I was born...normal.

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I had lead poisoning as a baby, and lead poisoning, when fatal, can also cause permanent brain damage.

I know my parents are not aspie. Everyone in my family is normal. So there's no way I can be born this way.

I'm also starting to think the lead poison caused my autism. Does anyone else agree?

So, are you a zombie?

ah normal.

I think that heavy metal poisoning could cause abnormal neurological development like that of autism.

Most people believe that the cause of autism is genetic.

So is it ONLY genetic?

I wouldn't think so. Although for me, my theory is that I slowly developed Asperger's over the years. There could be a cause, or the Asperger's could have been hiding all that time. It feels like I've only had it for 4 years.

How the hell should we know? Nobody has a definitive answer to that question.

What's your agenda here? What difference does it make how you ended up with it? You still need to deal with it. Are you looking for somebody to take to court? Some corporation to rage against?

I came in contact with mercury from a broken thermometer when I was a child. Sometimes I think "what if that's the cause of this?" But then I remind myself that I've had these "traits" for as long as I can remember, and these things run in the family.

I remember watching a documentary about a person who thought their disability was caused by Thalidomide, but then had children who also had underdeveloped limbs, which meant it wasn't Thalidomide. This person was a bit upset by that, and I thought "...so?" But it is important to people; the knowing how and why part.

Autism heritability is in the 90%'s. It's more heritable than schizophrenia, more heritable than ADHD, actually more heritable than any other non-single-gene developmental disorder we know about. That's why so many people are looking for "the gene" for autism--this high heritability is really, really tantalizing to them and it seems like with such a high percentage of any given case being entirely genetic, it might be easy to tease out the group of genes responsible... Realistically, there are probably hundreds of them responsible, but that's still an easier problem than many of the other non-single-gene disorders out there.

re. Lead poisoning: It's not impossible, I suppose, but it would mean an awful lot of luck that you got something heavily resembling genetic autism rather than the usual long-term effects of lead poisoning. For one thing, it's very odd that you ended up with autism but not mental retardation (I am assuming, as your profile says "asperger's")... I would expect MR+autism to result from lead poisoning, if anything at all autism-like could.

If you have autism that is functionally identical to genetic autism but with a different cause, then you're pretty much in the same boat--the lead's long gone, and your brain developed differently. Probably impossible to tell which it is by now unless a genetic test comes out.

It's definitely possible for you to have autism coming from genetics even if it is not seen in your family history. The genetics are just so complicated--you might have Mom with half the genes, none of which do anything on their own, and Dad with the other half, none of them doing anything on their own either... but when they come together, you get autism.

If you were exposed to lead and doctors have discovered it has built up in your bloodstream and tissues, you could have side effects from it.

Or maybe one or both parents have AS. They simply were not diagnosed. Many adults learned to cope with their AS, and hide their symptoms. Pretty much anybody over 30 will not be diagnosed, unless they were diagnosed while trying to deal with other problems.

My husband and I often argue about autism being genetic. He thinks it's environmental but you need the gene to get it. My mom thinks my ear infections did it and my husband agrees.

How could ANYONE believe that their parents were SO perfect and everything surrounding the 9 months prior to their birth, and the tiem when they are born is SO perfect that they MUST have been NORMAL!?

News for you. It was probably SO imperfect that, had growth and immunity not compensated, your mother would likely have died before you were born. That's OK, you probably would have been dead anyway.

NOPE, NOTHING is perfect. It is a miracle that the average person is as healthy as they are.

Lead usually causes noticable brain damage. A few symptoms CAN be similar to autism, but what is your IQ like? Lead would likely have lowered it. I think there ARE tests they may be able to do even NOW to see if you were exposed to enough lead.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdyw5RIoxvA&feature=related[/youtube]

Your comment reminded me of this sweet song...

I'm pretty sure you can get symptoms of AS/autism in other ways. I had a lot of complications in the womb and needed a blood transfusion while in the womb and then an emergency C-section without labor.
I don't just have autism but ADHD, coordination issues, body temperature disregulation, a history of learning disorders and epilepsy. Any longer in the womb and I could have become anemic.
My brain development was probably interrupted and gave me all these issues.
I would more likely call it Rh syndrome rather than autistic with all these co-morbids. But Rh disease is rare because there's a vaccine for it now.
My mum may seem ADHD and my dad AS but no sibling is actually as impaired as I am.

Remember it's set of symptoms, that is mostly genetic but that doesn't mean you can't get it other ways. A lot of brain damage shows similar symptoms to AS and ADHD. There's even an acquired form of ADHD, so why not AS?

I have one other family member that is diagnosed with ASD, and his 5 year old brother is showing major signs of autism, and a brother who shows signs of Asperger's. I also have a step-brother with Asperger's, but I guess you really can't count that can you?

I'd say mine is genetic