Can trauma from childhood cause autism?

[Rainbow03]

Someone I’ve come across has said that they had been told by a medical person that their child’s autism was caused by being fostered and the trauma.

Ive always thought it was there from birth.

Im asking because I don’t class my childhood as great. I am ND and I also have trauma from a bad marriage. I’m wondering if I was already ND and my parents constantly putting me in situations that overwhelmed me (classed as normal ND people) just caused me to feel worse.

Autism is likely to have multiple genes responsible rather than a single gene. However, it is not caused by emotional deprivation or the way a person has been brought up.

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism/the-causes-of-autism

Ime it’s genetic/epigenetic. It runs in families, as does ADHD (both in my family and DPs). But I’m sure there are all sorts of theories out there. I’d take time to look at the actual research and proper sources before jumping to unhelpful or triggering conclusions though as it won’t help you.

Trauma can cause behaviours that can 'mimic' autistic traits but it can not cause trauma.

It used to he believed that 'refrigerator mothers' caused autism but it is now understood that it is a brain difference.

The Coventry Grid explains it. You can Google it.

Being an undiagnosed autistic can cause trauma, not the other way round

I’m just wondering as I’m sure my mum has Autism but you can’t talk to her about it and my oldest daughter 8 is on the list to be assessed. My mum grew up with an abusive dad, my mum was controlling and completely non emotional and I ended up in an abusive marriage so my daughter spent the first 3 years of life living in that.

It’s really not caused by trauma, it’s genetic. Stands to reason your daughter won’t be the only one in your gene pool with autistic traits!

we have it running through our family, both sides. For the most part all in happy and well adjusted homes.

Trauma doesn't create any neurodiversity just born with different brains.

It can absolutely be traumatic being undiagnosed though. Especially as there isn't a great deal of understanding and support although I'm hoping the tide is turning

Children who have been through trauma can show behaviours that are similar to autistic behaviours, so have some of the same needs.

The trauma does not actually cause autism, ie the child does not actually become autistic.

However they display behaviours that may look like autism.

From a practical perspective I suppose it doesn’t make much difference, except that the traumatised child who displays autistic behaviour is no more likely than average to have the genes that predispose people to autism, so no more likely than average to have an autistic child.

Autism strongly runs in families where it is real, there from birth kind of autism.

Does that make sense?

c-PTSD has some overlap with symptoms of autism, ADHD etc.

Sounds like your friend's "medical person" has been reading Gabor Maté - he is obsessed with trauma and thinks it's the root cause of everything. I read a good comment about him the other day - something like he starts with his theory and then looks for evidence that supports it, rather than looking at the evidence to find out what the root of something is. It's bad science. It's a shame because he is very empathic and good at describing peoples' experiences, which could be very helpful but he uses it to bolster his own junk theories? It's bizarre.

The relationship between our genetic background and our social environment is messy. You can have a 'genes' for something (it's not quite that simple, but for simplicities sake) but the environment in which you live and grow up has a big role to play in how these are expressed/come to impact on your life. A child growing up experiencing trauma is not going to fair as well as one growing up in a loving, stable environment, and this will impact on how any predisposed genetics impact their life - not the least because a child in an abusive home probably isn't getting the support for navigating life when they are ND. It's not that one thing causes another (in reality, most things aren't that simple), but yes, trauma can make something worse than it might otherwise have been and make it harder to manage.

Sometimes though it's also easier to point to causal factors that are 'outside us' to point blame, because it's gives the cause a bit of distance or offers up a tangible explanation that lots of people will understand. It doesn't mean it's always factually correct in the strict sense, but it explains something that's otherwise hard to accept, if that makes sense?

Childhood trauma can cause autistic traits, but not autism as I understand it.

Short answer - no.

Long answer - autistic people are so routinely subject to trauma that our base picture of autism is of a traumatised person. We know a lot less about what a happy autistic person is like.

@BertieBotts I was told once that I showed symptoms of c-ptsd and I personally carry trauma from trying to fit in and accept behaviour that made me deeply anxious because it’s normal for most people. I can trace back my ND far back before the trauma tho. Hiding from noise, hating people in costumes, always being a loner, not talking till gone 5 etc but back then no one considered I was ND so I’ve masked and pushed and caused trauma.

They all do this though - trauma for Mate, penis envy/sex for Freud, dreamworld for Jung. They don't seem to be aware of their biases do they?

I have ADHD and a well-meaning friend said they think ADHD and autism are caused by trauma. Their source was Gabor Mate, previously mentioned on thread. I don’t agree and think ND are at least partially genetic. The signs of ADHD are in my first school report and I’d had very limited trauma at that point.

I do think your environment can influence diagnosis because if your parent/parents are ND and coping, they’ll probably teach you coping mechanisms meaning you don’t experience some of the challenges and may not ever present for assessment. I also think trauma can amplify those signs e.g. growing up I had a lot to be angry and upset about and my ADHD means I struggle to regulate my emotions so that was very visible.

Ultimately there are kids from the best backgrounds with ND and there’s kids from the most traumatic backgrounds who aren’t ND. The only explanation I can see for that is genetics.

No but the impact of trauma can look the same as autism. Same presentation, different cause

You mother you suspect is Autistic, her abusive Dad may also have been (and just never learnt caring behaviour and acting out his own trauma, and so on back through the generations).
I believe that being Autistic means you may find situations more traumatic than those who are NT. in addition you may not have the ability to break the family pattern of trauma without specific help.

Oh and having experienced trauma and abuse in childhood does make you vulnerable to those kinds of relationships later too.
But the best thing is to get the best help you can for yourself and your daughter (and maybe minimise contact with your mother).

Adverse childhood events (ACE) are known to have a significant effect on the body, even at a genetic level.

No

we are who we are. We are not damaged.

I could talk about why, but the very idea is so offensive, that it doesn’t even warrant the easy dismissal.

@MollyButton Im out of that relationship and have been in a nice relationship for a few years now. Unfortunately my daughter has to see her dad but me and her are learning together. I hope that the trauma will be minimised now. My mum is who she is, she is helpful practically you just can’t expect emotional support from her.

I agree with everyone else, trauma does not cause autism. But children with autism may have parents with autism who have struggled to cope, which could explain why high proportions of children in care have autism. They may also have been more likely to suffer abuse because their carers were unable to understand or manage their behaviours.

Personally I think a lot of the traits seen in badly behaved teens with ADHD are due to trauma from the way they have been disciplined at home and at school by people who couldn't understand or cope with their differences. So we are seeing ADHD plus trauma, not pure ADHD, if that makes sense.

@Ponderingwindow sorry I didn't mean to sound offensive. I think that my inability to be able to fully understand relationships lead me to accept awful behaviour and that has damaged me personally. The emotions of the trauma have been really hard to work though and has taken its toll on my physical health. The autism is who I am so I don’t class that as damage at all. People around me have damaged me with there awful behaviour.

Chipping in to agree with PPs. Neurodiversity is genetic. Looking back I can see undiagnosed autism in two generations of my family and much trauma. Sadly the two go together, there is often a great deal of abuse involved both towards the ND individual but also from them as they struggle to cope. It creates an intergenerational cycle of abuse.

One would hope that with increased awareness of neurodiversity these cycles can be broken but with 5 year waiting lists and no support whatsoever, probably not. It's not a priority for governments. The penny dropped for me this week when I read someone comment that there's no money in diagnosing autism as there's no treatment and very little profit in ADHD, the drugs are very cheap - no incentive. Don't diagnose and it doesn't exist, simple and the traumas continue.

Speaking as a autistic mental health professional with some childhood trauma, one of the issues here is that autism is a syndrome: a collection of experiences or “symptoms” that occur together without necessarily having an established cause, and, as such, while it is likely that autism results from particular changes in the brain which have yet to be fully discovered, people will draw their own conclusions. Personally, I believe that autism is present from birth and genetic but that particular experiences make certain traits more prominent; that is certainly the case for me. It can be also tricky to unpick what is autism and what is trauma related mental illness. To what extent that is helpful or even relevant will again depend on the individual.