Autism and Suicide: Reducing the Risk
by Lisa Morgan, M.Ed., CAS
(Editor's Note: This article is part of our Suicide Prevention Month series, in collaboration with the American Association of Suicidology.)
Autism is a lifelong complex neurodevelopmental challenge in the areas of social communication, repetitive behaviors, sensory sensitivities, perseveration, and intense specific interests. Many autism diagnoses come with co-morbid mental health disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); especially for those diagnosed late in life.
Autistic people are at a high risk of suicidal ideation and/or dying by suicide. Research has found a 66% lifetime experience of suicidal ideation and a 35% lifetime experience of planned or attempted suicide, supporting the assertion that these occurrences are common in people with autism (Cassidy et. al., 2014). Dr. Cassidy also said, "This is a shocking wake-up call for society, when a significant section of the population feel that they don't belong in the world. As a society, we urgently must do more to value neurodiversity. This could ultimately save lives."
Some of the reasons why there’s such a high risk of suicide in the autism community are the defining aspects of autism. Social communication difficulties make it extremely difficult to build a support system, and many times, there is a history of bullying, rejection from peers, isolation, and abuse in place of a support system. The perseveration that comes from being autistic leads to a repetitive loop of negative experiences. It is difficult to break out of this and shift thoughts in a positive direction. Social isolation, lack of social skills, poor communication, anxiety, depression, and PTSD are all factors contributing to suicide in the autism community.
Asking for help is a social skill, so reaching out can be difficult for those on the autism spectrum. If an autistic person does ask for help, describing how they feel using words for emotions may not happen in the traditional sense. Many autistic people with alexithymia, the inability to identify and understand emotions, are restricted in asking for help because of their lack of emotional awareness. An autistic person may express feeling depressed by describing sad experiences, such as “the feeling of walking through the grounds of a closed, run-down carnival with rusty, broken rides, dull, peeling paint, and trash being blown around by the wind.”
Steps can be taken to help autistic people who are struggling with suicidal ideation or are suicidal. One way to help is to listen to what they are saying when, if, they do reach out for help. Understanding the differences in communication, literal thinking, varying processing speeds, and verbalizing how they are feeling will help autistic people to feel safe enough socially to share their struggles.
Many autistic people think they do not belong to this world, and a lot of their social interactions sadly validate those thoughts. Valuing them as people who matter, whether they are verbal, nonverbal, introverted, misunderstood, socially skilled, or socially struggling, will go a long way in ensuring them they do indeed belong to this world as much as anyone else. Autistic people have a lot to give to the world by way of creativity, intelligence, kindness, friendship, and work ethic, to name just a few strengths.
The American Association of Suicidology (AAS), in partnership with Nationwide Children’s Hospital and TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors), is working toward developing autism-friendly resources to help autistic people in crisis. The resources are going to be utilized in crisis centers first, with a one-page tool available to all crisis center workers. This tool is full of pertinent information about communicating with an autistic person in crisis.
The one-page tool is being introduced at a webinar on 9/19/18 at 12 p.m., presented by Amelia Lehto and Lisa Morgan, moderated by Carla Stumpf Patton. The tool will be made available to crisis centers for crisis center workers to use when autistic adults call or text in for help.
Working together, we can start changing the statistics on suicide in the autism community.
Lisa Morgan M.Ed., CAS, is the author of Living Through Suicide Loss with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), written after her husband of 29.8 years died by suicide. An autistic adult, Lisa is co-lead for the AAS committee, Suicide in the Autism Community, a feature writer for Spectrum Women online magazine, and a community council member of AASET (Autistic Adults and other Stakeholders Engaged Together).