Comments | asperger: Suicide and AS

uberwander25 in asperger

Suicide and AS

May 15, 2007 21:34

Hey everyone.

( story behind this )

Comments 15

(The comment has been removed)

celticmoni May 16 2007, 02:05:19 UTC

1989 here.

I second the good wishes, and the encouragement in seeking treatment.

This isn't an easy haul by any standards...

jarlalex May 16 2007, 01:58:12 UTC

I don't know if there's a clinical link, but I know I'm pretty depressive a lot of the time, and I have a friend who's a closet Aspie with a few suicide attempts in his past.

made_of_paradox May 16 2007, 02:03:28 UTC

A guy I knew of (but didn't really know myself) killed himself at age 18 or so, and piecing together the various stories his friends liked to tell about him, I think he was an aspie. He was also in an environment that would not have been aspie-friendly in the 2 years leading up to his suicide.

girlonabike May 16 2007, 02:13:30 UTC

I have depression, and I have asperger's. For me, they are clearly two separate things--the depression is undesirable, comes and goes and responds to medication, while asperger's is a label applied to not-necessarily-bad traits that are constant (though they may change gradually over time). However, the effects of the two tend to interact. I am more likely to get depressed if I am stressed out (from frustration or being in an environment hostile to the senses or too much forced social interaction or whatever), and many of the things that make me stressed out are from being in an environment unfriendly to my asperger's traits.

novanglus May 16 2007, 02:37:49 UTC

(Just thinking out loud.) If there is a tendency for aspie people to be bullied more often, then I wouldn't be surprised if there is also a correlation with suicide.

christinaathena May 16 2007, 17:51:04 UTC

Yeah, I agree. It's like the higher suicide rate among homosexuals (particularly adolescents). It's not the homosexuality that causes them to be suicidal, it's the treatment they get from other people due to their homosexuality. In the same way, I don't think Asperger's/Autism necessarily causes depression, it's the way society in general tries to force Autism Spectrum people into little boxes that aren't designed for us spectrumites, and then telling us there's something wrong with us when we don't conform. "What's wrong with you? Why do you keep doing [whatever]? Why don't you pay attention?" and so forth.