Autism and Depression
January 30, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Advocates, researchers, and autistic persons are calling for more awareness and understanding about the link between autism and depression, as a column in today’s Bergen Record (NJ) notes. Frank Fiore’s autistic son is 17: “‘”I don’t leave his side,’” Fiore is quoted as saying. “‘When he’s up at night, I’m up at night.’” While well aware that autism and mental illness “aren’t necessarily the same,” Fiore would like to know why those suffering from depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder get assistance and treatment, but not autistic persons like his son.
The New Jersey Center for Outreach and Services for the Autism Community (COSAC) released its white paper last month on revamping “a system that largely ignores adults who suffer from the neuron [sic]-developmental disorder.” In particular, COSAC calls for services for autistic adults to be “integrated” and seamless” and points out “an increasing number of reports of teenagers suffering from autism spectral disorders, such as Asperger’s syndrome, who suffer from depression.” An op-ed in today’s Boston Globe on The Facts and Myths of Asperger’s Disorder notes that depression can be co-morbid with Asperger’s syndrome—-as well as Tourette’s syndrome, bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder, anxiety, and eating disorders.
The Bergen Record column notes that some researchers wish first to investigate “whether autism serves as a precursor or even a cause of mental illness.” Perhaps the first thing to do is rather to acknowledge the existence of depression and other conditions in an autistic person and to provide support and services.
“We’re all getting scared,” said Fiore, who left the Port Authority Police Department 14 years ago to take care of his son. “At 21, there’s nothing left.”
This post hits close to home. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Is depression more prevalent in autistics than in neuro-typicals? Or do people with autism become depressed when they try to deal with a world in which they are different, and in some ways unaccepted?
I’m with Daisy. One of the most shocking moments for me apart from receiving the diagnoses, was the simultaneous warning that without medication my boys would learn nothing [check for retardation IQ when older] and that when hormones struck in teenagerdom that they’d have far more anxiety/stress and therefore be more likely to commit suicide. It is like a huge shadow in the cupboard haunting me.
We’ve been thinking about all this too—-not only from Charlie perceiving his differences, but his own frustrations and anger and more at how hard it is for him to do some things (like writing those ABC’s). And have been getting to know more than a few families whose children have autism and bi-polar.
I think it is pretty clear that depression with autistics is situational. Everyone gets down when they don’t have their needs met, and autistics are quite lacking in their social and emotional needs. There needs to be a comprehensive therapy program to teach autistics what they need to know about friendships.
There are already several such programmes.
Unfortunetly, many blame the person with autism and require the person with autism to be the one doing all the work. Very few people see the lack of reciprocal social skills evident in the average person, so very few schemes aim to tackle the broader social dynamic.
Thank the FSM that we have neurodiversity advocates – you can’t get a better social programme than one which aims to educate everyone.
It seems odd that the people who see the problems with the wider social dynamic are often people diagnosed and labelled as incapable of social understanding.