Sad thing to post here...

[hunter]

REUTERS

Burt Bacharach's daughter commits suicide

Jan 5, 2007 — LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The only child of pop songwriter Burt Bacharach and actress Angie Dickinson has committed suicide after a lifetime struggling with a form of autism, a spokeswoman for the former couple said on Friday.

Nikki Bacharach, 40, died "quietly and peacefully" at her home in the northern Los Angeles municipality of Thousand Oaks on Thursday night, a statement said.

The spokeswoman declined to specify the cause of death.

She was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome following her premature birth in 1966, and her father recounted her struggles that year in the song "Nikki." Sufferers often have obsessive routines and extreme sensitivity to sounds, smells and tastes.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=2774730

[Hissyspit]

1. The instrumental version of "Nikki" was the theme for ABC Friday Night At The Movies

for many years.

I was just about to post this. Too sad.

[blitzen]

2. very sad...I was also going to post it....

I guess it's true that Aspies can be troubled by depression. But then, so are lots of folks. So I'm not sure that it's fair to blame her suicide on Asperger's. My view is that high-functioning autism should not be seen as a problem to be "cured" but as an interesting, somewhat different and sometimes wonderful way of being.

My 9 year-old Aspie son has been taking an anti-depressant since he was five. So far, so good--he's actually been doing great for quite a while. I've heard that the teen years are the worst--probably when peer pressure and attitudes are most painful.

[Stargazer09]

3. My husband pointed it out to me earlier

Such a sad thing to hear, no matter what the underlying reason behind it.

She was my age, too.

My husband is so scared, now that Matthew has been formally diagnosed as being on the spectrum. He's worried that something like this will happen to Matthew, and he's been doing all sorts of research on the web for information.

Thank you for posting it.

[Kajsa]

4. This is so sad.

What a horrible loss.

Was she taking anti-depressants?
I've heard they can contribute to suicidal tendencies.

My thoughts are with her family.

[hunter]

5. I become asocial without anti-depressants.

My interest in maintaining social relationships simply evaporates -- it becomes too much work for too little gain. This seems to have been aggravated by middle age in me. I've never been suicidal, but I have a much stronger desire to be alone when I don't take antidepressants because people get to be just too damned irritating to be with.

When I was single I had a lot of coping strategies that most people probably don't ever consider -- I'm pretty functional as a semi-homeless guy or a hermit wandering across the desert, and it doesn't feel bad to me. It doesn't feel good either, but it is a very rich kind of freedom not to be confined to any sort of sameness even though you are alone in your world.

I'm also fortunate that all my useless obsessions and compulsions seem to be balanced out by those that are neutral or even positive. My obsessions with numbers and accuracy have served me very well working in medical labs, doing the sorts of work many people would find intolerable. I also like to think my obsessive posting here on DU is at least somewhat interesting and helpful, and it fulfills a need in me to communicate that I'm not quite capable of in face to face conversations. Here I can take as much time as I need to write down some words, but in conversational topics fly right past me and I'm always two or three steps behind. And even though I may be lost, people will think I'm arrogant or pedantic because I miss so many social nuances when I do talk.

Antidepressants keep me functional. My own fears about them were never about suicide -- I always used my own fears of mania or psychosis to rationalize my not taking antidepressants (I have been in those bad places before!) -- but I eventually got it through my thick head that I would be happier on medication, and much less of a heartbreak to people who love me.

I think the risk of suicide is real, but it's a risk that can be mitigated by careful supervision, and by paying close attention to the observations of people you live with. Often it's just this kind of risk you need to take to be functional.

[bleedingheart]

6. my son has struggled with depression and Aspergers

since he was a small child (younger than 4). I remember talking to his pediatrician before his formal diagnosis and asking why my beautiful toddler was actually depressed and talked about hurting himself...

I am so sorry for her and her family and I hope that she his at peace.

I gotta go hug my kid cuz this story just makes me so sad ...

[Deja Q]

7. This hits a chord with me...

Asperger's, premature birth, suicide, sensitivity to sounds...

I wonder how she did it 'quietly and peacefully', though I know of two possible guesses... :(

[idgiehkt]

8. it hits a chord with me too

sometimes I feel like giving up. It has just been such an immense struggle to struggle day after day for years with things that most people don't care about.