Autism as Transgenerational Trauma - a hypothesis

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Ah yeah, it doesn't have to be war trauma specifically, any kind if trauma severe enough to make an epigenetic change in the body will do.

Sorry for any confusion, my other thread with the poll is talking about war trauma specifically, that was because this topic made me wonder just how many of us had parents or grandparents etc who fought in wars. But for this thread, it doesn't have to be caused by war per se.

Actually, I'm seeing quite a few papers mentioning maternal stress or illness during pregnancy as being linked to autism in the baby.

So we could be talking trauma related to domestic violence, injury or illness, losing ones home, being fired from a job, or various highly stressful life circumstances faced with insufficient support.

My mum was autistic herself without any support and with my paternal grandmother living next door, bullying her and refusing to help with my toddler brother in any way. I don’t know what that was all about but we all know how stressful it is to be an autistic parent. Maybe the high stress of maternal autism puts the developing baby at a disadvantage, on top of the fact autism can be genetic.

I was highly stressed during my pregnancy with my second baby, but no so much my first. They’re both on the spectrum.

Eh.

My parents were the types that ended up being breadwinners to their siblings for being older than them.


Let's see... My family, both sides, do not have war stories to tell. Nor they have religious complexes. Nor are the impossibly high standards super achievers. Nor the toxic conformism and imagery.

These are just common household issues within the culture I grew up into.
And so far, nothing like that had passed onto them.

The common household issues both sides of my family is particularly related to scarcity -- things related to financial issues, and somehow something to do with opportunism.


The worst bits either of my sides of the family I have is alcoholism, ignorance (which is strange -- they have the acceptance but not the knowledge nor understanding), and violence.
No rape, no complicated mind games, no suicide, no disowning...

Shame doesn't seem to be too strong, but there are some fear, some guilt and a lot of anger...


I'm not sure where all that anger came from exactly.
But I can assume it's from said financial and opportunistic issues, and overall helplessness; thus the acceptance and openness, yet the lack of understanding and navigation through whatever needed to overcome such.


But if all that anger came from the seemingly limited mindsets -- then where did said mindsets came from?
What kind of trials precisely? I'm not sure.


Yet still.
If the hypothesis is true, then I'm the first (those who are before me have ND tendencies from families that married to either sides of my family -- in which people that are not related to me but has stronger tendencies to give ND descendants that are related to me by whatever degree) and whatever future kids I, my sister or cousins may have are likelier to be autistic...

... And if it's not true, then I'm an anomaly. Full stop.
Another factor and statistical causation to cross out from the list of candidates of 'where did my autism came from?'

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well, there are a few ways that people get autism:

One is where there are genes for autism in the family, so they have a high polygenic risk. Usually something environmental or epigenetic has to turn on enough of those genes for the person to be autistic. Many of us here can see autistic traits running through our families, so this would be our situation.

Another way is that the person has a genetic syndrome, like Downs or Fragile X or Rett syndrome, which causes all kinds of difficulties along with autism.

But another way is that a person could have a 'de novo' gene mutation which causes autism. I think it's not as common as polygenic autism. In this case, you might be the only person in your family with autism, you might not see autistic traits in anyone else, it seems to come out of the blue.

The last kind is more likely if your parents were older when you were born, as there is more time for mutations to occur. Or sometimes it's related to the maternal grandmother when she was pregnant - as a mutation can occur affecting only the ova of her fetus (which then becomes you).

I didn't go into that much detail in the original post, just trying to keep things simple. Which of course, never really works because if there is one thing we can all say about autism etiology, it is never simple.

here is an article about transgenerational epigenetics

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190326-what-is-epigenetics

Generational trauma isn’t real. Trauma from abuse is.

People who experience trauma and end up having kids with ASD may have just started a family too late. After maternal age 34 the probability of conditions like ASD shoot up.

So, if you were a refugee or had a troubled childhood, you might end up being stunted or starting a family later than the norm or optimum.

But the concept that people can co-opt the imagined trauma of their forebears like it’s a disease seems like learned helplessness manifest. It would deeply offend me if someone called into work due to generational trauma.

If you want to feel really old right now, just remember you started life in your maternal grandmothers womb.

Baby girls are born with all the eggs they will ever have and that includes what made you. It does scramble the mind,

I'm still trying to figure out if that makes me as old as my grandmother or mother, if my DNA is 100 years old or not?

https://spotlight.leeds.ac.uk/research- ... index.html

https://www.smallacorn.co.uk/funfactfri ... hers-womb/

This is only my personal view. I don't care where my autism comes from. All I care about is that I am autistic.

Reason: I'm also an alcoholic. Like millions of alcoholics have done before me, all I need to do is find a reason for my alcoholism in order to justify drinking myself to death. Instead I'm 31 years sober.

Gah, I just wrote a reply and my internet crashed and I lost it...

Trying to remember what I was saying, I can see that knowing the reason behind a problematic personal behaviour might be used as an excuse to continue that behaviour.

But I'm thinking more on a societal level. If, hypothetically, trauma in one generation was related to increased autism in the following generations, it might help draw attention to the amout of trauma in modern society and do some good. And I think it is better to understand the reasons for things, knowledge is power.

Plus, I'm just curious.

Yes, and I have the feeling that epigenetics will tell us a lot more about autism than genetic studies have done. Genetic studies have shown us that there are many hundreds of genes which create a polygenic risk - but genetic risk alone does not cause autism. There have to be some environmental factors which act epigenetically to turn those autism genes on. And that probably occurs prior to birth.