AS and clinical depression, is this common?

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Pikachu
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12 Mar 2008, 4:55 pm

I have recently suspected I may have clinical depression, which is undiagnosed, as well as AS, which is diagnosed and has been since my early to mid teens, I'm having a tough time fighting it (the suspected depression)and cannot take antidepressants because I have epilepsy and they could well trigger it.

I know there are others that have AS and clinical depression, so I was wondering just how common this is, and I am expecting it to be very common, also, is there any way, with lack of professional help right now, I can fight this without meds and be able to cope better in my day to day life?


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CockneyRebel
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12 Mar 2008, 5:09 pm

I was diagnosed with Clinical Depression, ten years, ago.


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Ana54
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12 Mar 2008, 5:15 pm

I'm guessing I was diagnosed with clinical depression because I was put on antidepressants 8 months ago.



Tim_Tex
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12 Mar 2008, 5:37 pm

I was diagnosed with AS in 1996 and major depression in 2000.


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Nico
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12 Mar 2008, 5:40 pm

I was recently diagnosed with Clinical depression (I think it was around September 2007).


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Pikachu
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13 Mar 2008, 3:37 pm

seems my question has been answered then, thank you for your answers

staying on the subject of the depression, some things that have happened on the chat room lately have contributed to making it worse so I'm taking a few days out of there to sort it out, hope it works well


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13 Mar 2008, 3:49 pm

I was diagnosed with clinical depression when I was 14 and diagnosed with AS when I was 15. Although now I can function without anti-depressants.


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13 Mar 2008, 3:56 pm

I've been receiving therapy for severe depression (or soft bipolar) for just over a year now. It's Cognitive Behavior Therapy, "CBT", which helps you change your "mental habits" that lead to depression and unhealthy lifestyles. It helped initially but I had to beef it up with vigorous exercise, which I started about 3 weeks ago. I briskly walk or "power walk" about 2-3 miles a day, several times a week. It's helped immensely. It's kicked in the endorphins and I haven't been depressed, sleepless or angry (with that black cloud over my head).,

Sometimes I still get jittery and hyper, like with the hypomania I'd get. But nothing bad.

But the exercise has to be hardcore, pushing-it type of cardio workout. It took me this long to do it, too.



merrymadscientist
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13 Mar 2008, 4:38 pm

There definately seems to be a connection, but is it primary - ie the different neurological structure of the brain makes it more likely to mess up levels of brain chemicals, or is it secondary and due to social issues that are caused by other people not understanding AS?
For me it seems to be a mixture of the two - as soon as I get slightly depressed my social skills decrease dramatically which makes things much worse.



KimJ
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13 Mar 2008, 5:44 pm

My problems seem to be a combination of lifestyle and hormones, with hormones being the deciding factor. I wasn't crippled by depression until my son was born (and I got a taste of insanity while I was pregnant). MY aspie traits make me alienated from people so, I can get stuck in a rut where I'm eating and sleeping and not getting motivated. But before the pregnancy, I wasn't depressive.



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14 Mar 2008, 6:06 am

I feel like s**t all the time right now and I'm with my best friends and in the best social situation I've ever been in. I hated it with my parents; I felt pressured and I felt pressured to hide that I felt pressured. Because they want GOOD news for a change; I've been a failure all my life. :roll:


Now that I'm here I'm expressing my misery, rather than hiding/controlling/camouflaging/moderating/censoring/withholding/forgetting/stuffing/sparing/saving it.


Anyone who wants to give me any kind of "Stop whining and ignore your problems and do something useful" behavioral therapy would probably get a kick in the balls if I was with them in person when they said that.


I feel like s**t all the time though. Now 24 hours a day. I'm turning into a real b***h. What goes through my head is: "I don't want to do anything for you if I don't feel like it. People are annoying. People are demanding. I don't want to live with people. There are maybe 10 people in the world who aren't demanding and annoying." And then, "OMG, I'm such a b***h, I'm a spoiled piece of s**t, I don't deserve friends, I don't deserve a boyfriend, I don't deserve anyone to love me because when have I ever shown love to anyone else? I don't deserve any kind of help or reassurance from anyone. I don't deserve to be allowed to complain because all it does is drag people down. All I do is make people feel wors. I talk about s**t more often than I talk about happy stuff. It's like I'm addicted to s**t feelings. I can't stop. I can't concentrate on loving or liking or being friends with anyone anymore, I can't concentrate on sitting making small talk or talking about something normal, sitting with people talking but I don't have anything to say is a big chore. And they always call me back in when I go into another room to do something else, and I always feel so bad. People are a burden, people are a nuisance, just being around people is a job and a chore and dull and boring. Not stimulating enough for me. Maybe if we were storming a building to rescue people or doing something exciting like that I'd be able to talk to them, have conversations, get involved emotionally with them again. But sitting in a living room is so, so far from enough.


Am I still clinically depressed. I mean, yes, I am, but would I be CONSIDERED clinically depressed by the people whose opinions actually count? I know there are tons of people who would call me a spoiled brat who needs to stew in my own juice for a while and then I'd be grateful. But that depresses me even more and has an opposite effect of what those people are trying for. Aversives don't f*****g work on me. I'm too depressed for aversives to work on me, and the world is full of them. Restraints too. The world is full of restraints and aversives, and I'm too depressed to handle any of it.


I thought I was above this BS. Even when I was seeing black holes I still had love and respect for most people. I thought I had at least some honor and some solidarity.



poopylungstuffing
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14 Mar 2008, 9:03 am

i have struggled with lifelong intermittant low grade depression, which sometimes drops off into major depression.
It is kinda like having walking pneumonia of the brain.
I have suspected that it might be clinical depression.
My mom suffers from depression pretty majorly and both of her sisters are on antidepressants.
I was diagnosed with some kind of depression about 10 years ago, and given a script for prozac...but I was somewhat skeptical of that diagnosis...as the doctor called it "Double Depression" i term I had never heard before nor since.

I only saw that doctor once....I seldom go to shrinks because I simply do not have the money.



Danielismyname
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14 Mar 2008, 9:11 am

Anxiety and mood disorders are common amongst those on the autistic 'trum, for obvious external reasons in the least [if the propensity for developing them is there].