Do you have a family member who has AS or autism?

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The son of a second or possibly third cousin of mine (i am not sure what you would call that) is LFA...non-verbal..

My dad's dad...was a chemical engineer who was very clinical and methodical and habitual, and was a meticulous hoarder, who saved EVERYTHING...neatly packed in boxes...all his yogurt cups and toilet paper rolls etc etc ect...Anything he spoke about, he spoke about it with intense technical detail...and he was obsessed with all things technical and scientific. He always wore the same kind of clothes. He was the member of the family who was constantly concerned that I was not developing properly.
His tendancies could have been regarded as ASish...and I often think of him as such, but can't automaticly jump to that conclusion..

His brother never married and was extremely eccentric. He was also a hoarder who was obsessed with information...he was a more likely candidate to be someplace on the spectrum.

I will stop there rather than give an outline of every person in my family who seems to exhibit traits......
there are undiagnosed traits on my mom's side too...and I seem to take after her in alot of ways...

Some family members seem to posess ASish memory/visual skills, but without any obvious social/sensory dysfunctions...

...Wheras I seem to posess more of the social/sensory dysfunctons, but only a glimpse of the special skills...

My dad has AS. He isn't officially diagnosed, because he's rather in denial about it. but it's very, very, obvious. (at least to people who know what AS is...)

...My (2&1/2 years) younger brother is " for real " autistic and ret*d - DX'd that way (if mildly for both) , is quite childlike , lives in a (v. nice) group home .

My father is either a Aspie or has some other disconnection disorder which makes him not care about the well being of his own children, including me!

I have a older cousin on my dad side that is mentally challenged and a dead uncle that was. My dad is fine my mom is fine. I don't think nobody has autism or aspergers in my family. Then again I don't know my family much though. I never really talked to them other than just saying hi and small talk.

My bro has aspergers just like me.
I think it runs strongly on boths sides of the family.

There are special skills?

I think both my parents might have some traits, but dad's more of a narcissist than an Aspie. As for other relatives, I don't know, but I don't think there's anyone else that's not an NT. But there are other stuff that runs in the family, like depressions and alcoholism...

Well, neither of my parents are NT. My dad is OCD & has some aspie traits, but I don't think severe enough to be diagnosed. My mum is a social phobic but has no "special interests".

There was a great-aunt on my dad's side who almost certainly had it - she had rigid routines, was very brisk & abrupt with people & had no friends, & she had a mouth full of rotting teeth so you could smell her coming a mile off (I used to always be told I was like her - help!), and I have an "eccentric" female cousin on my mum's side (goes around with people much younger than her, works with computers, has only ever had one relationship) who may.

My maternal grandfather died when I was 3 but apparently he was excessively strict & controlling.

So if it is on both sides of my family, no wonder I am the way I am!

Sorry...I know that not everyone on the spectrum has special skills...But some people on the spectrum do...no?

I am reading and was somewhat thinking/referring to Temple Grandin's "Thinking in Pictures"...where she is talking about how her mind works....likesay seing rotatable 3-d images in her head and whatnot....

There are people in my family who have really efficient visual/spatial minds....I used to work for my dad's brother, who has a mind that ...and he is an architecht/designer with a photographic memory that he uses in his work....and he has this amazing recall for long strings of information and he can memorise a phone number if you just tell it to him.....and so on....He, essentially is NT, i guess....as he is highly functional socially and has a broad scope of interests and skills......but he has an unusual mind...which seems to come from the side of the family where there are members who are/were more on the spectrum...like my grandfather's brother...

I have a visual mind in the sense that i will be kept awake sometimes by visions of schematics of different dolls I could make....head shapes, and shapes of different limbs and clothing patterns and so on.......and if someone needs to find something around the house, I usually have a visual memory of where things are... Flakey calls it my "Aspie Super Power" (whether it actually is or not)....because I can locate really small objects in our big hulking disorganised heap of a warehouse.

I am useless at math (except for dominoes)....and at remembering names and numbers and I can't recognise most of the celebrities in movies...there are many things for which my mind is rather inefficient...and I am of average intelligence....but I am good at visualisation...there is also a musical streak that i will not go into because I have rambled enough.

Last edited by poopylungstuffing on 12 Mar 2008, 9:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

There's nothing to be sorry for, I was just genuinely curious, and I now see what you mean.

People with an ASD generally have a more fragmented cognitive pattern than normal people, better in one thing than normal, but below normal in another. That's what they say anyway.

I personally think that it's the other areas of the brain compensating for the deficits inherent in the disorders (it'd explain why it took me so long to read/write/speak, and now that I've gained these abilities, they're seen as atypical and normal for someone with a higher functioning form of autism), but that's purely speculation on my part.

I have a good memory for facts, and also a decent attention to detail (the latter my mother who is normal beats me, but I'm far better than her with the former). A good memory for facts seems to be common in ASDs.

I was more of a fact junkie when I was younger and I loved the Book of Lists series and the People's Almanac...and various other "books of facts".......It seems as it was the only way I learned anything at all.....Now that I am older, it seems that there is too much sensory bombardment everywhere for me to absorb things the way I used to.

but remaining on the topic at hand...

My mom is very introverted...has alot of sensory issues..is prone to all-consuming obsessions...almost always wears the same kind of clothes...doesn't drive (like me)....so that might put her on the spectrum...possibly maybe...

No one in my family really, just me. :]

2nd cousin ( my grandmother's sister's son) PDD-NOS. Ironic enough, he was compared a lot to me as a child ( hes 8 years younger then me).

Other then that? Dad is socially awkward. My mom's told me if they hadn't gotten married, then she doesn't think he'd ever get married. Has a set group of friends and doesn't stray far from them.

Mom's completely NT.

Have an aunt who's not NT. Not exactly sure what she has. Lots of social problems, special interests. Very egocentric (everything has to relate to her or she changes the subject, very bluntly sometimes) Maybe aspie. Generally tries not to interact with the family.

Everyone else's NT that i know of.

I'm alone on it.

I strongly suspect my nephew has AS because he is exactly the way I was when I was his age, he turns 10 April 1st.

I also think my dad had AS, but since he is gone, an official diagnosis is not possible.