People on the autism spectrum are particularly vulnerable to secondary mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Most people said they had experienced depression in late adolescence/early adult life and several people had occasionally felt suicidal.
Some people related their depression to the difficulties they had with relationships, periods of unemployment or, in a few cases, debt [see
Employment and Further Education].
Some women described self harming and “wandering in and out of bulimia and anorexia” and several people described being bullied either at school or at work. One man said “I was very good at hiding depression from my mum and dad. When I was bullied at school I used to always come home happy or that’s what they thought”.
Some people had tried to commit suicide by taking overdoses. One man, for example, took an overdose after gambling away his life savings. His wife was unaware of what he had done. He described thinking at the time:
What am I going to do? You know, I am not working. I am not possibly having an income. How am I going to occupy my time? I won’t be able to live the way I have lived up till now on retirement money and so on. It all sort of came together and the last thing I thought of is sitting down and saying to [wife] “Look, I have been a stupid so and so. I have spent our money and what are we going to do now then? Let’s work it out”.
Another man who had got into a lot of debt and tried unsuccessfully to do extra overtime to clear it, had become very depressed. He said “It never really clicked with me, I could actually go and see dad. I’m in a lot of trouble here. And then everything just built up.” Another man linked his suicidal thoughts to periods when he was physically ill and he thought there was a link between his health and periods of depression.
Some people were seeing psychologists to help them with their depression and others took antidepressants. One man said: And so I was quite depressed and that is maybe when I got onto risperidone. They didn’t agree with me. I can’t remember. I have got so much stuff. I could set up my own chemist.
While many people we spoke with had experienced or were experiencing depression, some talked about how things had improved over time, particularly once they had a diagnosis of autism. This is discussed further in Positive change over time.
