Is(Was) Your Mother On The Autism Spectrum?

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If yes, what has it been like for you?

My mother claims to have a "touch of Asperger's"--but she doesn't believe Asperger's is autism (she's a psychotherapist!)

She had a rough childhood. She grew up in the Depression and World War II. This colors her attitude about things.

She had a mean streak, and she took out some stuff on me when I was a kid. Sometimes physically. Never more extreme than hitting me with a belt, though.

She wasn't all bad; we had some good times----but she definitely wasn't a "cool" sort of parent.

I don't think she's autistic---but she does have psychological issues.

We're getting along a little better these days.

I don't think so, but she did say a lot of cringe-worthy things in social situations. She was likely a low-to-mid-level narcissist, though. She put a lot of pressure on me to succeed so that she'd have things to brag about to her friends.

She has some autistic traits, but I don't think that she would qualify for a diagnosis. Her side of the family has a history of autism though, I even have a cousin with level 2 autism.

Like I said in the other poll, my mother isn't on it, but she does have ADHD, which has some connections to it, (possibly).

Let me put it this way: after my father remarried and had me and my other four siblings, (all of us diagnosed with ADHD), that's about a 1 out of 5 chance of one of us having both conditions, right?

I could be wrong for all I know, but that's just how I see it.

Both conditions aren't "heritable" in that sense.

It's not that predictable.

Many times, people "get" both conditions when there's no family history of both conditions.

She has traits/symptoms in the least, yes. When we were at Attwood's, the psycho was heavily implying that she had it too.

She's a beautiful and warm woman that's entirely selfless.

She has a few traits, but certainly not enough to be diagnosed, though I'm pretty sure some others members of my family on my mom's side have it.

My dad has more traits than my mom does, and I'm pretty confident my uncle (who has passed away) had it. He was either diagnosed or suspected of having ADHD, but I think he it was more "very mild" autism for the lack of a better term.

It seems to come mostly from my parental grandmother's side, but also my maternal grandmother's side. I barely know anything about my maternal grandfather's side, but there definitely isn't any autism on my parental grandfather's side. They're NT through and through.

ADHD and autism share some characteristics - executive functioning challenges being the main one. I suspect that some folks diagnosed with ADHD actually have HFA, and vice versa.

While I don't have enough data or rather, I don't know my own dad for I haven't seen him for more than 13 years...


I know my mom so much, that I seriously doubt she's ND, let alone in the spectrum.

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No way.

My mom has Bipolar Disorder and OCD, but I don't think she has ever shown any Autistic traits.

Not even close. She can't keep friends but she makes them but once they move away or she moves away or moves to another work field, she loses those friends while my NT aunt has friends from her old work and high school etc. For my mom that would be too overwhelming.

She also doesn't like bass, short shorts, her bare skin touching this fabric that makes your skin stick the the seats when you sweat and from body heat and she doesn't like fluorescent lights or sun in her eyes.

For a while I thought she was obsessed with Murder She Wrote because she watched it all the time. She said I was obsessed with Home Alone so I thought she was obsessed with her TV show because she was also always watching it. But the difference was she wasn't talking about it and acting goofy about it or kissing her favorite character on TV and hitting the characters she doesn't like. I also thought she was obsessed with gardening because she was always watching the shows on TV and always working in her garden and she was into home decorating because she was also watching those shows. So I thought she had this trait. She doesn't seem that extreme anymore and she hasn't watched Murder She Wrote in 20 years. Maybe less than that because I remember her watching it when I was a teen and I said "She sounds like Mrs. Potts" and my mom said "she is." I intended it as a joke but she told me she really did play that voice of the Disney character.