if your relative has autism, does that mean you could too

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Joined: 19 Sep 2011
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07 Oct 2011, 5:28 pm

My sister has autism, though i am not sure what kind but I don't think it's aspergers. She is my younger HALF sister but I have been looking into myself and I certainly see some traits in me like the obsessions, sound sensitivity, social anxiety. I am 20 years old. Is it at all possible that I have some autistic traits since my younger half sister has autism? or am what?

Callista
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07 Oct 2011, 5:37 pm

Yes, it's possible; autism is highly genetic in origin. About one in 20 of the siblings of autistic people are autistic themselves.

In addition to that, family members of autistics often have some sub-clinical autistic traits (that is, they don't cause impairment and you don't need a diagnosis). This is called being part of the broader autistic phenotype.

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ColaBear
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07 Oct 2011, 7:11 pm

Seems to run down my mothers side of the family for me, although my sister seems completely unaffected.

MudandStars
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07 Oct 2011, 7:24 pm

Yes it's possible I have AS while my brother has HFA... one of my cousin's children is also autistic.

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Ellytoad
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07 Oct 2011, 7:34 pm

I suspect my father has AS, and one of his brothers is autistic, I believe.

one-A-N
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07 Oct 2011, 9:42 pm

It is common for autistic characteristics to run in families. If you see autistic or Asperger-like characteristics in yourself, you might try some of the scientific tests here to get a "second opinion":

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt113459.html

None of these tests will diagnose you, they can only indicate whether you have a strong, mild or insignificant degree of autistic characteristics. It is possible to have noticeable autistic characteristics and still have no actual impairments, as Callista pointed out above.

Todesking
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08 Oct 2011, 1:31 am

On my dad's side of the family there are a lot of cousind who are considered shy weird smart people so I figured my autism comes from that side of the family.

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YoshiPikachu
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08 Oct 2011, 4:07 pm

Yes,I have autism and my dad has the same kind of autism.

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LemonPieForAPirate
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08 Oct 2011, 5:50 pm

I believe it to be true, my siblings are complete abnormal weirdos in not the good ways

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