Wait, is autism hereditary?

Hiiii. Welcome to another Wisdom Wednesday, and today, I want to talk about Autism. I know, right — shocker.

So, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how our brains are wired, and it brought me back to a question that comes up all the time in conversations about neurodiversity.

Is autism hereditary? Of course, many sites say it is not, but recently I have started seeing some signs. I know someone who has a brother with Autism, and now she has a child with Autism. When she told me, this is how I looked.

But in reality, I was like this in my head.

‘You say what?’

Apparently, genetics actually plays a massive role. The data shows that if there’s already an autistic person in the family, whether that’s a parent, a sibling, or an aunt, the chances of having another neurodivergent family member increase a little bit.

But here’s why I really wanted to talk about this today. For decades, there was unfair stigma and misinformation. It left so many parents carrying this heavy, exhausting load of guilt, wondering if they “did something wrong” in the past.

Leaning into the genetic facts completely flips the script. It proves what we’ve always known: autism isn’t caused by “bad parenting” or anything anyone did or didn’t do.

But yes, when we understand that it’s partly hereditary, that's enough information. So, yeah, that’s a little information for today.

Have a great day!

Comments

The Change

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