Hi I’m new to this site my son has high functioning autism,he’s 14 years old and the last 2 months or so he’s had very deep depression and very dark thoughts. He’s struggling to understand what’s going on and some days he’s doesn’t even want to be here is there any advice please.
I am not a clinician I only have ASD so can only give my opinion. Its most likely the comorbidities of depression and anxiety and maybe daily struggles (ASD people do get treated like crap quite a bit by others and it can be very difficult to understand that, tell someone and deal with it) . People often take medication for that, practice meditation and mindfulness and receive support and protection from family and friends. You really want to keep an eye on him as I know how black the thoughts can get and not only is it frighting for him you don't want it getting such a hold of him he becomes frighting to others as well (this is rare but it can happen. its more that the person becomes astonishingly dark and troubled and that can be scary for other people. I care almost about nothing I'm nearly nihilistic but not quite so it used to be very easy for me to become extremely black in my thinking it was insane. In the past I've been told even my eyes changed to just a black emptiness when in that state like a completely different person altogether). He would also need to really learn what environments suit him, what his triggers are and how to manage those. Since I've identified things of value to me and concentrated on those I have improved dramatically.
Hi, My name is Blue i am an autistic adult who was diagnosed with autism when i was 22 years old. I am know 24 years old and found out that i also have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I'll try and explain it from my own experience.
Your son has come to the age where he is noticing that he is significantly different to the rest of his peer group. At this age it typical for children with autism to get left behind by the rest of their peer group because their peers are mentally maturing a lot faster than the individual with autism. This can be depressing in itself and make your son feel extremely lonely. The only suggestion is try and find him some friends with autism around the same age with similar interests. Online gaming can be a great escape and a way to get him to engage with others similar to himself.
Your son is probably really intelligent and has notice that life is going to be significantly difficult for him not only because of him having autism. the media has been a real downer showing how poorly individuals in the Workplace & Education are treated.
Everyone on here has recommended taking him to the GP which isn't a bad idea, A little naive however Doctors are really bad at treating individuals with autism and depression. I know this from experience as i have been prescribed antidepressant like skittles and my neurodivergent brain has experienced very little improvement on antidepressants, in fact they just gave me chronic side effects and made my autism and what i now know Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder behaviour and traits worse.
I have also been treated and still am being referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services which are as useless as the crisis team for treating neurodivergent patience experience mental health distress. they will do very little to support your son probably just tell you to force him to socialise, exercise or practice mindfulness and hand you a colouring book.
I am really bad and i keep throwing this out at people on this forum is it possible the he also might have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as well as Autism. Because from my own experience deep depression occurs when i have very low dopamine and it has made me suicidal. It's hard to explain but has he had issues with concentrating on task he enjoys, become easily frustrated during task he enjoys. You may need to ask him question him about his processing speed, not being able organise or arrange activities for himself and weather his mind or body out of sync like one is faster than the other.
Also being that age i also remember having episodes when activity i enjoyed cause a range of issues which i now know is ADHD & Autism related. doing a task i enjoyed and produced to much dopamine it would make the task difficult until i became over stimulated making the autism issues worse. or massive dopamine drop which would make me withdrawal and hard to focus on a task.
Having autism and ADHD is fairly new discovery but typically ADHD behaviour is not recognised until late adolescence.
If he's very high functioning then he's measuring how different he is to everyone else. Does he have any skills or hobbies that he can indulge in? Does he have any friends that he chat with? My friends were all aspies like me so we always had models or projects on the go.
I think a trip to the GP might help - but it might depend on the level of their understanding of autism - some have no clue - they might just want to prescribe a load of drugs.
