Is depression different in autistics? If yes, how so?

Depression is often misunderstood and autism and depression share symptoms between them so what you're labelling depession could just be how your autism manifests.

Me, I have both, and I've always been described as the most depressed person peope have met because of the way that I engage with people when my depressive state is ascendant. 

Pegg said:

I wasn't listened to, because they knew best, right? 

Firstly I am sorry you had that experience.

Absolutely not!

You are the expert on your experience, this is particularly important in reference to our autistic community as often many professionals have very outdated and inaccurate perceptions about being autistic including the fact that it was only a couple of years that the first research paper on autistic burnout was published. We should really be taught to trust our own instincts, but for some reason like you mention is often the false assumption that professionals know best.

Pegg said:

I didn't have the answer, then, and neither did they. 

That’s a difficult situation, but this also highlights why autistic identification, understanding our neurology and setting boundaries is really important.

I hope you are able to avoid periods of burnout now by understanding your autistic needs.

yeah i often feel sad thinking back on things. and also thinking forward to when i inevitably lose those things, such as thinking of when i may lose my mother. then thinking of how i will think of a place i went with my mother in the future when i lose her and be thinking back then to when i had her and how i would feel in the future lol i havent even lost her yet but my mind always thinks fluidly in time, thinking forward and thinking of how in the future ill be thinking backward and contemplating the loss thinking backward in the future.

suppose its more of a thing people who are lonely more likely do as in my case without my mum id likely never see or speak or bond or share/make memories with another person in my life again.

i felt hopelessness when i was at parents with nothing doing nothing and having no future, i guess i was like that due to no motivation to do anything or something, probably more to it than that as that seems to run common in people with autism. the not doing anything and staying in parents. although i lucked out in life around the back end of covid and now made myself a successful life, job and my own owned flat with mortgage paid off. so hopelessness is now gone. i guess the want of routine and sameness locks us into this depressive hopeless no motivation life where we dont do anything different, change requires luck of something falling into our lives.

Ausomely Autistic said:

Autistic burnout is often wrongly identified as depression

That's right. I've been told I was depressed more than once by health professionals when I was pretty sure I wasn't. I wasn't listened to, because they knew best, right? 

I didn't have the answer, then, and neither did they. 

Those were some of my guesses too back then. Thankfully I don't consider myself depressed anymore and things are better now but I sometimes think about my memories and with my new knowledge of autism, thought that they might have been connected. 

i dunno, it can still be depression maybe.... chronic depression would likely be always there but with gaps of feeling slightly better, or feeling in between. also could be a chance of some sort of rollercoaster style bipolar in that if not.

Now that I looked up depression again, dysthymia seems accurate to what I experienced, but for some reason neither me or the professional thought that back then. 

And all this I said may just look like normal sadness which comes and goes, but my bad days were greater in number and this was the case for atleast 3 years. 

The main things were fatigue, hopelessness, feelings of guilt, crying frequently but never had sleep or eating differences. I think the thing making it different is how my mood would get improved either randomly or when good things happened, and there's a type of depression like that but I believe the symptoms of it didn't match mine. When I talked about it with the professional, about how I sometimes felt better, they told me that depression doesn't work like that. 

Sometimes people conflate misery with depression. They are not the same thing.

FWIW I had an NHS contract paying me 20 quid an hour and was able to score my own depression on every chart I came across.

Every single test told me to "get help".

But as an I.T person working in those workspaces of the people who are tasked with giving the help, and often whilst they are sitting next to me, and by being just a tad observant, stopping short of being truly "nosy", (as some I.T. people are, let me tell you) I concluded that what I actually needed to do was snap the **** out of it and start to enjoy the life I have rather than the life I seemed to have lost or at the very least "missed out on".

Either that worked, or it was a side effect of the semi-accidental combination of rave drugs I took a few years afterwards, that obliterated my suicidal ideation in one hit, apparenlty forever that I'd been carrying fro 40 years, who knows. 

I wish I could share my good fortune in that regards better, but it really needs some proper research to be done by real people. (I took two of what were called at the time "research chemicals" a couple of hours apart, and it seeems to have been every beneficial to me) I did take pains to keep remembering over the years how much of each chemical I took.  300 measured millgrams of methylone and 200 approx of mephedrone in water (if any neuroscientists are reading this and wondering what did he take...) given that I have a BAD reaction to the two SSRI's I have tried (no more of that, thank you) and most people do not, it may be that combo of chemicals that really did obliterate my urge to do myself in and think about it which I'd had since I was 13, will only work for some sorts of brain chemistry. But it mght work for a lot of people, who knows. 

well what was your version of depression?
we know you said suicidal thoughts, but what else did it feel like?

generally depression is a sadness or even a longingness, a void, a itch you cant scratch.

you can be sad, you can be angry with it too. and tired, definitely tiredness and fatigue in there.

theres probably alot more i missed but its just a very basic common feels.... what did your depression be like to be seen as different or stealthy?

Autistic depressive symptoms may have something to do with hypoactivity (under activity) of the dopamine reward network in the brain. The dopamine reward network facilitates social contact and is the neurochemical mechanism of action of the extroverted brain. Extroverts have more dopamine motivating them to enter social situations like crowds which then causes them to have an advantage over introverts in that they are more socially experienced therefore less anxious because they have that extra dopamine that pushes them to experience uncomfortable things which over time them become more comfortable hence why extroverts appear as though they don’t get anxious when actually they do it’s just that they tend to be more socially experienced. That’s all. Higher social experience leads to less anxiety hence why exposure therapy is the leading treatment for social phobia. 

Yes I know but obviously burnout requires very different support in comparison to depression.

You can have both. Even the most competent psychologists struggle to differentiate. My understanding is that burnout is the result of frequent meltdowns so has no specific cause from your past. This is why CBT may not be helpful or might even be harmful. Trying to find  a cause in your past which is not there might heighten a past experience and send the sufferer into a loop. On the other hand. Perhaps others can advise if my understanding is correct.

The thing with burnout and depression is that there are overlaps, and burnout isn't something that's really recognised by medical professionals.

I definitely would consider myself to have depression or depressive symptoms, and the intensity does fluctuate but not that much. 

Oh ok, maybe some other members of our autistic community will be able to share their experiences of depression with you.

The way I remember my experience, I think it was closer to depression than to autistic burnout. 

Autistic burnout is often wrongly identified as depression.

Maybe experiences of autistic burnout may be more relevant for you? If you search online for autistic burnout blogs/experiences I am sure you will find lots of information.