22/03/2024
Some helpful resources for teenagers experiencing depression.
We have created five free audio recordings to assist autistic teenagers and adults who are suffering from depression. Depression is common for autistic teens and adults, affecting four times as many people compared to non autistic people. As our blog(hyperlink) this week describes, whilst there are many reasons autistic people become depressed, a recent research study has shown that being alexithymic is one of the strongest predictors (Bloch et al (2021) Scientific Reports 11:2258), and that the alexithymic trait of difficulties identifying feelings was the strongest predictor of the severity of depression. The first step to being able to identify feelings is to notice them in your body using your interoception. To this end we created three self-awareness activities (Bringing the Body into Awareness, Bringing the Five Senses into Awareness, Progressive Muscle Relaxation), which can be accessed for free via the link below, to increase interoception - the sense you use to notice feelings in your body. We invite you to use one of these audio recordings daily.
https://attwoodandgarnettevents.com/exploring-depression-and-beating-the-blues-additional-free-audio-recordings/
Depression is frequently associated with anxiety for autistic people. We have created the audio recording - Relaxation for Self-Awareness - to assist in learning how to relax. Changing one's state from flight/fight to calm is one of the most empowering capacities we can learn to recover from depression. Being calm places us in a safe state where we can think rationally and make wise choices.
Lastly, the recording entitled Time Machine Activity is an audio for an activity that invites you to travel ten years into the future to a celebration for you of your success. You are invited to vividly imagine who is there, where you are and all aspects of the scene and the feeling of your achievement in your body. We know that both having a dream or a goal, and visualising success are powerful tools for increasing confidence and assisting us to achieve our dreams.
We hope you enjoy and benefit from our audio-recordings, They are part of our programme, published as a book, Exploring Depression and Beating the Blues, by Jessica Kingsley Publishers in 2016, and our new full day course https://attwoodandgarnettevents.com/product/webcast-event-exploring-depression-and-beating-the-blues-22-march-2024/ which is happening today and will be available as an on-demand course in early April. Each audio was recorded in both Tony's voice and Michelle's voice.
