Does anyone here have autistic siblings as well?

Post Reply New Topic

One sister, diagnosed a few months ago, (first her kids, then me, then her) . Turns out a cousin also has a dx and now that our eyes are open to it seems (to us) that it's rather prevalent on one side of the family. We also have two NT sibs.

In my family, predominantly the firstborns are Autistic. Here are details:

My Autistic mom is 1 of 5 siblings. She is the 4th child. Probably the 1st child and maybe the 3rd child had a touch of something. The 2nd and 5th were not.

I am the Autistic 1 of 2 siblings. I am the 1st child.

My sibling has 2 children. The 1st child is Autistic. The 2nd child is not.

I have 2 children. The 1st child is Autistic. The 2nd child is not (probably ADHD).

Congrats on your expanding family!! ! Wishing you well as you navigate individual strengths and challenges relative to the World.

I'm diagnosed (recently). I'm convinced my brother has very HF autism. I haven't been in contact with him for several years. Social deficits since childhood, never any friends, extreme interest in science, no sense of humor, never goes out socializing, never laughs, rarely smiles (no, it's not depression; was always this way), has never had a girlfriend (at least none that other family members know of) and he's middle age at that.

Nephew might be on spectrum (dad thinks so). A niece might be (I last saw her at age three; she's seven now). She flapped her hands before every meal. I'd see this all the time because she and her parents lived with my parents when she was one and a half to age three. Haven't seen her since, but back then she had a speech delay and also compulsively jumped (rapid baby jumps) in her playpen for nonstop minutes at a time without any apparent stimulus. Avoided eye contact with me, but that might've been because I'd give her a disapproving look every time she shrieked (my parents hated the shrieking). It got to a point where she avoided eye contact altogether with me. If it was accidental she'd look down. I never interacted with her. The overall picture is strong for ASD.

Yes, one for sure, the other 2 are bipolar. Mother was autistic as was her mother and her mother's grandmother, in our family it is genetic. (the bipolar is genetic too).

My brother is NT, but my dad is autistic.

I would like to question the assumption that if your second child is autistic that would be a bad thing, though.

This may come across as ableist but it CAN be bad depending on the type of autism. I don’t care about a child having Aspergers. But there are families out there with children with severe level 3 autism who seem to be going through a living hell. I’m worried about the possibility that our genes will combine in such a way that that may be our future.

I worked with a man years ago with two kids like this. He tried to pretend everything was normal but was clearly depressed and trying to hide it.

My siblings don't. My brother did copy some of my habits as I was older but when he started going to school and spending less time with me he stopped.

One first cousin is diagnosed.

I have some uncles and aunts written off as 'oddballs' by everyone that may be as well.

My sister is NT.