Family history of autism

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To use as a personal poll against an anti vaxxer that thinks doctors are evil. So I have to bring my own stats or it's "evil big pharma"

I would also like an explanation of how close the relation is to you biologically. If you have the time.

My immediate family is, or was, as far as I know, all NT. I was the exception to the rule. My family did the best they can with me but, as they say, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I must have been a real disappointment to them. If I had been a more normal child, teenager, adult, my mom might still be alive and she might have been there to see a successful woman, not the pathetic mess I was when she passed away.

Would like more votes by the end of the day

Aw, don't put yourself through that. I grew up with the anti-vaxxer crowd, being homeschooled in the Deep South. If it was simply a matter of putting the facts in front of them, there wouldn't be a problem - there's already an abundance of information proving the genetic links to autism. With these people, the issue is a deep-seated aversion to intellectual authority. They can't trust anyone, because the same people who tell them that autism isn't caused by vaccines are the ones who challenge their cultural and religious roots with notions like evolution and the big bang theory. Their entire belief system would break down if they accepted the authority of the scientific community, because most of their traditions would crumble in the face of facts. Their only option, if they want to safeguard their beliefs, is to reject scientific authority altogether. In light of that, evidence means nothing to them. More than that, it's the enemy. I suffered through years and years of their garbage reasoning that "proved" how foolish "big science" is compared to the "light of Christian reason." Having learnt about evolution outside of school, it was glaringly obvious that even the most educated of this breed didn't begin to understand what evolution even meant, yet they were trying to disprove it on principle.

I'm a Christian and don't believe in throwing away reason for no reason. Science and Christianity can coexist.

This person I have to spend time around and is a family friend. She distrusts doctors because she has chronic pain and depression, was pushed around by doctors, and became addicted to pain medication. So she way over compensated and now seems to believe everyone outside of science.

If I use my own numbers I think I still have a chance.

My brother is autistic and intellectually disabled. Other than that, I don't think there are any autistic people in my family.

I voted "suspect family members autistic."

Altho I am self-diagnosed, knowing what I know now, I am certain that my father was ASD. Of course he is no longer living but I am a lot like he was and he always seemed to understand me. My brother exhibited no autistic traits that I can recall; he was (and is) too sociopathic to tell much about.

Interestingly, in my fathers family he had a younger sister who showed a lot of autistic traits (she became a registered nurse) and an older sister with fewer traits (she was a factory worker). Neither of them married. And his mother, my grandmother, showed a number of autistic traits.

So yes, I feel I came by mine quite naturally.

My son, who is young enough to have all of the now usual vaccinations. Me, who only had polio vaccination as child and had all of the then usual childhood diseases. One older brother. Same vaccination status. I suspect my father and his sister. I suspect my brothers granddaughter (that is why I went through the diagnostic process). Possibly one of my other siblings children.

I'm not really sure why my dad (prone to regular meltdowns, says whatever's in his head, used to be cleverer than socially intelligent but unfortunately has lost a lot of his knowledge/memory over the years, used to be highly gifted and got out of the underclass into the middle class through his brains, lacking in realism of his plans, touch sensitive, can't do small talk) who's been in the mental health system for years hasn't been diagnosed with autism. All I can think of is that it's because schizophrenia is a 'bigger deal' and they don't want to burden him.

My mum isn't autistic which I know because she's an ambivert and needs friends and if she doesn't have contact with friends then she gets depressed and she is wonderful with people, the best person I know with adults and children and animals, especially with me, but her childhood would have read as autistic. It's because she's dyslexic and dyspraxic (diagnosed later in life). She couldn't talk throughout her childhood in a way that other humans understood so she developed close bonds with animals, especially dogs, all the time being bullied by other kids and not understanding why. She couldn't write well either and was bullied by her teachers. I hate her childhood. She's been vegetarian since 7 and is now 51. Maybe not a big deal if someone did that today but she started in the 70s when that meant living on a very limited diet and occasionally missing meals.

My granddad, I never thought was but over the years I'm starting to suspect it. He's very stubborn and stuck in his ways and has been as a youngster too. He's blunt about things and has his own little catch phrases and hums. He's a very quiet man who prefers people not visit or if they visit that they keep themselves to themselves, which is why I'm his favourite granddaughter. He also likes routine a lot and always has his dinner at midday and tea at five and supper at seven, always the same sorts of things.

My auntie and cousins just aren't. They're really NT. I'm learning as an adult to get along with them and see their depths, which for whatever reason they like to hide from the world, talking mostly about fashion and shopping...

My stepdad isn't biologically related to me but he's close emotionally to me. Mum likes men who would have been diagnosed as aspie. She told me that. He also would have been diagnosed as ADHD, according to her. His aspie traits are that he's very pedantic, not very socially aware (those two things combine in him going around businesses and telling them their apostrophes are in the wrong place or carrying around a black marker pen and doing the corrections himself), intelligent, stubborn, speaks mostly through catch phrases, acts exactly as he does in private as in public so he pretends he's playing cricket when out in public, highly imaginative and prone to obsession/specialist interests. And in terms of degree he is as well. I'm really glad that mum fell in love with him because it meant my childhood was full of imagination, intelligence and acceptance of being a bit different. His faults can make him annoying though (like once I told him as a child that something wasn't 'my fault' ie it was accidental. He said 'what was the cause if it wasn't you?'...) and when I tell him the internet's 'broken' he says 'it hasn't snapped in half it's faulty' instead of helping. His method of small talk is questioning people about their jobs as if he's a job interviewer, like a script.

My dad was a savant and had the perfect childhood. He got the gene from his mother, who was basically my twin.

Myself has it. Three of my cousins have it. I have suspect that my paternal grandmother has it. I also have uncles from both sides of the family whom I also suspected.

I don't know any autistic people in my family besides myself.

Not even aspie-like, not even autistic-like. Both sides of my family have next to no autistic traits.
Not even 'awkwardness', not even 'clumsiness', not even a lick of language 'oddity'.

In my immediate family, very likely nothing.
If I have ND relatives, it'll likely be my cousins through the in-laws' side of family history and neither my own.


Closest would be my paternal side, but it's too late for me to conclude. All I'm certain about is my dad isn't 'aspie-like'.

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2 cousins diagnosed on my father's side of the family. Suspect my dad and especially his dad.

I'm an only child but neither of my parents & noone in my extended family are on the spectrum. I have other disabilities & disorders that could supposedly be inherited but I'm the only one in my family with them. I'm just a fluke I guess. As for as the anti-vaxers go, I had all my vaccinations but my mom suspected me of being on the spectrum when I was a toddler before for I got most(or maybe any) of them.