What’s the Difference Between Autism and Depression

Autism and Depression

Autism specifically is defined as a serious developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact. This is a disorder that can not be cured, however, treatment can help to assist with the symptoms that come along with this disorder. Whereas, depression is classified as a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest and can interfere with your daily functioning.

These disorders may seem alike due to the withdrawn nature that autistic people may suffer from, however, they are not the same things at all. There are quite a few differences between autism and depression that we will address in this article for you.

The reason that it can be easy to think that they are alike is that most people that have autism also suffer from depression due to the social withdrawal that they often go through. The main difference between these two disorders is why people are affected by them.

According to a source called spectrum news, people that suffer from depression aren’t antisocial because it is difficult for them to be social it is because they have lost all of their abilities to find pleasure in being in social situations. Whereas, someone that is autistic simply never develops those skills that they require in order to be social with other people.

Another significant difference in the two disorders is you can treat autism, but you can not rid someone of the disease. You can treat depression with medications or different types of therapy and rid yourself of those depressive thoughts and tendencies that would drive you to be depressed.

It can be difficult to diagnose someone that is autistic with depression because of how socially withdrawn they may be. This could mean that they communicate very little with people that they may not trust significantly.

A reason that someone with autism suffers from depression is that they are more aware that they are different from other people than an autistic person that is not as aware of their mental differences. Because of the social issues or lack thereof, it increases someone that is autistics chance of suffering from depression.

There is something that is known as the autistic spectrum which means the degree of autism that someone may suffer from. There are three levels of the Autism Spectrum Disorder that people need to be aware of.

The first is high-functioning autism which means that they need support and that without the proper support their social, communication and repetitive behaviors will be easier to spot. Then there is Autism, in general, level two of the disorder which means they need a little more support than the first stage.

And to the normal person the repetitive, communication and social behaviors may still be able to be spotted in passing even though they do have the support that they may need. And the last level of the disorder is severe autism, which means they need quite a bit of support in order to get through their day to day lives.

There cognitive, social, and repetitive behaviors severely make them have a difficult day to day lives. So again while depression is a side effect that can result in becoming depressed, but depression and autism are not the same things.

And as long as you make sure to seek help from a medical professional or take tips from parenting blogs your child’s life with autism or when depression is involved can be easier.

Cascia Talbert is a Catholic mother of five special needs kids. In 2018 she published the book, "Taking Care of Your Family's Health and Well-Being, Saints to Turn to and the Catholic Faith," available anywhere books are sold. She is also a professional flutist and an Avon Independent Sales Representative. You can learn more about Cascia on the following websites, cjsfunandgames.com and avoncrystallake.com. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, children and Baby, the playful black kitty.

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