Autism is genetic

[jonesonscam]

The National Autistic Society has just said something pretty significant: Autism is genetic. Not “possibly genetic”. Not “we’re not really sure what causes it”.

After reviewing 83 research papers, the NAS is now stating definitively that autism is genetic. You’re born autistic and you’re autistic for life. Most autistic people are autistic because of genes they inherited from their parents.

I think this matters enormously because for decades, autism has been surrounded by nonsense about vaccines, parenting, mothers doing something wrong, pregnancy, diet and a million other things.

It has left parents blaming themselves, and autistic people being told that something caused them to be autistic that could somehow have been prevented.

There isn't an “autism gene”. Thousands of genes are involved, and genetics is complicated. But the basic message is now remarkably clear: autism isn't something that happened to someone. It's something they were born with.

That matters because when we stop looking for something to blame, we can start looking at what actually matters: understanding autistic people, supporting them properly, and making a society that works for them.

This all feels like a pretty important shift.

Yes people muddle this up all the time and I try to correct it on threads but can't keep up. It's also more accurate to to describe the situation as being the current working theory is that it genetic rather the certainty that it's definitely genetic only and case closed.

This is fairly common knowledge within the field though it is good that they have explicitly said it. Like another posted said though epigenetics also plays a significant part. Certain environments can make ‘symptoms’ more obvious and certainly as the world has changed so significantly over the past 60 years we are finding that autistic people are finding it more difficult to cope/ manage within it with the huge amount of stressors that life brings, and increased expectations.

I work in a neurodevelopmental clinic for children and adults. It is really clear to see the link between parents and children, even when the parent is undiagnosed.

My 3 kids are all autistic, and one of them I’m sure has adhd too. Stepdaughter is also adhd. I am autistic. My sister is autistic with learning disabilities, my other sister adhd. One nephew is adhd, the other autistic and my niece autistic. It is 100% genetic.

That's interesting; my DS is autistic and I'm now fairly sure I am but not sure if either of my parents were.

My youngest is diagnosed as Autistic. Non verbal etc. No one in my family is diagnosed, but now I’m in the “autism world” I see so many traits in my immediate and extended family. If we do have undiagnosed autism in my family, it would really explain some family members behaviour over the years.

I agree with what a PP said that maybe we haven’t noticed the signs because to us it’s normal.

When my second son was diagnosed I thought it all came from his dad. My stepson is also autistic (aspergers as it was back then) my son also has learning disabilities, so his needs were apparant from a young age. I also did lots of blaming myself- I drank a glass of wine when I was pg, I was too stressed when I was pg (my brother died and we were trying to move house before I gave birth) I gave him the wrong name!, traumatic birth, vaccinations etc etc.

Then when my youngest was going through diagnosis I was filling in all the questionnaires thinking this was normal, I did/do all this. Oh, that's the penny dropping. He is autistic and has adhd. I have now been diagnosed autistic, but am too anxious about talking to someone about adhd.

Definitely on my ex's side it is strong with undiagnosed autism. On my side it is harder to know. My brother Definitely had adhd, looking back I can see how it affected him his whole life. My parents were a maybe, both are dead and I didn't have contact with my dad since my teens.

In this case, it is.

I must admit, I had not realised that this was not already widely accepted.

This isn't new information at all though. It's been the established paradigm for years. Debate and discussion are not about whether it's genetic (and caused by multiple genes in most cases, though some chromosomal deletion syndromes have such complete correlation with autism that it clearly isn't always the same) but about what exactly autism actually is and how to define and understand it.

That doesn't mean whether it's genetic, but whether it's a theory of mind difference, a central coherence difference, an executive functioning difference, all three, or none of the above.

Plus of course the diagnosis criteria change every time there are new editions of the ICD or the DSM. Triad to diad, spectrum disorders plural to everything under Autism.

Yes we are the same. All of my family on all sides have many of these traits - we thought they were normal.

My mums family used to call it ‘The Smith Streak’ (ie after her dad’s family who were all a bit odd; although we laughed at this, as her mum’s family were not exactly’normal’). BTW- my mum’s dad was not Smith so apologies to all the Smiths on here.

I remember my cousin crying whenever he had his hair cut as a child. And he became very violent as a teen - everyone ignored it and blamed it on the fact his mum had a baby when he was 10. He went through three different schools, but again, no one thought there could be anything wrong.

I studied psychology when I had my DC and it opened my eyes to the strangeness we took for granted in my family.

It is and has been for years.

For context, here is the link.

www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/about-autism/what-causes-autism

And if the parents have never been diagnosed, or are of a generation where that wasn't even an option in their childhood, it's often their children being diagnosed that informs them about neurodiversity and gets them seeking a diagnosis themselves and/or spotting possibly autistic but undiagnosed family members in the generation above.

I can think of two friends' families where one or more of the children got an autism diagnosis in childhood, and where one or both parents recognised the traits in themselves and ended up being diagnosed themselves in their 40s and 50s. In one case in particular, it ended up improving his working life enormously in middle age, now that he was able to ask for some accommodations.

And it was only when my godson was diagnosed, and I started reading studies, that I realised my own father was almost certainly autistic, and my paternal grandfather too.

This. It’s genetics plus environment

Of course it’s genetic. In my family, my father was (not called that then, but he was), my brother and I are, two of my children are, and two of my grandchildren. That’s way more than population statistics would deliver.

I am autistic as is my son. I look at my family and I can see my aunt is definitely autistic and my grandmother definitely was. She also used to tell me funny stories about her dad when I was little, and now I’m an adult I think he sounds autistic as fuck.

I think part of the reason I was diagnosed late was my Nan always just said I was normal and convinced my mum I was normal. Because my mum grew up around my Nan and my aunt she just thought some people are just “like that”. My aunt, my nan and me were all good at maths, and my mum admitted that she just thought all maths people were “like that” 😂.

It was actually my dad who pushed for my diagnosis. There’s no one on his side who has it and he was really worried with my speech delay ect. My mum wasn’t because my aunt didn’t speak till 5 and she was “absolutely fine”. She is fine, and she’s very successful but she is definitely autistic. Out of my five siblings, I do think my brother may have it, but he didn’t have any developmental issues it was mostly social.

Yes it has been for years among those of us with autism and those who have any kind of intelligence. The buffoons out there with their blaming of the environment, the water, vaccines are all the reason people forget that science and genetics are valid sources of good information. Most of us in the autism community firmly know that autism causes vaccines ;)

It could be found further back in the family than the current generation. Also, I don’t think anyone can rule out no one else in an entire family not being autistic. It can be very difficult to see in others at the high functioning end of the spectrum.

My friend is convinced the MMR caused her daughter’s autism to the extent she was one of Wakefields original 12 children. It’s not something I’ve ever believed, that the MMR caused autism, and the first thing I noticed about my friend is that she’s autistic as is her husband. Both VHF but she just will not have it.

This is really interesting as in my work (SEN adjacent) we see a huge proportion of children with autism who are also in receipt of PPG - e.g. a real correlation between poverty and autism. (Please note NOT exclusively - this is not to say every autistic child is in receipt of PPG, nor that every PPG child has autism.)

For children who have spent large parts of their early years in care, autism is diagnosed almost inevitably, suggesting that lack of early years stimulation / quality experiences / potentially too much screen time / not enough interaction with the world are also contributing factors.

I wonder if this is the epigenetics a PP posted about.

What is PPG? Apologies if it is obvious but I am not in the UK.

ETA - I’m NT but my immediate family and my extended family on my husbands side are a wide pool of Autism and it’s comorbids. There really isn’t a house where at least one person doesn’t have a diagnosis.

My introduction to Autism came about when my now 35 year old son was diagnosed with Classic Kanners Autism. I will only ever call it that as it’s the only term that does his level justice. Along the way he has also been diagnosed with Epilepsy, Tourette’s and bi polar disorder. My mum had bipolar disorder but it’s also something some of my in-laws have been diagnosed with also.

I’m not in the UK but I’ve heard friends speak of this. PPG isn’t just given because children are poor. It’s also given to help children with a diagnosis.

Did you need to use AI to write this post?

It's extra funding for children living in disadvantaged circumstances (not only children in care).

Any connection between Autism and children being in receipt of this funding can be a bit chicken and egg though, given the employment gap (statistics vary but only around 22% of Autistic adults are in employment, compared to 80% of non disabled adults and 50% of disabled adults).

So actually Autistic children being frequently in receipt of PPG actually also correlates with them having an Autistic parent and that parent being less likely to be employed than a NT parent.

Lots of complexity when digging into correlation.

PPG is Pupil Premium Grant - a chunk of additional funding schools get per pupil whose parents/carers earn below a certain level. In practice, often unemployed parents. The aim of the money is to improve outcomes for the most disadvantaged children.

In practice there's a lot of overlap between PPG/SEND/persistent absence.