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Aspergers son who was suicidal

Pauli

Hi

Does anyone have experience or advice about how to recover after their child has suffered depression and suicidal tendancies?

My teenage son who has aspergers has had severe depression on and off for four years now .He has been treated by psychiatrists and is still on medication. Although he is much improved with fewer relapses as his mum I'm finding it hard to come to terms with and in coping it all after all this time. Any advice would be really welcome. Thanks 

Parents

  • I tried searching the NAS website for "suicide" and got only 13 results. Most were adverts for courses, where I couldn't see where it arose.

    Result 2 was NAS's own webpage on "Mental Health and Asperger Syndrome", which can be found via "Working with People with Autism" then "Health"

    In a 7-page section, despite mentioning in the second paragraph of the first page "threatened, attempted or actual suicide", suicide is not mentioned subsequently, even on a detailed list of consequences of depression on page 2.

    The reason for this is that NAS's text is based on sources, and things only get mentioned if it is in the quotation from the source. So the brief mention is in a statement by a psychologist.

    But worse, all the references used are between 1991 and 2000 in date, the majority around mid-1990s. For goodness sake, that's TWENTY years ago!  A lot has been discovered since. NAS's website is full of very dated content, which really is irresponsible. I've pointed this out before regarding advice on going to university, which relied almost entirely on a text published in 2004. But being 20 years out of date on mental health is shocking.

    Result 1 was more helpful. It was a study by Westminster Council "Suicide Prevention Strategy for Adults with Asperger Syndrome 2010-2013". Despite the title I was searching fruitlessly through 70 pages for mentions of suicide, though it does address many factors that might lead to it. I only got to the nub in an appendix on page 52!

    "Although limited studies have looked at suicide rates in people with Asperger's Syndrome the descriptive studies conducted have suggested risks of suicide is greater amongst those with an ASC, in particular Asperger Syndrome" (cites Howlin in 2004).

    "This is not surprising considering the significant association with depression in people with an ASC. It would seem effort should be put into preventive work to decrease the factors associated with depression in people with an ASC which would in turn decrease the risk of suicide attempts".

    If Westminster Council can get the picture, why not the National Autistic Society?

Reply

  • I tried searching the NAS website for "suicide" and got only 13 results. Most were adverts for courses, where I couldn't see where it arose.

    Result 2 was NAS's own webpage on "Mental Health and Asperger Syndrome", which can be found via "Working with People with Autism" then "Health"

    In a 7-page section, despite mentioning in the second paragraph of the first page "threatened, attempted or actual suicide", suicide is not mentioned subsequently, even on a detailed list of consequences of depression on page 2.

    The reason for this is that NAS's text is based on sources, and things only get mentioned if it is in the quotation from the source. So the brief mention is in a statement by a psychologist.

    But worse, all the references used are between 1991 and 2000 in date, the majority around mid-1990s. For goodness sake, that's TWENTY years ago!  A lot has been discovered since. NAS's website is full of very dated content, which really is irresponsible. I've pointed this out before regarding advice on going to university, which relied almost entirely on a text published in 2004. But being 20 years out of date on mental health is shocking.

    Result 1 was more helpful. It was a study by Westminster Council "Suicide Prevention Strategy for Adults with Asperger Syndrome 2010-2013". Despite the title I was searching fruitlessly through 70 pages for mentions of suicide, though it does address many factors that might lead to it. I only got to the nub in an appendix on page 52!

    "Although limited studies have looked at suicide rates in people with Asperger's Syndrome the descriptive studies conducted have suggested risks of suicide is greater amongst those with an ASC, in particular Asperger Syndrome" (cites Howlin in 2004).

    "This is not surprising considering the significant association with depression in people with an ASC. It would seem effort should be put into preventive work to decrease the factors associated with depression in people with an ASC which would in turn decrease the risk of suicide attempts".

    If Westminster Council can get the picture, why not the National Autistic Society?

Children
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