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

I've been wondering about this for a while...I used to be very depressed but when I looked up the diagnostic criteria, my symptoms never really matched, I used to look up different types of depression too but none of them sounded like me. I went to a professional too and they also said I probably don't have it until I talked about suicidal thoughts, then they gave me a prescription. It all made me feel like an imposter. I had many symptoms but either they fluctuated too greatly and were not as persistent as the criteria says, or I never had the right combinations of symptoms or my experience didn't match with the described experience of that type of depression.

So, was it autism that was doing this? 

Parents
  • 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?

  • 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. 

  • 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. 

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