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do you think autism is genetic?

It's actually what a therapist once said to me when I saw one a few years ago, shortly after getting my diagnosis of ADHD. She did say that my ASD was an interesting case and that it could be more influenced by the existing conditions that I do have quite obviously.
 
See, every time I look up the cause of autism, the answer always seems to be genetics or environmental factors. But in my case, it confuses me because how and why? Why do I have autism despite the fact I don’t seem to have any family history of autism?? I still don’t get it to this day. The closest mental disorder that’s in my family is a relative having bipolar disorder but that’s not what I have. Did I really just get autism just like that?? It makes me feel like I stick out like a sore thumb.

Or maybe it is environmental factors for me. I don’t even know. Just my 2 cents.
 
Ken said:
Autism is not on the rise, but diagnosis has. That is only because it has been defined and attention to it has risen.
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Increased diagnosis has only yielded more ASD1s.
ASD1s are not counted in said autism "epidemic" which would be more accurately described as the epidemic of post-autistic encephalopathy.
 
I think autism is genetic, as my dad has it too. However, I believe environmental factors made certain traits worse, such as my father’s overly controlling ways contributing to my demand avoidance.
 
That's a good question. I had a specialist who diagnosed me say it's an 80% to have autism if one of your parents has ADHD. My mom has ADHD and I'm autistic. Genetics are very interesting and complex and I have to agree it can be passed down. That doesn't mean you will be on the same spectrum as the person who has it. It's different for anyone and everyone. I'm excited to hear everyone's opinions.
 
Autism is definitely genetic. My family is full of autistic people, actually AuDHD people. Some present more ADHDy (I am one of them) and some more Autistic (my Dad and most of my sons of which there are 5 in total, only two are technically women now as they are transitioning trans women). Incidentally the vast majority of trans people tend to be neurospicy as well, AND there are increased likelihood of schizophrenia in family genetic lines that have Autism in them, and I have 2 sons with a schizophrenia.diagnosis, one also has developmental delays Autism.
 
Crossbreed said:
Increased diagnosis has only yielded more ASD1s.
ASD1s are not counted in said autism "epidemic" which would be more accurately described as the epidemic of post-autistic encephalopathy.
Click to expand...
Not true - it also caused an increase in ASD3's. The only one that didn't go up by a substantive amount were the ASD2's. That's because it's a close enough match to Kanner's paper. His version was the only one being DXed from 1943 through to the late 1980's at minimum. ASD1's were being missed totally and ASD3's were being misdiagnosed badly and institutionalised. And that process also applied to ASD2's pre Kanner.
 
Post-autistic encephalopathy is ASD2 & 3. In the ICD-11, they are known as Autism With Cognitive Deficits. (ASD1 is known as Autism Without Cognitive Deficits...)

Before 1979, [2s & 3s] occurred at 1:10K births (the same as natural-born triplets). Some years ago, they were 1:200-250. I do not know the current rate but it is much higher.
 
In a primary sense I suspect autism is largely a matter of genetics. Though I think I'd be remiss in not considering a secondary possibility of environmental considerations exacerbating it all.

Particularly in my country where so many toxins make their way into our food supply.

Though it's just conjecture on my part. After all, I'm no scientist.
 
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I don't have much to add to this subject that hasn't already been said
But I'd say that it's genetic as well, and I can't speak much for the environmental stuff as I'd have to learn more about that first. I believe we should be careful with that one as it's easy to end up in conspiracy theories I feel when it comes to that.
For example the "fluoride in the water causes autism!" thing, umm yeah no I don't think that's a thing.

Ken said:
There are news articles that autism diagnosis is on the rise - suggesting it is a disease. That is very misleading. Autism is not on the rise, but diagnosis has. That is only because it has been defined and attention to it has risen..
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't like that terminology myself either, especially since it tends to be tied with people citing debunked theories and conspiracy theories as to why "autism is in the rise!"
When it's mostly just that our understanding of autism has gotten better so we are just better at diagnosing it and not as many people are slipping through the cracks.
Heck we'd maybe see roughly the same amounts in the past too if say someone with our current understanding of autism were to go back in time and apply the knowledge and diagnosis tools we have now.
The amount of autistic people who get diagnosed later in life would suggest that would be the case to me, because these are people that were missed for one reason or another because our understanding just wasn't as good back then and mostly the obvious cases were diagnosed, or people were misdiagnosed with other illnesses because their autism wasn't recognized.
For example I heard women in particular were misdiagnosed and just not diagnosed with autism in general because it used to be seen as just affecting boys and so a girl would be diagnosed with something else because "nah can't be autism, because girl."
I've heard this is because autism in girls manifests differently than in boys.. that and most of the research early on was done on boys so not as much was known about autism in girls.
 
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