poll: are you the only "different" person in your family?

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this article posted in this other thread got me thinking. i come from a "multiplex family", as they call it in the article. in other words, i'm not the only clinically atypical person in my family. i'm just more atypical than the rest of my family. but my father and my brother have some stereotypical aspie traits that i don't (which my psychiatrist pointed out), while my mother and my sister both seem to have personality disorders (which my therapist pointed out)

also my father's only brother is diagnosed with schizophrenia (although to me he seems to have autism instead. i'm pretty sure it was a misdiagnosis), his mother had severe ocpd (she may or may not have been autistic, it's hard to tell. but she was an extremely blunt person, i can say that much), and it sounds like his father was also very aspie-like (except he was more reserved instead, but very fond of routine. i say "sounds like" because he died before i was born. but everything my father says about him fits, and he stands out in all family photos. different expression than everybody else. and seriously, a normal person would never have married my grandmother )

and come to think of it, the people i tend to identify with usually come from "multiplex families" too. autistic siblings, severe ocd, serious personality disorders, bipolar disorder, etc. it makes me wonder if the reason why i identify with them is because there's some kind of innate similarity (from the combination of various messed-up genes), or if the commonality is more about an upbringing with intricate family issues (from the interplay of various messed-up personalities in the family). although one of the usual commonalities is a level of apparent normality, so i'm inclined to believe that it's the latter

so, thinking not only about autism spectrum, but any significant deviation from the norm in terms of innate traits: would you say you're the only "different" one in your family? (it doesn't have to be anything concrete. for the purpose of this question, suspicion is already enough)

i'm the only one [until recently] that is over 6' tall, with olive/hazel/brown eyes, the only one with perfect pitch, the only one with scoliosis, the only one who doesn't wear glasses, the only liberal, the only one who failed in college.

I am not the only different one although I am the only one with ASD diagnosis.

My dad also has aspie traits but he refuses to go to a psychologist and he does socially better than me despite being worse in reading facial expressions.

He has a mentally delayed oldest sister. I don't know what her diagnosis is (not autism because she is 70 year old now so they didn't diagnose it when she was a kid) but her family treats like some kind of maid and she sits in her corner most of the time, speaking something to join conversation but noone listens to her because she totally ignores the rules of conversation, won't follow the topics and doesn't know when is the time to speak and when you should wait and listen. When I was a kid my family often compared me to her. "Stop behaving like your aunt! You don't want to end like her".

He also has 2 other sisters (older-middle and the youngest one) and while they don't seem in the spectrum they are not fully normal either. The older one isn't that far from the norm (or maybe I just don't know her enough) and her two children are normal (her oldest son stutters but her daughter is example of NT in my opinion) but the youngest sister has some emotional issues and married a man that might be in the spectrum(he is very silent and always disappears during family meetings) and their two daughters are very shy, although they don't seem to be in the spectrum - just shy.

And sister of my mom is an introverted NT with SPD, depression and neurosis.

I know for sure that I'm the only neurodiverse one in my family (diagnosed with mild AS), but I'd imagine my mother has some AS traits.

not enough options,
as kids we sometimes wished that we had normal parents!
our kids had that also!

In terms of "difference"
I'm not sure. My family is a mixed bag of NTs (aside from myself), so does my extended family.

In terms of "neurology" and "eccentricity"
I'm the only one who ever got to a psychiatrist and diagnosed. And only had like 2 suspected ND cousins though it seems it's getting less likely.

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My mother is Bipolar and my father has ADHD. Everybody else is neurotypical. I do have two cousins on the spectrum, however.

One of my brothers is also diagnosed with Aspergers. The rest of the family doesn't have any diagnoses but I'm almost sure one of my sisters also has Aspergers, my mother might have Aspergers or at least she's quite unusual in many ways and my two other siblings and my father likely don't but I think they have some autistic traits.

I do not know which poll option to choose. I am an only child, so I have no siblings to have or not have anything. My mother has something going on with her, but she dislikes doctors of any sort so she never has been officially diagnosed with anything. My father does have MS. Most of my family does not believe in psychiatry so they ignore it even when they do get a diagnosis. Two of my cousins and their father have been told they have some kind of autism, but since they do not believe in autism, it is irrelevant to them. I found that out when I was telling my uncle about my own diagnosis. I have aunts and uncles (beyond the one I mentioned before) who have something going on with them, cousins as well (one of them has ADHD and his mom believes in that). Three of my cousins (who do believe in doctors/psychiatrists/diagnosis') have children who have been diagnosed with something... two of those kids are on the spectrum and the other has down syndrome.

Cognitive differences are the norm in my family. My father and his two brothers are all diagnosed with ADHD. One of them is clearly on the spectrum, the other two are just potentials. My uncle's three boys are all diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (US definition - the are not intellectually impaired) and ADHD. My mother's side includes a lot of suspicious but undiagnosed stuff and two cousins with significant intellectual challenges... although come to think of it, one of those kiddos is adopted. There are at least two cousins on that side with diagnosed dyslexia and ADHD.

Basically, if you look at my Dad's side, my brother is the only one who hasn't been diagnosed with ND stuff. I'd suspect he was adopted but we are crazy similar in appearance.

Genetically speaking, its a wonder my family doesn't develop green skin or go back to living in trees or something. I wish we had the ability to really trace what's going on here, because it's distinct. Especially with my brother "escaping" it. What happened there? He is as normal as you get. Some challenges with reading, but nothing that goes beyond what you would expect for a typically functioning teen who prefers sports to books.

My Dad's mom had something going on but it was undiagnosed. There is anxiety, my dad thought she might have had Asperger's, my mom thinks she had undiagnosed bipolar.

My dad's brother had dyslexia, anxiety, problems with anger and maybe AS.

My mom's oldest sister is a narcissist (not NPD) has Munchausen (diagnosed) and bipolar, hypochondriac and she has some magical thinking like she has a belief she can cure any condition out there with diets and herbs and stuff.

My mom's second oldest sister has some undiagnosed learning disability

My mom's younger sister is a schizophrenic and bipolar

My mom's brother has color blindness and a blood clot condition so he has to take pills for it to keep it from happening

My cousin on my dad's side is also bipolar

My youngest brother has ADD and clinical depression and color blindness

My dad has ADHD and a few aspie traits and takes pills for depression and has diabetes

I have a cousin on my mom's side with ADHD

My great great grandfather on my mom's mother's side of the family (my grandmother's mom's father) was an alcoholic

My mom is a cancer survivor and now lives with chronic pain from the therapy. She also has arthritis and a bad back


I have relatives on my mom's side who had speech disorders and one of my aunt's had a language delay. My mom's brother had problems with saying two of the letters so he was in speech therapy for it. I think one of my mom's sisters was in there too. There is also other relatives with color blindness. I also have relatives who have different lives I find atypical like my cousin still living with her parents and has never tried to move out and she related to elderlies and not to anyone else younger than that. I had a great uncle who was never married and thought friends and women were too much work so he was a loner.

The spectrum runs strong on my maternal side of the family. Out of 6 children, 2 are diagnosed with Aspergers (including myself), 3 show strong signs of being on the spectrum, and only 1 appears to be NT. I also have at least 1 niece that shows symptoms as well. I can't speak for extended family, because I haven't been around them enough to gauge and they're ridiculously secretive of their issues. Although, I know there's a few people with dyslexia.

On my dads side, it's the opposite story. I'm the only one on the spectrum. The only person I know that had any mental issues was my grandmother, who died before I was born. She apparently she was a high IQ Bi-Polar sufferer.

My cousin's son is an aspie too.

The rest are somewhat normal by broad definition...