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Depression in Asperger's Children

© Barbara Fowler

When I first sought help for my son, I thought he was suffering from depression. Between the ages of 3 and 4 he seemed sad most of the time, cried easily, was very sensitive and obsessed with the subject of death. Up until he was 3 years old, he had only cried when he hurt himself or fought with his brother.

On one of his good days, he would cry only 3 or 4 times. On a bad day he would cry 10-20 times over what I thought were the silliest things. By the end of a bad day, my nerves were shot and if he had several bad days in a row, the whole family was tense and on edge. My son was unable to explain why he was crying and got hysterical when we questioned him.

The psychiatrist that I took my son to suggested that he was an "emotionally labile" child (meaning sensitive) and with a consistent schedule, good diet, plenty of sleep and routine, he would outgrow the condition. It would certainly help if "mother" would be less over protective and the child would develop his own sense of security.

So we waited and watched, while the crying got worse, especially when my son started school. This gave him another reason to cry. Having to follow the rules at school and socialize with other children produced an hysterical child at 8:00 every morning.

By the time my son was 7 he started wishing that he was dead. He explained that he was so different from the other children and I didn't realize how different he truly was so I shouldn't torture him by sending him to school. The only solution to the problem, in his mind, was if he was dead. I took him back to the same psychiatrist who suggested the same cause, but this time he mentioned that asthma drugs can cause depression in children, particularly the ones with steroids in them.

We tried cutting back on the drugs, changing the diet and allergy testing, but still, no change. By the time my son was 9 he was threatening to kill himself, or us, depending upon who he was mad at. The agression that surfaced at this age was rather scary so back we went to the psychiatrist who then diagnosed depression caused by anxiety. He asked if we had any idea why our son was so anxious. We replied that it seemed that coping with life made him anxious and although he seemed really bright, he couldn't deal with the real world, preferring to be in a fantasy world of his own.

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