Low mood/depression in 6-year-old

My daughter is also six, and has a lot of the same struggles. She is scared of the dark, and has issues sleeping and with anxiety. I know stuff like this can be so worrying, and draining!

I think it's important to remember first of all that autistic people, even little kids, are very deep thinkers and also very blunt. So I know these things can be shocking and a bit frightening to hear coming out of a little boy, but it is very natural / common for them to grapple with these deep issues - and then have an emotional response that is extreme (because, as you'll know, they tend towards extreme emotional responses).

So in my view it's not actually the low mood you need to address - it's the struggle he's having with his autistic traits, which as of right now he seems to be seeing as purely negatives. 

So reframing his autism could be absolutely transformative for him, in my opinion. I'm autistic myself, and I knew my daughter was from her being four months old (as insane as that sounds) and I always made a point of making sure that my language around autism was either positive or aggressively neutral. It isn't a weakness, or a defect, it's a neurodivergency - that literally just means that their brain is different to other people's. Correcting him softly and re-centering him every time he speaks negatively about these traits will eventually reform his thought processes on it. 

I always tell my daughter that everyone in the world has things they are good at, ok at, and not great at. But being autistic means that she is VERY good at a lot of stuff just by grace of who she is - you can point out all the positive traits that come along with his autism. Any special skills, especially. Autistic kids are generally very intelligent and resourceful, for example. They also see things that other people don't - which is an astonishing advantage when you think about it!

But the flip side of that is she also struggles with some things more. It's just neurodivergent people have different difficulties to neurotypical people, so they need different help. Which is great! Because it leads to special things. You can then point out any special treatment he gets because of it (like my daughter gets to use fidget toys at school), ASD groups he goes to, anything he gets out of doing that other kids have to do, etc. If he doesn't have any perks, maybe look into that as a place to start.

Ninja centres, trampoline parks and places like that do special ASD clubs. Which would also mean him making friends with more autistic kids, which always helps when they are feeling different. It's SO important that they have a chance to socialize with other autistic kids, so they can feel lost in a crowd in the same way all the NT kids get to.

Autism genuinely isn't a bad thing, and once you start seeking and pointing out the positives, his mindset will shift.

Sorry this ended up so long - I hope it helped. Feel free to message or ask anything you want to

My daughter is also six, and has a lot of the same struggles. She is scared of the dark, and has issues sleeping and with anxiety. I know stuff like this can be so worrying, and draining!

I think it's important to remember first of all that autistic people, even little kids, are very deep thinkers and also very blunt. So I know these things can be shocking and a bit frightening to hear coming out of a little boy, but it is very natural / common for them to grapple with these deep issues - and then have an emotional response that is extreme (because, as you'll know, they tend towards extreme emotional responses).

So in my view it's not actually the low mood you need to address - it's the struggle he's having with his autistic traits, which as of right now he seems to be seeing as purely negatives. 

So reframing his autism could be absolutely transformative for him, in my opinion. I'm autistic myself, and I knew my daughter was from her being four months old (as insane as that sounds) and I always made a point of making sure that my language around autism was either positive or aggressively neutral. It isn't a weakness, or a defect, it's a neurodivergency - that literally just means that their brain is different to other people's. Correcting him softly and re-centering him every time he speaks negatively about these traits will eventually reform his thought processes on it. 

I always tell my daughter that everyone in the world has things they are good at, ok at, and not great at. But being autistic means that she is VERY good at a lot of stuff just by grace of who she is - you can point out all the positive traits that come along with his autism. Any special skills, especially. Autistic kids are generally very intelligent and resourceful, for example. They also see things that other people don't - which is an astonishing advantage when you think about it!

But the flip side of that is she also struggles with some things more. It's just neurodivergent people have different difficulties to neurotypical people, so they need different help. Which is great! Because it leads to special things. You can then point out any special treatment he gets because of it (like my daughter gets to use fidget toys at school), ASD groups he goes to, anything he gets out of doing that other kids have to do, etc. If he doesn't have any perks, maybe look into that as a place to start.

Ninja centres, trampoline parks and places like that do special ASD clubs. Which would also mean him making friends with more autistic kids, which always helps when they are feeling different. It's SO important that they have a chance to socialize with other autistic kids, so they can feel lost in a crowd in the same way all the NT kids get to.

Autism genuinely isn't a bad thing, and once you start seeking and pointing out the positives, his mindset will shift.

Sorry this ended up so long - I hope it helped. Feel free to message or ask anything you want to