If you had autism, would you be scared of passing on bad genes?

I'm autistic. Well , mildly autistic. And I read that it's possibly a genetic thing.

I'm also kinda scared of relationships, for several reasons. A lot are all basically that I'm nervous about actually finding someone who'll like me and not think I'm all that weird, but I also wonder... if we ever have kids, and if autism really is a genetic thing, what if I give my kids my bad genes? What if it's worse for them than it is for me?

Is this a rational fear? Or should I not worry about it, at least not until I get that far with someone?

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91% Normal
Based on 11 votes (10 yes)
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Comments ( 7 )
  • CreamPuffs

    I do have a form of it, and no I'm not worried. But I don't plan on having kids anytime soon regardless.

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  • KillAllPsychos

    Yep but how come normal people can have autistic kids? can't it go the other way around then?

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    • SockUnicorn92

      Genes don't always express themselves and sometimes remain dormant when "skipping a generation". I may carry a gene that causes autism but my family may never even exhibit it.

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    • Knightmare

      Because while they might have the gene, if their other gene is functional the issue doesn't present itself.

      I might have the terminology wrong, but you have two versions of your genome, one from each parent. Some variants of a gene are considered dominant over another, such as how brown eyes are more common than blue, you have to be dealt two blue eye
      genes to use it, otherwise the brown eye gene wins.

      With autism, we have no idea if genetics even drive it. It could be just psychology. In my case, I actually started acting more autistic after I was told I was autistic because I was scared of looking retarded. Sounds stupid, I know, but that's really what happened.

      In any case, yeah even if it's purely genetic, I might or might not pass it on. Depends on how many play a part in setting up for autism, and on mom's genes too. One weird thing is that there are many more autistic men than women, but they're not all men, so if it is genetic, if we have a son he'll be more likely to be autistic than if we had a daughter instead.

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  • CarrotCart

    I have asd, but however bad some aspects of it are, I think all of the bad things will be made up for by the good things that come with it, and might get passed on to my kids.

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  • I have autism and don't care if my kids would be autistic. Stop looking at it like it's a bad thing. That's society telling you how to think.

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  • Darrow4

    I have aspergers

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