Do you think one or both of your parents have autism?

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Is it likely that one or both of your parents were on the spectrum?
Yes, my mother 14%  14%  [ 11 ]
Yes, my father 45%  45%  [ 36 ]
Yes, both parents 18%  18%  [ 14 ]
No - neither of my parents were at all autistic 24%  24%  [ 19 ]
Total votes : 80

ThomasL
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21 Nov 2010, 4:39 am

There is some evidence that autism is hereditary. By autism, I mean anything on the spectrum, including HFA and Asperger's.

For the purposes of this poll, I don't care whether your parent(s) had an official diagnosis or not - if they seemed autistic, that's good enough. (Because Asperger's has only become widely diagnosed in the last decade or so - so obviously your parents were probably never diagnosed with it, but that doesn't mean they didn't have it.)

Any comments or thoughts on this topic are most welcome...



samsa
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21 Nov 2010, 4:58 am

None of my parents (or extended family for that matter) struck me as particularly autistic. That said, I never met my maternal grandmother, or my paternal grandfather.


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21 Nov 2010, 5:05 am

Dad: autistic.
Mum: possibly ADHD.


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Vladisvok
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21 Nov 2010, 5:31 am

My family generally agree my dad shows signs of AS, however he has no interest in finding out for sure.



xemmaliex
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21 Nov 2010, 5:34 am

My father has many of the trait associated with Aspersgers, as does my brother.
Him being an incredibly intelligent man, he might already know.


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Lace-Bane
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21 Nov 2010, 5:36 am

Both of my parents appear NT even though they are very odd in my opinion. As far as extended family, My cousin from my mother's side has AS and it has been mentioned that my Uncle or my cousin's father may have it too. So Autism is in my mother's side of the family to some extent. I know nothing about my fathers family. I had only met my grandmother and she definitely wasn't autistic.



stgiordanobruno
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21 Nov 2010, 5:49 am

Neither parent of mine were autistic but on my father's side he had whole family of 1st cousins which were almost certain to be autistic as well a probable autistic sister. I have never met her personally but there were plenty of funny stories my family kept speaking of about her life.



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21 Nov 2010, 6:22 am

My father has some strong AS traits though he has no diagnosis and may only be on the BAP. He is very gifted however so it could be an explanation though he has always had only one interest : airplane engines (but he still had some friends and "NT" habbits ad a teenager).

There are also many people with learning disorders so it's not hard to see why I have difficulties. :lol:



silvercat
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21 Nov 2010, 7:23 am

My mother is certainly on the spectrum.My father is NT.



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21 Nov 2010, 7:27 am

My parents were too relentlessly normal to be on the spectrum, and they took it out on me. I've reacted by living life my way.


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21 Nov 2010, 7:32 am

My father very possible had it too, though I am very unwilling to admit it because of the fact that I strongly dislike any hint that me and him might have been similar in any way.
But there, I said it: it is very likely that my father had Asperger's syndrome and he never sought any help or any explanation about the way he was. He just thought that he was superiour to others and that the sun shone through his every orifice and believed that breaking the rules he made was truly a capital crime. Blimey, he actually said those things from time to time, expecting, I suppose, that others will take them as a revelation and will rejoice and perhaps make a little altar so as to worship him three times a day.
He never stopped to bother whether it might be the other way round.

But then not all Aspies are created equal, for which I'll be eternally thankful. My maternal grandmother was definitely an Aspie as I remember her. She was a firm but calm disciplinarian and the fact that I now have a grasp of the basic rules you go by in society - being polite, for an example, are due to her 'parenting' me from very early age to about 4-5 years. It was she who encouraged me to read at age 4 and to write and make simple calculations some time later. If I misbehaved, she'd reprimand me and might even spank me (that was 30 years ago, for God's sake) but she wouldn't give me the silent treatment or be angry with me for days or any emotional-laden punishment. Which was much better, I think, because in the first case I got the message that I'd better not to whatever it was I did next time and in the second case I'd know that next time I do the same thing, I'd better try to hide the fact that I did it because it would lead to endless emotional torture anyway.
I guess I would have been a much greater mess if I've been left growing up with my cold and grandiose father and my very normal, very overwhelmed, very emotional mother.



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21 Nov 2010, 7:51 am

My Mom: some traits, logical mind, avoiding people, but she's NT.
My Dad: no way!


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Wraythen
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21 Nov 2010, 9:28 am

Dad's pretty much diagnosed himself.

Mum doesn't have it, though.



SunConure
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21 Nov 2010, 10:28 am

I'm pretty sure my Dad has it, less sure about my Mom. I think she's developed a pretty good NT 'mask' over the years which makes it difficult to be sure and she's got a lot of other problems from an abusive childhood. Her Dad's a Math Prof though, which I understand to be an Aspie-ish profession. It makes me wonder if he was on the spectrum. Never met him though.



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21 Nov 2010, 11:10 am

My dad and his dad.



Georgia
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21 Nov 2010, 11:16 am

My mother, for sure. She is also bipolar. I always thought her self-isolation and lack of friends was because of her mood swings, but I think it is much more complicated than that.
Two of her brothers are probably on the spectrum too.

Both of my parents are extremely intelligent, but never found vocations that matched their skills. (Something that I have inherited, unfortunately) My father has always been very social though, so I think he's NT.

I wonder if there is an in-eutero component to my AS as well. My parents were both heavy drug users when my mother got pregnant with me. Maybe if I would have already been inclined to have some traits of AS, the influence of drugs brought it out full force. (As well as some other recessive genes for a blood disorder that I have.)