To just remind you that autism is genetic?

just from my personal experience with family/friends amongst the disabled community i am part of.

Autism/ADHD tends to also come with very high incidences of Hypermobility, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Migraines, PCOS, eczema, Fibromyalgia, Asthma, Allergies, and Arthritis.

Most, if not all, have a mixture of those.

Its a mixture of stuff. Past history, mannerisms, speech patterns, body language.. when my DS when through the process there is a lot of questioning of the parent, so i spent enough time in his company that he could spot traits.

There was also my medical history that they went into, our family history (my brother was diagnosed with Aspergers when we were in our early 20s) and so on. The Dr was also an up and coming 'expert' on how it presents in women which had come on in leaps and bounds in recent years.

The good thing about these threads is that experienced commonalities are raised that one day might be worth researching. We are all like one big untapped resource really. I read on a thread not so long ago about someone who was convinced there was something about autism/polycystic ovary syndrome and BP- just as someone up thread mentioned autism and migraines. The more we discuss these things without fear of being jumped on, the better we can support each other. I would like to see research into the role hormones play for instance.

When British Telecom Research moved to Ipswich in the70s it brought with it a noticeable increase in autistic children.

My brother is autistic, highly functioning but limited, his 3 sons are all diagnosed too.

I suspect I am somewhere on the spectrum too, my DH is undiagnosed but definitely autistic, as is his mum and grandfather.

As such, I decided not to have children.

I don't think I would have enjoyed being a parent but also I didn't want the risk of a highly dependent autistic child, or have a child that finds the world so hard to navigate, it's hard enough as it is.

Actually, prescribed meds can cause autism. My DS's epilepsy meds when prescribed to women can lead to women giving birth to children with a higher incidence of autism.

I've not read the whole thread but I'm sure I'm not the only one to observe that neuro diverse people tend to stick together ie. breed and have Neuro divergent children. I speak from personal experience with my family. There's loads of us on both sides! We're all pretty great. It's society that tells us we're not. It's becoming so common even the name Neuro divergent might have to be changed one day. Diagnosis is better and the wide range of autistic spectrum signs is becoming more understood. That said, I had a colleague recommend to me that I try this herbal medicine for my kids to remove the heavy metals that were causing their Autism. She was a medical professional!

Examples of undiagnosed autism/ADHD in my family history:

Paternal aunt has diagnosis of BP. Sensitive child, prone to emotional outbursts. ECT as an adult. Anorexia.

Paternal grandfather: addicted to cigs and alcohol, ‘twitchy’, lots of vocal and motor tics, chronic anxiety.

Mum: can’t sit still, butterfly mind, tells stories from the middle, anxiety, won’t let anyone else relax, underachieved as a child (couldn’t concentrate).

Maternal grandmother: type B personality disorder, extreme need for order and control.

etc.

Not just my daughter- my son has x2 diagnosis and so do her cousins. You said autism was a “catch all for so many people” “these days”.That is incorrect. You will not get a diagnosis for autism to cover all the other neurodiversities I listed. They may overlap in some areas but they differ and if you don’t meet the threshold for autism you won’t get a diagnosis. If you don’t meet the threshold for ADHD you won’t get a diagnosis…. etc

It’s definitely more recognised these days - I agree, in the past people were ‘eccentric’, ‘a bit odd’… nowadays they’d be recognised as autistic. I am (but didn’t realise until my 30s - at school I was just ‘gifted’ and didn’t fit in). My mum certainly is, and my granddad. I think today’s society, for all the recognition and acceptance of different neurotypes, is really hard to live in if you’re not a neurotypical extrovert. People used to have more ‘alone time’, pressures of work/earning were less, there were more social rules (formality/politeness), life was quieter and less overwhelming in general.

They're the same thing!

I have a child with ASD. And the most unhelpful thing I've ever heard, soon after his diagnosis, was from (an otherwise kind) friend who remarked it was because I let him have the MMR vaccine. She herself took care to avoid the MMR for her two DC. When some years later her eldest was also diagnosed with ASD, I did not mention this. But I admit to muttering quietly to myself at home!

I don't know what causes autism. It does seem clear that doctors are quicker to spot it and to name it these days, so that's not more cases, just more diagnosis. It does seem possible that "assortative mating" could have something to do with rising actual cases. And yes, now my DC has it, I recognise some other possible cases in older generations of my family... though the science you cite, OP, also makes it clear that it is not solely genetic. Few genetic diseases are: it turns out Alzheimer's also runs in my family, but most of us still don't get it. These are not simple one-cause problems.

What my fellow parents need to keep reminding themselves is this: in no way could I have known in advance or prevented ASD in my child. This is not my fault.

Those are quotation marks, not inverted commas...

Yes. I think you’re right. It’s also that the diagnostic criteria focus on ‘is this child typically developing’ and not ‘is this child disabled’?

Our DS4 was referred to occupational therapy by his nursery due to sensory issues. I was worried because DS7 is autistic and had so many issues when he got to school, so I sent DS4 to a neurodevelopmental assessment on my DH’s health insurance ‘just incase’. My DS4 now has an autism diagnosis with the suggestion he could pick up an ADHD one later.

No professional has questioned his autism diagnosis, because he ‘does all the autisms’. He has full body stereotypies, speaks in a patchwork of echolalia and terrible grammar, etc. However, the assessment process doesn’t actually check his social communication ability beyond ‘does he make ‘enough normal’ eye contact?’ And ‘is his speech similar on a granular level to a typically developing child?’

This is how my extrovert DS4, who has loads of friends and the charisma of a TV shopping channel presenter, is nonetheless diagnosably autistic. On paper, he appears ‘severely disabled’ because he is literally a tickbox of ‘all the autisms’: 15 pages of all the ways his behaviour suggests atypical development. In practice, he hates sirens, hand driers and children crying loudly, can’t sit still and that’s… about it, really. He’s so extrovert that he managed to make a friend during his school reception taster - I think most of the NT kids didn’t manage that!!

We had his council OT assessment yesterday and almost every single adjustment is to help our DS4 sit still in class - something he wouldn’t have needed to do as, say, a shepherd. The comment we get most about DS4 is not ‘he’s socially awkward’, it’s ’wow, he’s very busy/wriggly, isn’t he? He must keep you on your toes (nervous laugh)’

There’s no way DS4 would have got a diagnosis even 20 years ago. Not because DS4 doesn’t need support - he will need a fat pencil, ear defenders, movement breaks, sensory putty and a wriggle cushion for school - but because he has no resemblance to the social stereotype of (male) autism. He’s just a very fidgety, noisy-adverse DS who hates saying ‘good morning’ to adults (he’s fine exchanging enthusiastic fart noises with other kids)!!!

I think there are an increasing number of kids getting autism diagnoses who are like my DS4. Kids who need adjustments to perform well in school (e.g. a desk at the quiet end of the classroom) who would have struggled unnoticed, or been punished for fidgeting/being a bit weird, a few years ago. This isn’t an ‘autism epidemic’ caused by chemicals/vaccines/SSRIs/older parents/premature birth - it’s a trend of better identifying and labelling kids who need the extra help because their brains work slightly different from average.

Also premature births and preeclampsia are both strongly associated with Autism, both of which would have been likely to result in infant deaths decades ago, so there literally are more children with ASD these days.

Common misconception here. Early birth and autism are not linked and preeclampsia is all about the mother not the child.

My opinion only …. When “they” figure it out there will be dozens of types of “autism” with gene/chromosome identifiers. Perhaps some with multiple types making more complex condition.

But again. “Autism” is a very vague & general term, hopefully some new labels in future to help. Like “ASD type 52a” and there can be more support because more is known about specific types.

Sidebar ~ friend w autistic daughter says no-one in family has it. We all ask her - what about your dad? Scientist, came home from work had very same routine w food, where he sat, everything very predictable, didn’t socialize. She insists No, my dad was just so smart and he couldn’t talk to anyone because he was so much smarter. Just wanted quiet when he got home. She doesn’t see what we all saw. He raised a family, worked, his kids all successful, I’d say he was happy and made a life he was happy with.

Her daughter so much better as young adult, and has learned how to “be” & found her place in education & work. her early years at school were v hard.

I have ASD and ADHD.
Both my daughters do . Eldest Grandson Aspergers and dyspraxia.
2nd Grandson ADHD.
3rd and 4th Grandson ASD.
Yes we have all been diagnosed..myself and daughters later in life.
Eldest Grandson was 6 diagnosed. ( we knew the signs by then)
Other three age 3.
We are all different and have out own traits.
We all have some physical disabilities too.
Especially with our feet ( 3 of us have to have insoles made).
We are all functioning and intelligent.
Looking back l honestly think my Father had ASD.
Definitely genetic.

It’s not true to say “you are autistic or you’re not”. The process to diagnose autism is very fallible and highly subjective. My daughter was diagnosed first with autism, then a few years later we were told it was a misdiagnosis and she was diagnosed with adhd. Now a couple of years after that, a third doctor (and each doctor had the right credentials) has diagnosed generalised anxiety disorder. So which does she have?

Every time the "more autism" thing's brought up, there's one thing that gets missed - yes, it's largely (but not necessarily exclusively) genetic, and because society is finally figuring out (slowly) that we actually have value...put delicately, autistic people are getting more involved in the gene pool.

As we move more to an information-based economy, the high-paying jobs tend towards areas where some autistic traits become strengths that NTs often find harder to match, hence autistic folk being over-represented in areas like programming and electronics design (stereotypical examples, but you get the idea). The end result of that is that, suddenly, we're relatively high-value - as opposed to 40-50 years ago, when we'd have been consigned to "special school" and kept out of mainstream society, or 100+ years ago branded the village idiot - and our social differences become somewhat forgiven for the added value we can sometimes bring.

@robotgun it's not that simple - it's due to a massive range of factors. Autism is also very wide ranging, there is never going to be a single gene - it's a description of a range of signs and symptoms which exhibit in an individual.

If you google "autism aetiology" meta analysis on a site called pub med you'll get lots. It's a developmental disorder, so partially environmental - some factors are or are not modifiable.

A plague ? It's not catching, it's not life threatening and as much as I don't try to get het up on word play. That wording implies that it's spreadable, and or everywhere and really common.

ND in all its forms has always been around, it's just spoken about socially more with less stigma

As a previous poster put there is a massive difference between groups 1, 2 and 3 and that is based on need or support levels. ND has a whole spectrum of different diagnosis under its umbrella, and it's that it's an umbrella.

There probably a vast number of people who sit in camp three who in history would have been just classed as eccentric. But they struggle more now in a world that sensory wise like someone's playing loud music 24hr a day whilst a massive amount of social "rules" that are there but never spoken about or even explained. Back in the day life was simpler, it wasn't information overload.
That said just because someone is ND doesn't automatically assume they have learning difficulties. Not all people with learning difficulties are ND and via versa

You may find also find that if you are NT and your child is ND - that your child may grow up to find some of the things you do as a NT difficult to handle.

I personally find children in camp 1 and 2 much easier to deal with (as a person in camp 3) than NT people.

That's your experience with your daughter. Other people have different experiences, including my cousin who lived with us my entire childhood.

@londonwriter Your "group 3" is probably people who didn't need adjustments in a simpler past, living in smaller groups, less noise, fewer demands, a predictable stable lifestyle.

I'm

Some of it is also the range of normal human diversity juxtaposed against the demands modern society places.

300 years ago if you needed it really fucking calm and quiet and didn't talk to anyone/hated people you went off to be a shepherd. For millennia clothing was seam free and loose fitting. People only washed once a week anyway. Food was plain, carby & repetitive. There was far less stimulation and plenty of people didn't have to go to school etc.

Our current social model is trying to squeeze us into an ever narrower range of acceptable boxes.