Is asd hereditary

Yes, when, after much to-ing and fro-ing with MH services (which let us down badly) and our son decided he didn't want to pursue a formal diagnosis, we were left not knowing what to do for a while.  Then we "joined the dots" with all of the supposed MH issues in our family and I decided to seek an assessment for myself (me being a kind of missing link between my parents and our sons). 

Due to the additional wait times though, this added another 18 months to the process.  At the time it felt like landing on the big snake on square 99 in a game of snakes and ladders.  However, given the history of severe burnout and also suicidality within our family, this extra 18 months could have easily been even more damaging than it actually was.  I can honestly say that, although we still have significant issues, it's been life-changing to actually understand more about ourselves and our neurology. 

Delaying identification can, I believe, be extremely dangerous and services narrowing their focus to just one individual will probably mean that other family members will hit crisis before finding out (costing services much more in the longer run).  Granted, some may not want to know and might also be in denial, but I think it's extremely important to give the option.      

Autimator said:

flatly deny it

Autimator said:

if they learned to mask when younger and are still doing it without realising.

like my mom

The NHS is very much focused on diagnosing the person, and they don't really want the whole family applying for assessment for autism so won't normally suggest you all think about if you might be autistic.

Its like playing the game mousetrap, nothing happens until that ball starts rolling with the first diagnosis - and then it can trigger the immediate family members, and wider family members, to start thinking about it themselves.  Some won't be interested at all or flatly deny it when probably true, its a bit amusing to watch it unfurl really, but it might dawn on others when they think about it, especially if they learned to mask when younger and are still doing it without realising.

I believe that yes, it is hereditory and I can see this within generations of my own family.  However, i don't believe that the genetic inheritance is straightforward, as it would be in case of a dominant gene, but rather relates to lots of genes and their interactions.

Given the strong line of inheritance within my family, I now look back and feel shocked that, once one of us received a a positive diagnosis, advice and guidance (plus assessments if wanted) weren't immediately offered to other family members.  This would have been an obvious way to help our family (and others too) as a whole, preventing issues which stem from lack of support or accommodations or indeed coming from limited self awareness and knowledge of our own identity.  I think this is something that is picked up on by Philip Wylie in his book, "Very Late Diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome".  Very late identification is something that has affected my family very deeply.   

I’m pretty sure that it is hereditary - judging from my family anyway (and my husbands).

Yes, people tend to assume its all about inheritance and some even worry about passing it on, buts not that simple.  Also, autism isn't a specific gene, its a combination of genes that might affect the brains development.   Inheritance can pass them on, but random genetic variations could also mean these occur without any autism history. Even if you have autism yourself, any children you have might not develop enough difficulties or difference to be diagnosed with autism, or they may be more affected.

Differences in the brains development are usually in place before birth, but as the brain keeps developing after birth then yes environment factors can come into play - changes in the brains development due to stress or damage.  Gets complicated.

Diagnosable autism is quite widespread, 1 in 100 people have a diagnosis but many more could probably be diagnosed but may not realise or want to, or able to.  The genes responsible are much more widespread.  People can say "we are all a bit autistic" or "we are all on the spectrum" and that is kind of true in the sense we can all have the odd difficulty here and there, but to be diagnosed with autism takes more than one or two difficulties, and usually in different areas.

There is a large genetic component to autism. There seem to be two genetic systems at work. Firstly, there are many common genetic variations associated with autism, that occur in the population as a whole, and some of these appear to be beneficial - some are linked to higher than average educational achievement. The person with diagnosable autism just has a much higher concentration of these genetic variations than most of the population. The size of the individual variation tends to be small, relatively few base-pairs are affected in the case of each variant. Secondly, are rarer genetic variations, these can arise spontaneously, that is neither parent had them. These tend to be larger, such as duplication events or deletion events, where a length of DNA is  repeated, or it is removed completely. The autism caused by the rarer variations tends to be accompanied by more serious comorbidities, such as intellectual disability. Genetics is not the whole story, however, as environmental factors - such as a difficult birth -  can also contribute.

Being autistic is genetic, autism is a genetic neurological difference.

I suspect my mom, but she has 100% perfect masking active 24/7 powered by her power to believe  religious fanatics posess

but neither of my 3 sisters is autistic

I suspect my mom's older brother too, and they have 4 more sisbilings, that are not

among their offspring,14 of them, odds are 2 of my cousins are autistic, bu8t I saw them only on weddings since childhood so it's based on facts, that they're loners, not good with people, who prefer to focus on work not chitchat

granpa wasn't, granma died when my mom was 6

family on my dad's side, i never got a chance to get to know them

NAS79493 said:

because of me. 

bad way to think for so many reasons,

1. it's not a curse, doctors don't tell you abouit positive side of autism and enhanced abilities it gives us

2. you won't be able to apply yourself to support your daughter when thinking like that, regret is waste of time, focus on future

Boys/men have always been more likely to be diagnosed because the criteria is skewed for the classic autism that boys/men exhibited.  That might make it look like its a male-line thing, but it isn't as mothers can pass it down, as seems to be the case with your family.

Once a family has the first diagnosis of autism, it can snowball because awareness of autism means it can be spotted in siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.  Though whether each of them would meet the criteria for a diagnosis or not is another thing.

I had read that it comes down through the male side of the family, but who knows?

If someone has it in the family, there are bound to be others. My daughter has ADHD and Autism, and I am Autistic. My mum has just accepted she is also Autistic, but isn’t bothering to get diagnosed. 
There are many in her (my mums) family that are likely Autistic, but they are 70+ and have probably never even heard of Autism. 
My sisters youngest is Autistic, and we suspect another sibling is, but is not requiring a diagnosis. 

On my fathers side, his brother is Autistic. A sister is schizophrenic and a niece of his is likely Autistic.

Thats just for starters lol.

You shouldn’t think Autism is a bad thing to pass on. I can safely say I wouldn’t change if I could. Remember, it’s a difference, that is all.

As for you, you might well have ASD. Or, as a relative, you might just have similar traits that aren’t actually Autism. The thing is, how much does it affect your life and mental wellbeing? Can you function very well without the need for downtime? Do you have meltdowns? Are shutdowns hard to come out of? How is your social life? Do you have friends? 

Its more increased chance, rather than yes/no - if siblings or parents have autism then the chances are higher, if both parents have then even higher .  Autism can though occur without any obvious family history of autism.  Its complex.

You may not be as affected as your siblings so not reach the diagnosis criteria, or you may be affected different ways or less obvious ones - worth exploring your past and for any difficulties you remember, especially childhood where it can be more obvious or you didn't mask anything.