Aspies with schizophrenic relatives.

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I'm just wondering if you think you're at all different than other Aspies? I'm really curious about this, have had an idea in my mind for some time that the Aspie with schizophrenics relatives may present differently than "classic" AS, if you will. Specifically, do you think you read people too well instead of not reading them well enough but still have most of other AS traits?

I've just found out two more of my cousins are paranoid schizophrenic recently. Right around my age. My father is too, I think the grand total of paranoid schizophrenics. for my paternal family (that I know of) is around 6 now.

And I am so much like some of the Aspies here, but in some ways the complete opposite, I've heard some of you say though that you feel hypersensitive/feel like you have too much empathy as opposed to too little and that's exactly what I feel like but am so similar to people with AS in almost every other aspect.

So I'm wondering if those of you who do feel like you actually read other people too well and may present a little more NT than some other people with Asperger's have a family history of schizophrenia?

Interesting side note-red hair is often discussed as occurring frequently in AS and autism. Almost all of the paranoid schizophrenics in my family are redheads.

I have no idea when it comes to your questions, but I am an autistic redhead with schizophrenic and schizoaffective relatives. While I am a genetic redhead, said relatives inherited different colors of hair.

Fascinating. I got on Wrongplanet for the first time in months because I wanted to see if there was any information on aspies with relatives who have schizophrenia.
I spent a long Easter weekend with my autistic, anxiety ridden, schizophrenic family. . .

EXPECIALLY, I feel similary to the way you do in that I read people very well most of the time.
I have a lot in common with aspies here and with aspies I know in person; however, I do not experience the excessive empathy many of them describe. Many of the aspies I know in person are prone to crying and other emotional outbursts, positive and negative, are extremely expressive in their emotions (even if they express them "inappropriately"), and some of them feel so much, that they cannot stand to listen to a terrible news stories because they cannot handle the emotions it causes them to feel.
(Note: I think you were saying you feel this way, but it was not entirely clear to me if you meant you feel too much empathy, just like some of the others say, or if you meant you feel just like what they say they do not feel.)
I go through periods of feeling strongly, but it is only when I do it to myself on purpose for the sake of seeing if I can feel anything...
I do not need as much help as most of the people I know who have asperger's (I work fulltime, go to school, and live alone).
I also find I genuinely do not enjoy spending time with other people most of the time, whereas most of the other aspies I know want to socialize but do not know how. When I have gone out with some of the aspies and friends of a local autism orginazation, they seem to get a lot out of it, while I feel like I wasted my time.
The people I know with asperger's (that are not part of my family) do talk, and talk, and talk about their interests regardless of how interested other people are in the subject. The people in my family with some form of autism rarely do this to the point of annoying anyone. When they do go a little too far, they typically catch themselves before anyone deep sighs or tells them to stop (Interestingly, a few who express symptoms of ADD or who have schizophrenia but not autism do the talking on and on and on thing- but the subjects change quickly)
Another thing I have noticed is the people with some form of autism in my family tend to be able to process a lot of information quickly and are able to communicate thoughts, form jokes, or even make decisions relatively quickly. People I know with autism who are not part of my family tend to be very slow in conversations, have difficulty with jokes, and need a great deal of help in making quick decisions.

I have assumed these things have less to do with the fact that schizophrenia runs in my family and more to do with the simple fact that we are family, so autism aside, we share traits. However, it would be intersting to see if other people with schizophrenia in their family have had similar observations.

Before I was diagnosed with asperger's syndrome, I used to be concerned that I would wind up with schizophrenia. Though the people in my family with autism are highly logical and very much live in the real world, and the people with schizophrenia do not always seem to understand reality, a lot of the behaviors they exhibit are the same, and I think many people who met the more severly affected people in my family would assume they all had the same disorder.

(Yes, that was very long. One more thing!)
I am not a redhead, but four aspie siblings in my family, their non-aspie as far as we know sister, and their mother all have redhair. They have one aspie brother who does not have redhair and two non-redhead sisters who display aspie traits.

My great uncle Edward believed he could communicate with Satan (he used to set his shirt on fire), my dad believes he is a member of the SS (after many drinks), I myself used to 'go elsewhere,' when the bulls***t became too much.

Surprisingly I do fairly well considering what I have been through. I find it ironic that my initial diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia and it changed to schizoaffective, not the other way around.

My mom has borderline, manic depression, and now schizophrenia. The state will not hospitalize her because she's not apparently dangerous. I don't know what good it would do for her, considering the state of hospitals from my personal experience. Of course, after she was medicated for a week she was back to her normal self, forgiving, and accepting. Then she complained the medication was making her head go blank and she quit taking the medication.

I asked my therapist to test me and I have Aspergers according to the DSM. I don't know how logical the assessment is, because it is very general and I wasn't formally diagnosed with it because it isn't really apparent. I had to adapt to harsh conditions growing up with sensitivity to my parents' divorce and fighting at home because of issues in my parents' marriage.

I think it's a mistake to diagnose any teenager with schizophrenia, and then force him/her to take medication for the rest of their life. Another reason my mom is crazy is because she came at odds with my father in labeling me with schizophrenia, and the system itself practically destroyed me because of his poor decision.

If I do have schizophrenia or schizoaffective, I must be in denial of it. Of course, I'm expected to agree with them, not put it in my personal experience based perspective. My dad is demanding that either I work or go to college. I've grown up with this label and yet I'm expected to conform to society's expectations, similarly being denied the fruits of human self expression.

Schizophrenia, on this very intrinsic level, is a conformity model for behavior.

I have family members with serious mental disorders which includes my narcissistic mom, alcoholic schizophrenic dad and voilent aggressive brother.
I exhibit Aspie symptoms but i dont know i might be carrying schizophrenia also

I love to socialise but dont know how to do and often end up being alone or lonely
i have emotional outburst very sensitive
Holding a job is difficult for me due to lack of social skills

I dont hate human company but would prefer that they dont judge me and pass nasty comments

I'm so called Schizophrenic, and my dad has an illness and we don't know what it is, but I can't say how it affects my AS symptoms.

My younger brother has shown prodromal schizophrenia symptoms for over five years now. We knew he wasn't doing well around 2006 when he lost heaps of weight and we knew he was doing drugs. But one night he asked me to come in his room. I tried to turn the light on but it didn't work and he told me he took the bulb out. Then he put his mattress against the door and sat against it. I asked him what was wrong and he just went on this tirade combining about half a dozen things that I knew has some kernel of truth to them but blended them into this paranoid plot about our former work mates trying to kill him. He told me he wanted me to kill him so 'they' wouldn't have the satisfaction. Later that night we managed to get him to hospital and before we left him he was adamant that me and our mum shouldn't go back to the house because 'they' were going to be there.
It's pretty messed up to see someone that you know just completely lose touch with reality. In the years since he's also thought that I wasn't real but just a figment of his imagination. He gets better on meds but then for some reason just stops taking them for a while without anyone knowing then ends up back in hospital.
So count me in for having a likely schizophrenic relative.

I'm too tuned in to everything for my own good; although this extreme seems to balance out occasionally with a complete shutdown. (In 2006, I had a psychotic break for which I never sought treatment) Before 2006 I couldn't feel anything except anger. Now I feel everything. I can smell sickness, I can tell from the way a car sounds what's wrong with it (example, my Dad's CRV which he wants to give me needs a new clutch and my friend Bambi's car needs transmission work), I have bizarre dreams that symbolize significant people in my life's emotional state (a dream of my bipolar friend crying in a rainstorm with a torn and dirty wedding dress on-- she had just gone through a depressive episode), etc. etc. etc. This stuff is enough to make me think I've gone completely insane!

My brother has schizophrenia; our conversations are very strange to those that overhear us.

I would be a red-head but my hair darkened, now it's almost auburn.

That's all I have for now. Interesting topic!

I am quite interested in this topic because my wife is schizophrenic/schizoaffective and our teenage son is diagnosed ASD.

Our son shows a few signs of prodromal schizophrenia eg silly smiling when it is inappropriate and also has said he did not feel part of the world. He did not have any problem with the "theory of mind" test for ASD and idioms or metaphors etc. His and my wife's thinking do seem rather overly rigid and they both don't seem to have a very good grasp of reality.

However our son seems ASD in a lot of ways. He has obsessive interests (not a schizophrenic trait) and has enormous organisational issues. He can have meltdowns and can shake his hands (slight stimming) then.

I am really not sure if he might become schizophrenic but I hope not and he seems to fit an ADD inattention or ASD diagnosis much better for now.

He is now seventeen and has probably shown some prodromal schizophrenic symptoms (eg silly inappropriate smiling) for quite a few years, say at a guess five years. I think he does possibly show some overlapping symptoms of ADD inattention (his original diagnosis), ASD (his current diagnosis) and prodromal schizophrenia.

His schizophrenic/schizoaffective mother is quite though not extremely paranoid but I don't think I have seen our son show any paranoid symptoms at all; he is quite a laid back kid. I first thought your reference to SPD was to sensory processing disorder, not schizoid personality disorder (the danger of acronyms!). I think schizoid personality disorder is a possibility, as I think I am on the continuum towards that myself. He has much less friends than I had at high school (in fact he has no real friends, and last got invited out a couple of years ago) but now I have very few friends, although this may be a function of a rather difficult life (schizophrenic wife who has now left and left the kids to me). I do think if I had quite a few friends at high school and was quite popular, but now have few friends, how is it going to be for my son who has now not had friends for the past four or five years. Is he going to live a life of social isolation?

There does remain the risk of him developing schizophrenia (1 in 10) but he does not show enough signs of an unrealistic fantasy world etc to make me think it a probability.