Is your AS inherited?

Post Reply New Topic

No one in my family is formally diagnosed; however, I would surmise that my great uncle on my mother's side has it, and my uncle (same side) might have it. I am the only formally diagnosed one. My sister has a few aspie like traits, but it's not enough for her to be diagnosed. She is still considered NT. (Imagine that, a post of mine without any anger in it! lol)

My son is dx'd, but no one else in my generation or any in the previous ones were diagnosed or exhibited strongly enough to have an alternate offered. My parent each show minor aspects of it; I seem to bring theirs together.


M.

I don't think Autism runs in my family, but my mom HATES noises and my dad has lack of eye contact.

Yes, because it is very inconsistent with my experience.
I am the only Aspie in my family.
My mother has some problems with noise. My father has a tendency to not making a lot of eye contact and being a bit aloof and singleminded.
My maternal grandfather had big problems with noise, he was often lost in his own thoughts and he loved plucking clocks and watches a part. Clocks and animals/nature were his special interests, but not to the point of mine obsessions.
Both my parents are happy to avoid socialising and they don't invite people home, but they -esp my mother - are just fine with socialising a bit, whereas I avoid it at all cost. If I don't have anything in particular to say or ask about, I am unable to find anything to say. I have never had a normal casual conversation with anyone beyond my parents/grandparents - and even then it can be awkward at times...
Several of my father's siblings could be described as odd, but they are all very social and rather popular, too, I think and they have no lack of social skills.
So it seems that nearly everyone in my family has at least one trait that is typical of AS, but none of them meet any part of the official criteria. There is no one in my immediate family with an ASD.

Which is why I wondered what the percentage would be here.

I saw it mentioned somewhere (but I can't remember where) something about an Aspie's family often exhibiting traits and that when certain of their genes are grouped in one individual (that being their offspring) they combine to become AS. It is very interesting to see that many of you have chosen the "some traits" option.

Thank you very much for your input, guys!
I find it very interesting - and reassuring!

family with many traits, although i am loathe to really label anyone as it is for the most part, their personal business.
another nephew HFA, others evident with such clusters of traits to seem highly likely they are on the spectrum., but they choose not to look at the issue, so i have learned not to berate them with it.
mother admits to many traits and says she thinks two of her 8 (me dx'ed) are on spectrum.

All four of my grandparents (now deceased) had LOTS of AS traits, very likely enough to qualify for a diagnosis. My mother and most of her siblings seem to have a lot of trait as well.

I don't know of any "classic" autism, but I do know that some ancestors were outcasts and lived in poverty. It wouldn't surprise me if autism was a factor in some of that. If anyone was LF autistic, they would probably have been kept secret, because that's how my extended family was.

My dad has several traits but not sure if I'd call it AS. He's had the same sort of routines for as long as I can remember, and he and my mom, who is very NT, have always had communication problems. He's worn the same kind of clothing probably for his whole life...I counted once and he had 54 polo shirts. (Funny story...my mom always buys him new ones for his birthday, and he is genuinely excited that he has new ones that are exactly the same because his old ones are 'worn out'.) HIS father was some kind of mechanical genius and could build/fix anything, which sounds more like AS to me, but I didn't know him very well. My younger sister, on the other hand, is the most NT person I've ever met--very social, talkative, hugs everyone, etc. She and I don't even look alike. It's bizzare how genes interact sometimes...

I have at least one family member with AS on my dad's side and a few more that I suspect might have it. They all live overseas though and I do not see them often so there might be even more. My immediate family (mother, father, sister and brother) and most on my mum's side are *very* NT and are all very popular with great social skills.

I'm pretty sure my dad has it, but not as bad as I ended up with. He doesn't like socializing that much, unless it's about one of his interests, but he can and enjoys it somewhat when he has to. My mother might have it mildly, she doesn't like socializing either, but that's really the only symptom she has. She's probably just an introvert.

No Aspies or suspected aspieness in my family...but many members on both sides have struggled with anxiety, depression, learning disabilities and substance abuse. Also my cousin and grandma have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and my younger sister has a developmntal delay, ADHD and ODD.

I've recently come to suspect that my 4 year old niece might have a few AS traits, but I won't mention the possibility untill I've found sufficient evidence because the whole ASD thing is still quite new and foreign to my family (I'm the first to be formally diagnosed).

"One or more have traits of it but not the full picture".
No one else dxed with an ASD, but definitely traits here and there.
Plus a bunch of things (including mental; or what have you) run throughout the family on both sides.

On my father's side I believe my great -grandmother,grandfather,older uncle. I also think my sister also has AS in the "worst" way.

My father is clearly has undiagnosed AS.
My great grandmother did as well but at the time, no one in my family knew what AS was, they just thought she was 'not quite there' (their words, not mine).

Hmm... it's hard to say. I think my mother may have some aspie traits of social naivete, but then again she has a decent amount of friends and is often quite social with them. She definitely has a strong personality, though. Hmm... I dunno, really.

That's really hard to say; my mom was really screwed up in the head, and to this day I say should've been in a mental institution; my Dad has sh*t-poor social skills, and strange mannerisms himself, but whether he has AS or not is unknown because he won't get tested for it; our parents generation never really wanted to look for things like that, so we'll never know with them; it is what it is.

I'm just the easiest guy I know to "out".