I believe there is a clear link with Autism/Aspergers and other depressive disorders, what do you think?

hi,

i beleive that you answered one of my questions before and youve really made me think about something...the idea of the surge of people being diagnosed as being autistic may be a sign of human evolution. its a very interesting concept.

anyway, to answer your question, i think we are on a human continuum. yes i see definate links in the disorders you mentioned, and others as well. i have OCD, my son has aspergers, and my daughter has adhd(they are both brilliant). we have alot of similar characteristics, and some that are quite different. my son does NOT have mood swings, and is very steady in his demeaner.i , on the other hand, am very social, and could ne considered very unstable emotionally(according to my husband lol)my son exibits obsessions, compulsions and tics when not on his meds, my daughter has panic, i have all the above but, as i said , am quite social. i think we are all on a human spectrum, and having a label is fine if in some way it will help us manuver through life...whether that mean seeking out support from others who understand, or by receiving help through the school system,medical assistance, etc. i will say that i detest that we have the labels, but quite honestly without them, we wouldnt have had the help and support needed over the past many years.

all the best ...xox

Well, first, I would not recommend going to a doctor at this point, based on what you say. The reason I say this is that a) the wait time to even get to see a doctor is usually prohibitively long, esp. in state-funded situations b) often, after you are finally able to see a doctor, they tell you what you already know and then inform you that you are going to have to spend an insane amount of money on medications and more appointments c) most mental health professionals have absolutely no way of knowing what medication or method will help you, it is really a big guessing game. I know all of this because I have been through it and spent a lot of time and stress going to doctors that did not help me in any way, shape, or form. It actually made me feel worse. Doctors are very good for broken legs, emergency appendectomies, and other acute illnesses that have a clear-cut treatment. But with depression you are essentially a lab-rat and you can spend years jumping through doctors' hoops with nothing to show for it except more bills. I will agree that exercise can help - to a point. The hard thing is getting yourself up and out to actually do it. It takes a certain amount of will and determination and that is probably not something you have a lot of right now. But if you can make yourself do it, it can help. However, it must be CONSISTENT over a significant period of time (at least 2 months in my experience) and moderately intense to intense... that means almost every day for at least a half hour a day you need to sweat. --At least you have time for it since you're not working. The problem is, exercise may make you feel less depressed but it will not make you necessarily feel good. This is the thing some people do not understand. There is a thing called "anhedonia", which is when you just don't feel much of anything at all... nothing seems to really make you happy, even though logically it seems like it should. After many years of drifting between severe depression, anhedonia, and fleeting moments of a higher mood, I have come to the conclusion that this has to be biological. I have been reading today about the chemical dopamine that is produced in the brain. It seems that many anti-depressants actually interfere with the production of dopamine, focusing instead on trying to boost seratonin. No anti-depressant has ever worked for me and a few have induced what I can only describe as a "brain cloud" -- it leaves me to wonder if this is because those medications messed up what was maybe already a low supply of dopamine in my brain. So I am going to try taking some L-tyrosine and L-Phenylalanine (amino acids which are the building blocks of dopamine). There is some research that suggest that these can help with depression. Studies also suggest that Fish oil - or, more specifically, Omega-3 fatty acids can help alleviate depression. So my advice would be this: Save a lot of time, money, stress, and heartache and skip the doctors for now. Give exercise a shot (remember, moderate to intense), try a moderately high dosage of fish oil (at least 2-3 capsules a day), consider trying L-Tyrosine supplements (take a B-complex with that to help absorb it), worry only about the most urgent of bills (your world will not crumble if you can't pay your visa bill), and stay away from any people or places that make you feel worse. It may be hard to drag yourself outside and run around the block a few times, and supplements may seem expensive, but you will gain a small amount of confidence from just knowing that you are doing SOMETHING. And that is a good first step.

I don't believe they are all part of the same condition.

I don't, though, question what you say about people with Asperger's being prone to mood swings. I believe mood swings can be a part of Asperger's.

Psychosis is a different thing, and Schizophrenia is one form of psychosis.

I don't believe the medical profession has over-named these. I'm fairly certain what they have done is recognize the different symptoms and brain occurrences associated with each of these conditions and give each of the conditions its own name.

Asperger's, which is, as you know, a form of Autism, has its own traits and characteristics. People with any form of Autism can have different IQ's, and I am assuming they can also have other differences when it comes to any mood swings. Autism is a completely different condition that, say, psychosis.

Mood disorders are a different thing again, but people with other conditions can also suffer from mood disorders as well.

Some conditions are caused by different types of brain connections. Some are caused by hormone/brain chemical imbalances. Some are caused as a result of the way a brain developed. When professionals look at brain scans they can see very different things between, say, a schizophrenic patient and an autistic person.

When it comes to bipolar, I do think over-diagnosing is going on. I think (know, based on a recent news story) that depression is also being over-diagnosed. There are people who are unhappy because of "legitimate" causes of unhappiness in their life, and doctors have been diagnosing them as "depressed".

There can be higher rates of clinical depression in people with any medical condition. For example, heart attack patients are known to have higher rates of depression. I would think your suspicion that people with Asperger's may have higher rates of mood swings is probably correct. You know yourself and the other people with Asperger's. Chances are if you looked it up you'd find mention of a higher rate of mood swings.

From what I know about Autism, though, sometimes what may look like a mood swing isn't really a mood swing but is more just the matter of having difficulty coping with some things.

If you were to look in a medical reference book (like the Merck Manual, which may be online as well) you would find "psychiatric disorders" (or some category like that). There you would see the different types of psychiatric disorders categorized under "mood disorders", "anxiety disorders", and "psychosis". Its been a while since I've looked at the Merck Manual, but I'm not sure where Autism and Asperger's would be described. I suspect it may have its own category.

I honestly believe the medical profession does its best to explain all of these disorders because they want people to understand them. I honestly don't think they want to confuse anyone. :)

I have to agree with you. The prevelance of all of these "disorders" is also dramatically increasing and in my opinion, becoming the norm. I'm sure there are a variety of triggers for all of these but they are all the same, environment, upbringing, vaccinations, diet, the list goes on. In the bible, the disciples asked jesus in Mathhew chapter 24 what would the signs of his presence be. He answered "Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kindom, and there will be pestilences and food shortages in one place after the other...." Pestilence is another word for disease. The only source of comfort I have is knowing that it wont be much longer before jehovah god ensures that by way of his son jesus that all of our pain and suffering will come to an end and we will soon be able to have a life free of these things.

I don't think that there is such a link. ASD people are thought to have communication and social disorders. When ASD children get hyperactive, it is probably due to over stimulation of the nervous system due to noise levels, anxiety or anger. When a bi-polar is hyper, it is due to the the disease itself and does not have any obvious predictors. It is not a communication or social disorder.

The conditions can co-exist however. We have an Au child who is also schizophrenic and has to medicated to suppress his violence. It is a very sad situation.

I have spoken to my brother about this and he feels that because he isn't like everyone else, its lonely for him and he gets depressed. He hasn't so far had anything worse than depression (although thats bad enough). However, it sounds likely that the same neural problems that cause Aspergers could indeed impact on other brain centres and chemical imbalances.

i think that you may be on to something. they diagnosed my son with aspergers , said he is bipolar and adhd so i fell that those jsut seem to go hand in hand. all the research i have done to find out hwhat my son has and what i cna do to help him and it all says the same things that aspergers can be associated with adhd and biolar and depression and all those other alflictions.

I am bipolar and have been very curious about this subject. I catch myself doing very repetitive designs with my fingers (thumb and forefinger) many times a day. I just assumed one diagnosis of bipolar was enough to deal with. I don't want anything else lol.

some types of pervasive delopmental disorders, bipolar, adhd and a few others have been confused in the mental health profession for many years due to similar symptoms.

I'm sure you're right about that, a case in point would be myself. I've been diagnosed as having AS when I was diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm certain there's a link with all that, plus another situation I'm dealing with. Hydrocephalus.