A little boy I was at primary school with has died

[FlllightAttendant]

He was in hs twenties. He had high functioning autism, possibly aspergers? Sorry I am not au fait with the correct terms but he did struggle with school.

I remember him as though he was here now. He was a wonderful and exciting little kid and grew up to foster an interest in steam trains, I spoke to his father (who used to teach us) a few years ago and the lad was doing so well.

My mother just told me that 6 months ago he killed himself. Apparently it was a copycat type of thing, he had seen it on television and did the same...I can't imagine his pain and what his parents must be going through.

Autism wasn't very recognised when we were at school and I know they were very educated people and did their best to give him a normal start, but now this has happened...it just breaks my heart.

I don't know how common it is for autistic adults to be so unhappy as to feel they have no choice...I can't get my head around it. Poor guy.

Big apologies if this is in the wrong place. I didn't know where to put it.

That is very very sad; I also had a friend from school who committed suicide (not autistic). I don't think it is all that common in autistic adults, or I hope not. I do feel for you and of course him and his family. How awful that he felt so desperate! Big hugs to you.

makes me even more determined to ensure dd gets all the right help now

Me too, don't ever want my ds to feel there's no place for him in this world.

Very sad, Flllightattendant.

Very sorry to hear this, and as others have said, very relative to this area.

Very sad

This is another one of my worries. I've also read about depression and higher suicide rates amongst HFA/AS individuals compared to the average population. My ds is a very angry and often sad child, and I really worry that with his perpetual feeling of never doing anything right/being laughed at/being alone/confusion/rejection/no friends etc etc etc might eventually lead him to such drastic measures.

I will do all that I can to make sure that he never gets to this stage but I do worry.

DS1 is depressed we think, there's a history anyway (DH hs depression) and I think it contributes to his aggression, he's only 8 . A kid at the local comp with AS tried to kill himself and all the AS / HFA kids there struggle so we've already taken the decision to send him elsewhere, wahtever it takes.

So sorry FA , it is a recognised risk in AS / HFA i think. And it really, really sucks.