Just anxiety, just depression...

I was first diagnosed with anxiety aged 7 then depression and anxiety diagnosis continually until aged 50 finally diagnosed adhd then aged 53 autism

Need to watch out for being taken literally in my assertions. I of course meant not part of the diagnostic criteria, I had not considered the preambles and postscripts in the manuals. Given how the average school operates, autistic children without problematic levels of anxiety are rare creatures. There is some evidence that home-schooled autistic children show lower levels of anxiety than their 'normally schooled' peers, even in social situations. Puberty is undoubtedly an extra burden on autistic children, for a variety of reasons.

Its easy to suffer from anxiety and not know what it is. Because the symptoms can be ambiguous and cross into other things, depression is what doctors will normally look for signs of first. Any symptom of mental health can manifest into something serious...also its specific to the personal and you don't always know their experiences. I have been thinking a lot about hidden disabilities lately and depression and anxiety fall under those categories as they are largely outside of the persons control and are not apparent to other people. They can always come back, but you can also learn to manage them with experience, so the symptoms are alleviate through your recognising them sooner and knowing what to do. Someone who doesn't know why they feel that way might carry on and not ask for help - that is where things get worse.

If I were a young person today I think I'd be sad and anxious too, they've not got much to look forward too, little work around, having to jump through huge hoops to get it, and it's often poorly paid, the climate's horrible and going to get worse. They've little hope of owning a house and rents are extortionate. Under these circumstances hainv a family seems an imposible unaffordable dream, they know they won't be able to give thier children the advantages that many of them have had.

Martin said:

Although anxiety is very common in autistics and rates of depression are higher among autistic people, compared with allistic people, neither condition is mentioned in any diagnostic manual covering autism. They do not result directly from autism

Whilst neither is a diagnostic criterion for autism, anxiety and depression are mentioned several times in the autism sections of both the ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR diagnostic manuals.

That includes:

• Mentions, in respect of developmental presentation, of both anxiety and depression as presenting features (ie issues that might bring an autistic person to clinical attention).
• Autistic difficulties contributing to anxiety.
• Differentiating between overlapping symptoms of autism and anxiety, and identifying potential co-occurring conditions. 

In respect of causality, the DSM notes, for example, that "Individuals who have developed compensation strategies for some social challenges ... suffer from the effort and anxiety of consciously calculating what is socially intuitive for most individuals."

Other mentions include:

ICD-11:

"Middle childhood: ... Symptoms of anxiety may become evident at this stage of development."

"By adolescence ... Depressive symptoms are often a presenting feature"

"During adolescence and adulthood, Depressive Disorders are often a presenting feature"

DSM-5-TR 

"In general, individuals with lower levels of impairment may be better able to function independently. However, even these individuals ... are prone to anxiety and depression."

"Among individuals who are nonverbal or have language deficits, observable signs such as ... should trigger an evaluation for anxiety or depression"

Also, though relatively rare compared with the general population, autistic people exist who experience no problematic levels anxiety and are never depressed. It rather exposes the lack of knowledge about autism among people who write such articles. Although anxiety is very common in autistics and rates of depression are higher among autistic people, compared with allistic people, neither condition is mentioned in any diagnostic manual covering autism. They do not result directly from autism; rather they are are most often the result of the mismatch between autistic people and allistic society, which is often inimical to them.

Alien0n3arth said:

it's all not that black white.

Yes, exactly.

Generalisations can be alright when referring to some things like ‘most people’, or ‘some people’, but categorising autistic people or those with depression/anxiety as all one thing is wrong, and the media unfortunately, sometimes does just that.

In my case it was doctors, professionals unable to distinguish someone looking sad from someone with depression. I know of some cases where people make up depression symptoms and easily get sick leave for few months. So it's all not that black white. Yes, there is narrative that hurts those who really struggle and there are people who abuse the system. Unfortunately the perception of all mental illness is either fear of 'insane' person or diminishing and not taking seriously.

I know those who diagnose look to different conditions to see if they might be a better fit for the ‘symptoms’ or the difficulties. In that context, I think it is rational because medical people do that all the time with conditions and illnesses. I don’t think it means one condition is always more impactful on a person’s life than another — it may be — but it doesn’t have to be.

If an article is suggesting that ‘just depression’ or ‘just anxiety’ means ‘it’s ok’, ‘phew’, ‘it’s nothing to worry about’ etc., that would be foolish and potentially serious.

I don’t know what it’s like in Germany, but here, some politicians and the media have been complaining about the number of young people out of work and claiming benefits for ‘depression and anxiety’. They say young people can’t tell the difference between ‘sadness’ and ‘depression’. I think that is an irresponsible and dangerous thing to promote and it is spreading the wrong message. It’s bound to have an impact on society’s perception of the illness, as does the ASD & ADHD ‘over diagnosis’ narrative. 

I think that more people are beginning to understand what ASD is now, why there has been an increase in diagnosis and how it affects people differently. I am hoping that there will be a big push back on narratives about anxiety and depression too. The root cause goes much deeper than ‘sad people not wanting to work’. 

Thank you for the explanation. I saw these sentences in the middle of an article, where there was a comparison between autism and other conditions- similar symptoms,  different reason. 

I don't think in this case there should be separating them into more and less serious conditions. 

The word ‘just’, in this case, is an adverb which in your examples means ‘only’, ’simply’ or ‘merely’.

It’s not possible to comprehend the intent of the writer from the title alone. The main clause is about autism, so that seems to be what the writer is focusing on. It would depend on the context of the whole article, so you would infer the meaning from that, rather than (just) the title.

If the focus of the article was about autism, it mightn’t necessarily be undermining those with depression or anxiety, but on the other hand, the author might be dismissive of anxiety/depression or ignorant about their seriousness.

It's a very interesting article, thank you for sharing!

I think Stuart and CW are right about the use of the word "just", it can be used both ways, but overall I think you have to take in the whole context of what you're reading. Having suffered from serious depression a couple of time theres no "just" about it, its serious and debilitating no matter who you are.

I wonder if the "just" is being used to divide people into thinking that thier lucky they don't have autism because all autistics are depressed, or that if they had autism then they'd have something to be depressed about? It sounds very judgemental, we all know there are people worse off than ourselves, depressed people struggle to see this, its part of the illness, but to use any comparissons are unhelpful to everybody, demeaning and belittling. There should be no heirarchy of suffering.

I had a psychiatrist tell me: it's just depression,  you just need to go out more, see new people,  make friends. And one pill pre day.

I felt absolutely misunderstood and my problems belittled. It sounded to me like "nothing serious" - just depression. 

I don't think it means one is worse than the other-just that it doesn't originate from autism.  It seems that there are sub groups of autism that do not experience much anxiety, there is a diagram to explain some research.

www.brainfacts.org/.../new-autism-subtypes-identified-based-on-genes-individual-traits-111125

I think you are right, the language used is suggesting that one condition is worse than another. I don't think they actually are, as you said struggling with things like depression can be debilitating for anyone. I think it's click-bait headlines, designed to draw people in that maybe have one of the other conditions (like depression or anxiety) and want to know if they have the 'worse' one (autism). They shouldn't use the word 'just', as it's belittling (anyone with serious depression/anxiety and are NT I'm sure would say), but the authors want to sound a little scandalous so it draws people in more.  Sensationalising is common in news and the wider internet now.

Good and thoughtful observation.

Thank you for your explanation, yes looks like i misinterpreted. 

I think you are misinterpreting their use of the word 'just'. They don't mean it is less, they mean 'only'. Is it only anxiety, etc.

Remember no one can see how you feel or think, or know what has happened, they only see the outside and your behaviour.

Other conditions can look the same. Of course you can have multiple conditions, which makes treatment and progress harder. But if you have only one thing, it makes it easier.

The challenge with ASD I think, is it changes the way you perceive and interact with the world in various ways, which adds another level.