Do your either of your parents have an ASD?

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I was wondering how many here have parents that have AS or autism, given that it seems that there is a genetic link?

I know I got my ASD from my father. He was supposedly mentally ret*d...he had some developmental delays (mainly speech delay, just like me) as a child....in his late teens he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Was in and out of institutions during his 20's, married my mom, finished his PhD, and had me, then my little sister. When my little sister who is two years younger than me began talking before I did there was some cause for concern. One doctor told my parents I was mentally ret*d because I had low birth weight when I was born (3lbs 4oz and full term). I could spell words with alphabet blocks at the age of two and a half, so my parents didn't accept that diagnosis, and found another specialist.....this time it was autism. My father defended that one too by saying he was also speech delayed and liked to play with door hinges instead of other kids......to which the specialist replied....then maybe she got it from you. My dad was diagnosed at 32 years old, with classic autism. Somehow he'd gone to college and graduate school, found a wife and had kids.......and had a well paying job as a professional tinkerer of medical instrumentation....

I remember how I didn't get to play with the Nintendo I got for Christmas in 1986 because my dad wanted to take it apart to see how it worked. I remember the model airplanes and rockets....I remember the disassembled electronic devices all over the house. I remember the piles, and more piles he used to make. Most importantly I remember walking on eggshells, and being so careful not to make noise......his meltdowns were scary and violent. I'm amazed my mother didn't leave him....he was physically and verbally abusive, and left porno magazines everywhere....ick.

I went through a period of hating him, then just accepted him for who he was. Once I grew up and moved out I didn't have to deal with him. I could call him every once in a while to discuss the inner workings of my car's catalytic converter, or have an in depth discussion with him about retinoid receptors, retinoids and how they influence cellular proliferation....but I was separate from his mess, and his meltdowns which were seemed to be not as frequent. He still had my mom to take care of the cleaning, cooking, bills, laundry, remind him to eat, sleep, help him get dressed and tell him when he had to go to work.

Then she got sick....really sick. We had to put her in a nursing home (we as in my sister and I). She was there for three years before she died....during this time my father began to deteriorate. He would forget to eat, not sleep for days, not bathe, and he did no housework whatsoever......the piles got bigger and bigger....rooms began to fill up with empty cardboard boxes, garbage....then came the cats.....that weren't fixed and multiplied exponentially. His job was one thing he did keep......my sister was good about making him go to work....

Recently he met a woman who finds his many quirks and obsessions (electronics) endearing....he's since cleaned up (himself not his house) and he moved in with her......leaving his house in a state of squalor....filthy and in serious disrepair (and still full of cats). My sister partially lives there, but mainly stays at her fiance's house. Our father still owns the house....it paying a mortgage for a house he no longer lives in, and can't sell in the condition it's in.....and now it seems it's our mess to clean up. I know he has a new girlfriend and I don't mind that at all. Actually he needs someone to take care of him....he can't do simple things like sorting mail....he needs help with that stuff, and she can help him with that....I just don't want to have to clean up his big mess.....taking out the trash isn't in his skills set I suppose........

Anyone here dealing with aging apsie or autistic parents?

I suspect my dad was, but now that he is dead, I'll never know for sure. But he had a lot of the symptoms I do.

My mom has borderline personality disorder, and I think my dad has AS (he said he might... My dad, my grandfather, and myself all have similar symptoms). After my mom and dad got divorced, my dad moved around for a while before moving back in with his parents... both of which are now dead (I do not know when or how my grandfather died... it was a while ago, my mind was in other places. My grandmother died this year, just a couple months ago). When his mom was living in the house, the place was a mess... After she was put into assisted living (or something like that) the house was cleaner than ever... it amazes me how freakin fast he cleaned that place. As my grandmother started to get closer to death, my dad would get scared whenever the phone would ring, he would visit her constantly, and was not holding up well. I was worried about him because he was living alone and when I visited him, he sometimes talked about depression and suicide. After my grandmother died, he began having trouble sleeping, and says that he has to keep himself occupied so he can hold on.

I wish but instead it's just them with traits.

my mother and uncle are both suspected aspies

No, but an aunt might be.

I think autistic parents are more likely to have autistic kids than autistic kids are likely to have autistic parents.

No; my father has certain traits, but does not qualify. My brother is AD/HD.

No, my mom was severely depressed for a while, but these days it would be called a combination of post-partum depression and nicotine withdrawal. (Depression seems to run in my family, as does bipolar disorder) My dad didn't show any signs that I can recall.

Now, my maternal grandfather, maybe. He had some traits that make me wonder if he wasn't somewhere on the spectrum. He invented his own mathematical system, but couldn't explain it in a way that made sense to anyone else, although he was always successful with it. He had also commited a lot of Shakespeare's plays to memory. I remember him as being something of a loner, but he was quite elderly by the time I came along, and he died when I was eight, so my memories of him are a bit skewed. I was the only grandchild he could abide having with him in his garden, or so I'm told. I don't know about any of his family, because he and my grandmother cut all ties with them almost as soon as they married.

As for the rest of my immediate family, my older brother didn't speak until he was 3 years old, but he had our sister to speak for him. When he did finally speak, it was a full sentence: "Boo-Boo can't talk!" He surprised everyone, including himself. He's a petroleum engineer, now, and I don't think he shows any symptoms, but who am I to judge? He's 13 years older than me and we really don't know each other that well. I also have two older sisters who have been tentatively diagnosed with bipolar disorder, although they don't always seem to fit the criteria.

It's really hard to tell in our family, since we're all over 40 by now. I can see traits in each of my siblings that might point to a tendency to ASD, but I'm not in their heads with them, so I don't really know what's going on there. There are only three kids between the four of us - my own daughter and my brother's and 2nd sister's daughters - none of whom show any signs of which I'm aware.

Patricia, rattling on again.

No, but I suspect my father is since he demonstrates some really weird behavior.

I have 2 kids on the autistic spectrum, one is an Aspie and the other (just a baby) has autistic spectrum disorder and may have a better diagnosis later.

My husband for sure is an Aspie and I am beginning to think I am one too. (I have PTSD and ADD to make a self-diagnosis so hard for me)

Anyway, we qualify for AGRE autism genetic resource exchange. www.familyagre.org
There are families with 5 kids on the spectrum, I have come to realize through this organization. I would say that's pretty genetic!



Autism Speaks will have info as well about this organization

My father is too "severe" to have BAP, but he's not "severe" enough to have diagnosable AS; I'd say he has "mild" Asperger's. A psycho that my mother and I explained his symptoms to agreed that he was the one who passed its more severe form down onto me, and that he probably has "mild" Asperger's.

I got Autistic Disorder from him; the friendly DSM-IV-TR states that there's a higher incidence of such if a parent has AS.

I don't deal with him; I don't talk to him.

My dad almost certainly is and so was his father. My dad was dxed with antisocial personality disorder and speculatively diagnosed with bipolar disorder by another psych in his 40's when my folks were going through marriage counseling and then court-ordered psychological evaluations during the ensuing custody dispute when they split up. My mother was dxed with Munchausens by proxy and Borderline Personality disorder during those court-ordered evaluations. I got screwed from both sides. Haha!

My father was very anti-social, awkward, smart, repititive behaviors and lots of stimming(always drove Mom nuts with his "nervous energy"). He also had very narrow interests and obsessions- still does. He would never entertain the idea that he's on the spectrum and still doesn't believe that my daughter is either, despite her obviously clear and more severe signs of ASD. I also suspect that 2 of my brothers have ASD and all my other siblings have traits for sure. My father was and is very uncouth, insensitive, and speaks his mind despite how it will affect others. His father was much the same and so is his older brother.

Not sure. My dad thinks mom, who has social anxiety, might have Asperger's. My dad says he's not good at relationships and often does not hear his name, even when it's called several times.

I don't think my dad has it.

Both though, do have some autistic traits, but not enough for a diagnosis it seems.

I'm not exactly sure what I have yet, as I haven't got diagnosed. My guess would be, very mild Asperger's, ADD, and OCD, yet several personality disorders seem to fit me as well (dependant, OCD, schizoid).

My dad: Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar both

My mom: Not sure what she has. She shows symptoms of Schizotypal, Paranoid, and Avoidant personality disorders.

My sister: For the most part she seems pretty normal. Sometimes it seems as though she looks lost, almost like she doesn't fit in with other people, she doesn't have a lot interests and hobbies that most people do, she never really had a lot of friends
growing up.

My niece: probably ADHD hyperactive

The rest of my family are a little more normal than my immediate family, yet several of them are more or less loners.

I think it's possible that those traits do run in my family, but mostly there's depression on my mom's side and bipolar disorder on my dad's side. I also have a cousin with developmental delays because he was born prematurely. When he was born, most babies who were born that early died soon after birth, so he was lucky to have survived.