Is aspergers genetic?

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Just a thought. I've been diagnosed with aspergers syndrome, and my father was diagnosed with aspergers syndrome. My father was also diagnosed with obsessive compulsion.

Sometimes when being aspergers goes wrong for me, I just think "Thanks Dad. Thanks for making me socially disabled", and then I think "Now I'm definitely not having children so my child doesn't have to live like this". I know it's a bit of a mean thought, but I wouldn't want to have a child that would have to go through the social difficulties that I did.

Yes, it is genetic, but it is not 100% guaranteed. Your children might have AS just like they might have your eye color.

Also, my father and I have a similar (joking) exchange. I'll do something Asperger's related like spacing out, and he'll make a Rain Man joke. Then I'll reply "Hey, it's your fault!"

Yes it is genetic and it tends to run in families but not everyone with AS will definitly have an AS/ASD kid.

It's not your dad's fault, or your great gran dads fault. No one can take responsibility for their genes. You want to blame someone blame God. And if you don't believe in him......awesome.

I don't blame my dad or mum. I wish I could have known about AS when my dad was alive so we could really share something in common.

We're pretty sure my uncle had AS, and I'm just glad I didn't inherit schizophrenia from my mother

To me it's completely genetic, actually I'm more and more convinced of the Neanderthal theory, I think that ultimately the real explanation lies in anthropolgy more than neurology

^ I should definitely read more before being able to say something else, but in general in science it's quite hard to find theories that are "complete and utter bunk"

AS is mostly genetic, but that doesn't always mean you got it from your family. You might be the first person in the family to have the genes because they mutated on the way to you. This is a bit more likely to happen with older parents (eg my grandfather was 50 when my father was born, so there was a slightly greater risk that my father got some altered genes because he was conceived by an older father).

Also, genes can be controlled by things outside the genome - something has to tell different cells in your body to express different genes (e.g. something tells muscle cells to ignore their "how-to-be-a-brain genes", and something tells brain cells to ignore their "how-to-be-a-muscle genes", etc). So it may be that two people can have the same "autistic genes", but outside factors might influence whether those genes are expressed or not (e.g. a slightly different hormonal environment in the womb). Identical twins have a high rate of similarity when it comes to ASD, but it is not 100%. Occasionally one identical twin will have ASD and the other not.

And while research shows that ASD has a high rate of inheritance, finding the genes has proved difficult. Researchers currently have identified genes accounting for about 40% of ASD, although they believe it to be more like 90% inherited in total. And there isn't a single "autism gene". There seem to be a number of different genes, and people can have different combinations, making ASD more like a broadly defined group of similar genetic conditions, rather than a single, more narrowly defined condition like Down's syndrome.

If you want to wade through the science, this article gives an overview of what is currently known about the genetics of ASDs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_autism

Ok, it remains pretty convincing to me, sure it would be quite disturbing, I guess we'll remain suspended.

It was make perfect sense to me if it were genetic, because my mother has some traits typical of those with Asperger's; although I doubt that she has it.

It would also make a little sense if the age of your parents at the time of your birth played a factor because my mother was nearly thirty when she gave birth to me.