past 11 years as result, and have survived one suicide attempt.

Now that I know I have Asperger's Syndrome, so many of the reasons for my depression (being bullied, not understanding how I kept pissing off potential friends, getting extremely upset over minor things) make sense. Now I understand why I always felt I was a "fake" depressed person, who was sometimes very happy but other times extremely distressed.

Wow, you said it better then I could, Gavin-chan! Yes, it is so true of me...sometimes it can take days, weeks, or even months for depression to creep up on me. But I try to distract myself as much as possible by little 'diversions', like television, video games, and internet surfing.

Und remember, happiness is just a pill away!

~Usagi1992

its worse when your interested in weird things like myself e.g: dyson vacuum cleaners, cooling fans, wind turbines and air con units

sometimes i wanna commit suicide to

it makes me sad somtimes to

This thread is kinda depressing... hehe...

I was first diagnosed with depression back in '95 I think it was. It has been an all too faithful companion ever since. Been undergoing all sorts of treatment. Tried almost every anti-depressant out there with little result. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that someone suggested that it could be this thing called Asperger's Syndrome. I had never heard of it before then and at first glance it didn't seem quite like me. Then I dug deeper and started thinking about my past and all the problems I've had... and suddenly everything made sense.

In addition to licking my fence charger, I have also noticed an inverse correlation between the amount of caffeine I consume and my depression. Caffeine most definitely seems to elevate my mood. The problem is that too much will turn me into a paranoid monster. I've tried paxil and others, but nothing seems to work quite as well as caffeine.

I used to be really depressed. Not anymore though!

I think people with AS are more likely to have Depression at some point in their life compared to the NT population.

We get stressed out a lot through the demands of other NTs, and also difficulty multitasking which is a form of executive function, and also tensions with friends and other people, not to mention the bullying. Also, not enough time to attend to our special interests coz our schedule is busy with School etc... the list goes on and on.

I was gonna post the exact same thing, same age too

most of the time i am depressed, i do not believe in medication for AS/Depression/Etc. I just tell myself that i am NOT ALLOWED to have those feelings, plenty of people have it worse than me.



not allowed to be tired, some people cant sleep

not allowed to be depressed, some people are sleeping on the street tonight

not allowed to ________ some people need it more

and so on and so forth