Autism and family.....question...

[e79243]

Does anyone try to guess how they got this or try to find people that have this in the family? My dad was a lot older than my mother. That could be it so I hear. Also I look at my moms personality and my dads personality and can tell my dad may have Autism and my mother clearly has mental illness. She cannot get along with people and she is always mad. She is a narcissistic person too. My dad just never smiled and never talked. Would love to hear your story on this....

 

[wanderer03]

I KNOW I got the autism from my father's side. My dad was never diagnosed but everyone strongly suspects he is on the spectrum.

 

[wanderer03]

I was professionally diagnosed 2 years ago at 37. I'm 39 now.

 

[e79243]

It is a very sensitive subject I can tell with most when we try to find out why we got this When I talk to most they all say father and they all say he was much older when had them

 

[Nitro]

I stumbled onto my autism when looking into another issue.My family history was brought up and we strongly suspect that members who are no longer with us were too. My father is suspect,but oldschool won't want to have it checked along with one sibling.

There are no doubt many cases of it that will never surface because not all of us struggle with how we go about our world,we just dismiss the traits as quirks and find our own ways to cope.

I think that the spectrum has very strong genetic ties...if you have further questions,feel free to private message me and I will answer what I can

 

[Astroganga]

I reckon my mum is, her sister, her uncle was and thinking about it, possibly her late grandma as well. My mum also had a cousin or second cousin who I think was diagnosed with some type of autism but not 100% on that. My mum's family is extremely inbred by English standards-if you go back a few generations the same names crop up again and again, her parents were blood relatives (they didn't know this when alive, I found out through research) and all four of her grandparents were fairly closely related sometimes in multiple ways-again something they were unaware of, except for her maternal grandparents being second cousins-I'd imagine this would probably amplify any genetic component. On my dad's side there are one or two people diagnosed and some others I suspect.

 

[Stik]

I'm convinced it's from my dad's side of the family. I suspect he is on the spectrum but will never get diagnosed. I'm thinking both of my half sisters are on the spectrum as well. My brother seems to be the only child that doesn't appear to be on the spectrum. My dad was older when he made me but younger for my half sisters. I seem to have the most issues and the eldest seems to have the least. I also think that my dad's sister was on the spectrum and one of her grandchildren that's about my age. My aunt was into genealogy and found out that we are related to Mozart and several people that got pushed out of towns because of their different views. There's also a lot of extraordinarily creative people in my family tree, including myself (I'm done being modest about my creativity, hehe). I find it all really interesting. It is a sensitive subject to most people though. They've opened up more since I've been diagnosed with high functioning autism but it's still a touchy subject.

 

[e79243]

I think my dad has it. I have not talked to him since I moved out many years ago. He never smiled. He kept to himself. He had no interests. He had no hobbies. He never talked unless absolutely necessary. He never showed he was happy. He ignored all kids in home. He was much much older when had me

 

[wanderer03]

My dad had few interests and hobbies. He is fairly isolated with no social life or network of friends to speak of.

 

[Nacho]

It's weird, because no one in my family is officially diagnosed. But my father is much alike me, without the meltdowns part.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

I'm leaning more towards my father's side. I have a second cousin who also as Asperger's on that side but it might be a pretty big stretch to me. That's the only link I've got. I don't know about mental illness, you could say I got it from my mum's side since there's a lot of depression and anxiety there but I feel my depression is born out of my inability to cope with daily living more so than anything else so that goes back to the autism from my dad's side.

 

[midlife aspie]

Definitely my mother. I'm the first person in my family to explore this. Mom is definitely mentally ill with co-morbids now, likely paranoid schizophrenia.