Anyone have a sibling with a disability?

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Just want to see how common this is among the boards. What are some of your experiences with your siblings and how they were treated compared to you?

I have AS and my sister, who is a year younger than me, was diagnosed with a developmental delay, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder.

She is highly verbal and is better at things such as reading and writing than her peers with the same difficulties. However, she can be impulsive, manipulative and selfish at times. It can be hard to get her to follow through with a task without her acting out. As a kid she would always be difficult; she would hit, spit on and bite other people if she was told to do something. Her behaviours have lessened considerably but she can still become testy if you say the wrong thing to her. She was in a number of group homes but because of the difficulty in finding a suitable placement for her, my parents have kept her at home doing things she likes so that she won't go ballistic on them. She doesn't have a job for obvious reasons, but she's on disablity and pays them rent every month.

Because of her difficulties and attention seeking behaviours, I would always be the one left alone to do my own thing. My parents spend most of their time with her, and they continue to do so...but they recognize this and take time out for me whenever they can. As well, I developed this mentality to always be the quiet, good kid and to make my parents proud, simply because her behaviours were so difficult and I wanted them to be impressed with me, because she was never going to do that.

What about you? I'd like to hear your stories.

Yeah me and my brothers all have the same s**t in different degrees.

My sister doesn't appear to have any problems socializing, but she is an emotional mess like me. She is bipolar and might have some form of schizophrenia. She used to do odd things such as jumping over shadows because if she didn't, "the demons would hurt mama". I haven't been communicating with her lately about her mental state. She seems okay. She's on medication now.

I am the dysfunctional older sibling..My younger sister will not associate with me. She highly values the Semblance of "normalcy"...She is much more functional and capable of blending in than I am..growing up, her development was a lot more "normal" than mine, but she seems to have symptoms of BPD (Borderline Personality_

My brother and I were both "a problem" as kids. Me, for my behaviour, he for his lack of friends and quietness. Also because he had a tendency to destroy things because he wanted to know how they worked.

He has no diagnosis and obviously no learning disorder but I think he could be put on the Broad Autism Spectrum (especially since he became more normal as he grew up, now he is just a nerd for most people but acts more like his peers).

My brother has autism and is pretty high functioning but he doesn't have asperger's. My sister is bipolar but I don't think that's TECHNICALLY a disability but it does suck for her. None of my siblings have problems socializing, however, even my brother. He has one sided conversations and talks nonstop, but he's not afraid to talk to anyone - unlike me.

All my siblings have a pancreatic disorder (apparently) unrelated to autism, but autistic traits do run in my family. My grandfather was very sensitive to noises and would get irrationally angry at sounds like forks clinking against plates (you have to understand that he was also antisocial for reasons other than a possible ASD; you could fill a book with speculations on his behaviors). He also had obsessive-compulsive traits, lack of friends, et cetera. My grandfather on the other side didn't seem to have autistic traits and was actually immensely popular, but he was easily distracted. My uncles on my mom's side all were profoundly gifted with intense special interests. My uncle on my dad's side would miss parts of conversations because he was off in his own universe. My mother had trouble reading body language as a kid, and my dad described himself as socially awkward. So it's affected everyone differently.

My half-brother has ADHD, and he was very wild in his youth. My younger sister seems like a male version of my half-brother, so I'm guessing that she might have ADHD as well. I'm the only person of all my siblings who is on the autism spectrum, although I do have a relative who is low-functioning autistic. I've only met him once, though.

My little brother has ADHD and probably ODD, but he's adopted, so we aren't biologically related.

I am the oldest of four boys, and we each have struggles and troubles even though not all of us have ever been diagnosed. My oldest brother has been on disability for many years, the next one does fairly well as long as his wife calls all the shots, and the youngest is the one most stuck at about age 12. I think I can see some various Aspie traits throughout, but I am only truly sure about myself.

My 10 year old brother has some sort of learning disability, though I don't believe he has been diagnosed by a doctor or anything. He us in special education classes for writing, spelling and reading.

Brother with ADD, sister with various things, other brother is just a little strange

My little brother is autistic with Sensory Integration Disorder.

I'm depressed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

My younger brother is diagnoses ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder he was diagnosed at age three in 1989 he had a lot of trouble in school and at home biting, pulling hair, generally not listening to authority. He was outspoken and could ramble on about anything at a young age and skipped a grade which put him ahead of his twin sister. My sister had a lot of difficulty in school but didn't make it into special Ed. She was the complete opposite, behavior wise, although her grades were poor and she lacked an attention span also she was never diagnosed with a learning disability and quit school her freshman year. She was finally diagnosed borderline personality when she was 21 after a failed suicide attempt.

My mother was a single mother for most of my childhood and my little brother's behavior and the school's threats made certain aspects of my behavior and sensitivities go unnoticed. When my mother would describe us to friends I was referred to as smart artistic one that would do what was told but in my own time and only after whining... my sister was the one that would do anything asked of her with a smile on her face... and that it was pointless to ask my little brother to do anything.

I found out this year my little brother has ADD. I also know he struggled in school and I thought he was just careless and didn't care. I also wondered if he had some sort of learning disability and it was just finally showing because school work got harder.

He's never been officially diagnosed I'm pretty sure my brother's got ADHD. He was always really hyper, climbed everything, destroyed things, struggled at school and needed constant attention from my mum. As he got older cutting out certain colours and sweeteners from his diet helped a lot.

He now channels most of his energy into drawing really strange but amazing pictures. He hopes to be an illustrator one day and he is in university at the moment studying illustration. He still has difficulty concentrating for long periods of time, but he has learnt many ways to cope with this.

It was difficult having such an attention grabbing brother because it meant that a lot of my difficulties were missed. My difficulties didn't become obvious until I was 12.

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I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )