DO you think you "inherited ’ADHD? | ADHD Information
A few years back I did a family tree based on possible mental disorders. I traced my ADHD back through my mother to her mother. I traced my OCD/ anxiety tendencies through my Father to his mother.
I have no doubt that it's genetic.
I inhereted lots of things from grandmother, but i don't think she had adhd, but I think My grandfather did, i never met him but from what i have heard leads me to believe that he may have had it. its so hard to trace back, they just don't have the records its all from others memories.
My kid got it from me, but I have learned to control it and she is doing well with controlling it too.
My Dad got busted from E6 to E1 for 'sluggin a butterbar'(2nd Leiutenant), and my mom actually finished 8th grade, Grandmom on moms side ,6th grade. Moms first marriage was at 14 to a guy who died in WWII, in '42.
Does anything sound familiar, with family quarrels and 'low' education?
my family definitely has a history of ADD but they are all academically extremely high achievers - rather than low education, on my fathers side quite poor but got education through scholarships to grammar schools in Scotland.both my parents went to Cambridge, my uncle to Oxford and a Phd at Cambridge. my cousin teaches math at Stanford/Stamford University in the States. my other cousin works at Cerne, Switzerland and has in the past been part of a team nominated for a Nobel Prize for Science for their research work into nuclear physics. my other cousin is being accused of trying to run over his wife in the car in the midst of a bitter divorce - and ya know what, i can believe it cos he is as nuts as the rest of the family.
they all have a long, established history of not being able to socialise, make any friends, have any kind of normal social interaction at all, at all and a deeply held conviction that the reason they have no friends is because they are superior and the rest of the world inferior....
my uncle ran away from his family and went to live in africa he never married and was considered an 'eccentric' but very intelligent and gave lectures etc. on all sorts of esoteric things and translated the bible into various different tribal languages - he was also fluent in Arabic and goodness knows how many other languages and a world-class flautist. he got run over though - because he would walk everywhere and refused to take a car despite it taking him three days to get somewhere rather than four hours.
the rest of them went through divorce/had no friends/tended to be in either the arts or sciences and generally considered as weird as f**k. and they probably were/are.
a lot of them were clinically mad by the age of about fifty. i have about 20 years left i guess that means.....
My parents were married at ages 15 & 16. Had a 6th & 7th grade education. I think this was normal for farm communities back then. Farm communities seem to be quicker to marry and have children. I though I was an old woman when I was pregnant at 22. Most my family were teenage parents.
Oh yeah, answer the question. Yes, it tends to run in families. Too many in my family too deny that. I think it may manafest in different individuals however. Name any disorder and I'm probably related to someone with it.
My daughter is OCD/ADD
I am ADHD/bipolar/LD
There I said it. Was not that difficult
Oh, it's inherited all right.
That's how I got the notion I was ADHD. Every single uncle (and my aunts) suffered ADHD obviously and when the last uncle on my dad's side died from lonliness and alcohol abuse it was painfully clear what I had. And what my future would be if I didn't get help and fast.
It has to be genetic - and a dominant gene too. Both sisters show signs of severe anxiety (even possibly agoraphobia), OCD, and ADHD symptoms. They are, from what my mother tells me, nearly house-bound and finding it harder to deal with unknowns and people in the world with every passing year.
Pretty obvious to me.
[QUOTE=Countrygirl] [QUOTE=Kaks]That's so strange. Everwhere I read ppl say that when they got their diagnosis they suddely saw it in the whole family and suddenly they could understand their parents, cousins or whatever. I don't!I might, if I look very hard see a couple of things in both my mun and dad but nowhere else and then I'm very close to my family. We don't have any of those things running in the family only cancer and that hardly in the same category. I was the first to be mentally ill in any way as long back as anyone can recall.
and again, I'm different even here :-(
/Kaks
[/QUOTE]
Your differences are what I love about you. You are exactly who you are suppose to be. Many times I don't feel like I fit anywhere either. Actually, Autism/Aspergers can run in families too. Perhaps someone - great grandparent, great uncle/aunt? Someone at a distance that you never met? I have never met anyone with Aspergers/PDD that did NOT have ADHD comormid. For some reason they seem to always go together. So perhaps you don't see the ADHD in your family because for you it goes with the Aspergers? No one knows the reasons for Autism - My guess is there are many reasons for it.
Bottom line - You are an intellegence special unique human being. I would not wish you to be any other way. You have always been a good friend to me.
[/QUOTE]
Thank you CG. It's just that I've met so many ppl who come to boards like this and the first they say is "Finallu I realize I'm not alone, here I can be myself and be understood and now I feel like i've come home" I just never have gotten that feeling. Not in boards for AS either, I'll be missunderstood even there. It sorta makes me feel sad.
And I can't see any AS-traits either. My whole family is very social and have many friends and everything that's the opposite of typicall AS. Maby not my dads parents but that was more due to them working all the time, being poor with five kids, than not want to socialize.
Sorry for whineing, it's just not my day today.
But I really appreciate what you wrote about me, thank you dear.
/Kaks
I'm sure I inherited it. My mother and several members of her family appear to have it.
I posted once before about generational add. I think that the sooner in life someone understands the disability, the better off they are for it.
Looking at that side of my family, the people whom I think have add, also have problems appearing selfish, and have other difficulties in their lives.
I'm so glad for the opportunity, even now in my late thirties, to try to make my life work with the knowledge and coping strategies in place.
not sure why but that kinda reminds me of that terrible joke about a group of sociophobes.... they decided to have a meeting. no-one turned-up. it was considered a great success!
aaahhh nobody tells terrible jokes anymore...... people are far too quick and witty.
Come to think of it, I don't get that joke but still I smiled when I read it.... talk about strange.
/Kaks
I think ADHD is inherited because I have two grandchildren who have been diagnosed with it and I have it. I think my father had ADD and I'm not sure where the ADHD was before me. In my family it skips generations so it could be a great grandparent. I would guess it came in from my mother's side, because her grandfather on her mother's side was the alcoholic who never did well except at gambling. I could be that others who had it had milder versions of it.
I also think it is inherited also, because the three that I know had it were hyperactive very young.
I know mine is inherited as my brother also has ADD. My mom is definatly ADD though never diagnosed.
My maternal grandmother was diagnosed schizophrentic. She was in and out of mental hospitals untill she commited suicide when my mom wsa 12yrs old. My sister who is a neuropsycologist believes she was misdiagnosed and was actually bi-polar.
My son shows many , many signs of ADHD. I have a nephew that is most likely ADHD as well.
The interesting thing is I have Turettes, and am the only one I know of in my family tree. My mom told me that her ancestors were a part of a religious group that suposedly many people with Turettes date back to???
[QUOTE=repairman]My Dad got busted from E6 to E1 for 'sluggin a butterbar'(2nd Leiutenant), and my mom actually finished 8th grade, Grandmom on moms side ,6th grade. Moms first marriage was at 14 to a guy who died in WWII, in '42.
Does anything sound familiar, with family quarrels and 'low' education?
[/QUOTE]Naw. I got my ADhD for a birthday present.
Oh, snit! I forgot the name of this thread.
I wanted to smart off again.
you talk about colleges and I am one of the first in my generation to go and finish college. actually i loved college, that was my nitch, i loved having all those choices of what to learn. Hated high school though..
after reading this thread I had to think about family and think about who they were. and my family on my mothers side has a wide range of problems. dyslexia, ocd, dppression, add and adhd, low, middle and upper class. I don't know much about my grandfathers family, but believe there was adhd there for sure.
My dads family are just idiots, no not really but major ocd and adhd. a few of them are so eccentric that they are really fun to be with. and some are so anit social it takes three days just to get them to say a whole sentence from them.
My dad remarried and has two younge kids 11 and 8, the 11 has so much anxieties that it is scary, the 8 year is quite obvious adhd she can't sit still to save her life and gets so hyper and can't come off it until you change the situation.
I think my dad is add, he can get so hyperfocused that you can hold a conversation and he wont hear a thing you are saying. if he is working in the garage he has to finish he can't be interupeted or he gets too angry.
my grandma on dads side was this way too. I know my aunt has signs of add but I don't see too much of her so i am not 100%.
I too have a great uncle that went mad and ended up in a home when he was around 30ish.
well you asked and now i wrote a book.
I might, if I look very hard see a couple of things in both my mun and dad but nowhere else and then I'm very close to my family. We don't have any of those things running in the family only cancer and that hardly in the same category. I was the first to be mentally ill in any way as long back as anyone can recall.
and again, I'm different even here :-(
/Kaks
[/QUOTE]
Your differences are what I love about you. You are exactly who you are suppose to be. Many times I don't feel like I fit anywhere either. Actually, Autism/Aspergers can run in families too. Perhaps someone - great grandparent, great uncle/aunt? Someone at a distance that you never met? I have never met anyone with Aspergers/PDD that did NOT have ADHD comormid. For some reason they seem to always go together. So perhaps you don't see the ADHD in your family because for you it goes with the Aspergers? No one knows the reasons for Autism - My guess is there are many reasons for it.
Bottom line - You are an intellegence special unique human being. I would not wish you to be any other way. You have always been a good friend to me.
smart away! Some of t e keys on my keyboar ont' work
I read some research that discussed the heritability of ADHD it was a pretty high percentage. DArn it I wish I know where it was!!!
I don't need research to know that its true though. My brother is ADHD capital H!!
I am quite certain my mom has it along with the anxiety comorbidity. My sis has panic attacks, Grandmother had an anxiety disorder -- worried about everything!!
Grandfather is a successful ADDer!! He interrupts, doesnt listen well, teases to the point of irritation, has a ton a friends, lights up the room when he enters it -- even now in his 80's. The man has all the positive sides of ADD but somehow overcame all the negatives.. He had a successful full life, and a wonderful marriage. I was suprised to find out that he didnt make very good grades in school -- he is the smartest man I know.
I think what I go through, tendency toward anxiety and ADHD, is definately inherited.
Sherry
That's so strange. Everwhere I read ppl say that when they got their diagnosis they suddely saw it in the whole family and suddenly they could understand their parents, cousins or whatever. I don't!I might, if I look very hard see a couple of things in both my mun and dad but nowhere else and then I'm very close to my family. We don't have any of those things running in the family only cancer and that hardly in the same category. I was the first to be mentally ill in any way as long back as anyone can recall.
and again, I'm different even here :-(
/Kaks
Crap - internet crashes and I lost a good one - I'll try and rebuild from memory (dang it to heck).
You aren't stupid - neither is your family. Only an elitist snob would think that, because the education isn't there that means no intelligence. I'll tell you about my family (if this bloody interweb lets me grrrrr) and you can see I relate big-time.
My family was not Rhodes scholars. They weren't even high-school graduates.
My father's family is english/irish/scot - in the old country they were serfs, landworkers (not landowners) and indentured servants. "lower" class and uneducated. Moved in the 1800s to ellis island then to north dakota - and eventually on to canada. All that I ever met were smart if not brilliant in a defectively alcoholic way.
My mother's family is German. They were tradesmen/labourers with little or no formal education. Moved to 'states in 1700s - through Texas, northwest US and eventually to Canada. Nobody ended up in university until this last century and few at that.
Both sides were and mostly are farmers. But very smart. College does not a genius make.
One of the smartest people to ever live was an east-indian mathematician from the Delhi ghettos. He could see relationships in numbers nobody else could - and all from a 4th grade primer he found in a garbage heap. Became a nobel laureate. Can't remember his name but do remember that universities fought over this lad that didn't have a grade ONE education - proving that school shows you - well that you went to school. George Bush went to school and have a look at that idiot!
So no worries. I think you are damn smart and am sure your family is too.
[QUOTE=Countrygirl]My parents were married at ages 15 & 16. Had a 6th & 7th grade education. I think this was normal for farm communities back then. Farm communities seem to be quicker to marry and have children. I though I was an old woman when I was pregnant at 22. Most my family were teenage parents.Oh yeah, answer the question. Yes, it tends to run in families. Too many in my family too deny that. [/QUOTE]
Gee, this makes my family sound incredibly stupid. There is a difference between sounding and being. Really most of us truely have a triple digit IQ. My daughter has a double degree and working on her Masters. She gets her intelligence from me
