Anyone with lots of Autism in their family?

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No, but there were a few relatives who were a bit unusual. Anxious tendencies seem to run in my family. In a couple of cases, this has lead to rather troubling issues.

One woman in particular became plagued with fears so she started avoiding the outside world, and wouldn't leave the house. Apparently would start panicking if someone tried to get her to leave. Rather bad case of agoraphobia. I don't know what exactly lead to her being that way.

Another relative was obsessive to a fault. Her obsessive nature led to compulsive behaviour, doing the same actions at a particular time each day. Unfortunately, this did not end well for her. Some family members suspect she might have had undiagnosed OCD or some kind of anxiety disorder. However, she was never diagnosed as anything.

Speaking of obsession, I had another relative who had one. Fortunately, their obsession was harmless. It was on an interest rather than based on fear. Carousels. I don't know why, but apparently she was really into them. My best guess is that they enjoyed them as a child. Started collecting toy ones. I don't know much about her, except for the fact that she was apparently a bit eccentric and had an intense interest in carousels. At one point I used to have one of her old toy carousels from her collection. It was a music box, if you spun it backwards and released it then it would turn in a circle. The horses would bob up and down as it turned around whilst the music played.

Another common theme in my family is sensory sensitivity. Plenty of stories of picky eaters. A few family members share my sensitivity to noise as well. Selective mutism has cropped up a few times in the tree. Also, there's been a few socially awkward introverted loners but inventive types here and there I've noticed. Not always though, I know some relatives who are fairly successful socially.

My mum is an interesting case. She's rather blunt, and sometimes takes things literally. Yet despite her brutal honesty and lack of subtlety, she is quite popular. Even though she doesn't understand why asking for the receipt for a present straight away is looked down on. Her logic is that it makes the most sense, since what's the point in insincere formalities? On the plus side, at least I always know when my mother is truly happy with something.

Thanks again, everyone. My husband thinks I'm misdiagnosed because at times I can accomplish a great deal, but then he wonders why I tend to sleep a lot. It's from masking for 50+ years. He's very intelligent in a lot of respects, but he thinks I have 'latched onto' the results of a Neurocognitive exam as my manifesto. He doesn't realize that I've been looking for answers my whole life.

I've been practicing just allowing myself to 'be.' I've gotten some strange looks recently, but I don't sleep as much.
I learn a lot from my grandkids who are diagnosed. They don't yet feel pressure to mask.

Nope. No one in my family has ever been tested or diagnosed with autism. I am the only one tested and diagnosed. I probably have relatives that may have had some form of it but were never tested or diagnosed.

The only person in my family other than myself with a confirmed diagnosis is a second cousin whom I have never met due to him not liking to meet extended family for whatever reason.

I sometimes wonder about my uncle. He has a very logical way of looking at the world, and he's always been interested in learning facts for fun. He has a whole collection of different encyclopedias and other non-fiction books. He's very intelligent, but when it comes to understanding the emotional side to things, he only looks at it from a logical view and tends to lecture or unintentionally upset you. It doesn't make him a bad person.

I'm not sure if that means he's on the spectrum, he might just be a strange NT. He doesn't have trouble mingling and he's very talkative. My mum was close to him growing up and she says he never had trouble making friends or had any other peculiar behaviours.

I believe he has alexithymia though.

It appears to be the norm in my family. My mother and her sister both certainly have it. And apparently their grandmother gave up on leaving the house when she was 49 and had to be looked after from then on because she couldn't cope with life - that sounds familiar! and their grandfather was a bigamist who couldn't hold a job and had an evil temper. The other side was full of antisocial types too. But it is also on my Dad's side. He is the classic absent minded professor who dislikes anything outside his routine and his brother has always been a classic social misfit who can't deal with people, and the sisters were all odd too. My sister and I both have it and one of my sons is severely autistic, one has Aspergers and even the most normal one has lots of traits, especially anxiety. My exhusband was adopted so it may well have contributed to his many problems too.

I'm afraid my family is extreme. Out of 15 of us currently living, there might be one of the grandchildren who is not somewhere on the spectrum. I am 69 years old, and first heard of Asperger's Syndrome about 20 years ago--and the lights came on for me about most of my life.

One reason we have so many is that we have managed to marry other autistics. My ex-wife and I are both likely on the spectrum (she thinks she's ADD, but she has the sensory issues that go with autism, and ADD is a common misdiagnosis). We have 3 adult offspring, two sons and a daughter, all somewhere on the spectrum. All 3 are married, with two spouses on the spectrum as well. They have produced 10 grandchildren; 3 have been diagnosed so far, a couple more are now being evaluated (none of us adults have a formal diagnosis). The rest all fit somewhere on the spectrum, to varying degrees ("neurodiverse" means we can be diverse from each other as well as from the NT's!). The one of the ten suspected of not being autistic is only 2-1/2, and it could show up yet.

And we can see signs of it in the behavior of the previous generations--pretty definite in my parents' generation (all now deceased) and some evidence even going farther back--in both my own family and my ex-wife's.

The good news is, now we know about it. Since the grandkids came into the family, we have been doing a lot more research in trying to cope with them--and there is a lot more help available than there was 20 years ago. There's even a little bit showing up now about autism in the elderly, although most healthcare professionals are not up to speed yet.

No-one is diagnosed, but I suspect a few of them.

My parents both have a few traits. Dad's sensitive to sounds, hates crowds, only likes a few foods - I think Mom packed him the exact same lunch for work his entire career. Mom's analytical and detail oriented, remembers tons of facts but never gets jokes. Routines were just the way things were done in my family (I never knew it was considered odd till I moved out), and neither of them were very social. I think my sister is the only one of us who is completely NT.

Nobody but me was ever tested or diagnosed, but I'm pretty sure Dad was on the spectrum, and very likely his father was. My sister seems to have some of the traits, so does my son. A male cousin too. Not sure if there's much on the female side of the family. They were mostly capable of holding down jobs and living independently, most of the clues I saw come from communication style, thinking style, interests, focussing abilities, number of friends, amount of time spent alone, mind-blindness. Don't know which ones might have passed a formal test for ASD. Frankly the official threshold for the diagnosis doesn't mean much to me, I see that as rather arbitrary and too reductionist to have much meaning. To me every person is an individual and to say that this person has it and that person hasn't is kind of missing the point, I just notice that they have traits that are mentioned on the spectrum, and leave it at that.

As far as I know, there's no-one with severe / classic autism, but Aspergers / mild autism (or traits of) seem to run through both sides of the family -
My parents are not on the spectrum, though they both have some traits.
My son is diagnosed, my daughter not (though she is neurodiverse with dyslexia and dyscalculia)
I suspect my brother might be on the spectrum, he seems to be dyslexic also.
I also suspect: (father's side- grandfather, great aunt, uncle, 1-3 of 6 cousins (don't know them well enough to be sure), (mother's side- great uncle, 1-2 of 5 cousins).
So Aspergers seems to pop up in about 20-40% of my relatives, but typically undiagnosed.

I'm the only one diagnosed. The extended family has lots of bats in the belfry but we have been stoic and "In Perfect Health" for generations. Mom used to say to me, "Don't you think we're different?" And knowing how depressed it would make her to be 'different', I said "Oh no! We're just like everybody else."

I have a niece who is diagnosed (sister's daughter). Other than that I suspect my sister is. My Mom had sensory issues and was always doing her own projects and rarely made eye contact and was not a "touchy" person. I'm all but certain that my Dad has ADD, but who knows.