Tamaya wrote:
One of my second cousins is 4 and I very much doubt she's autistic, but she seems to repeat what I say. I'm not sure if she does it with other adults and I don't like to quiz her parents about it, as it might be nothing. But when I last saw her a few weeks ago she sat with me a lot and often repeated what I said. Could it just be a normal behaviour children display if they feel comfortable with an adult, or maybe even out of admiration? She loved my pet rat I brought over with me and mostly whenever I said something about him she repeated what I said. Like when I said to the rat "you're like a bag of sugar" because he's so big and heavy, she then said "you're like a bag of sugar" to him too.
She was also overwhelmed on her third birthday when her parents had organised a big party. Most of the time she spent sleeping because she seemed exhausted, and wasn't that interested in the party.
But I don't see how she could have autism, as both her parents are extreme NTs. I know her dad is related to me but I don't think he even carries the faulty gene because both he and his sister and both their parents are also extreme NTs with confidence which seems to be a fairly strong gene that passes down with them. And the mother and her family don't seem to have any autism either. I've met them and nobody's ever mentioned autism, like whenever she talks in depth about her family to me she never mentions autism, they all seem to be getting on in life okay.
I know the autism gene is vicious and can spread like covid through families, except it isn't airborne, but contagious through genes instead. I hope my second cousin doesn't have autism, I wouldn't wish it upon anyone, although I wouldn't feel so genetically targeted by autism if another family member did have it.
With respect, some of your ideas with regards to genes are not accurate.
First of all, genetics is very complicated and diseases or health conditions passed along via genes, are not always hereditary. For example, there exists 'de novo' mutations of genes, i.e the spontaneous mutation of genes in offspring, not inherited via parents, which may contribute to cases of autism in offspring. And 'de novo' mutations aren't the only type of genetic variability, there are also epigenetics and epigenetic behaviours and so on.
It is perfectly possible for two NT parents to have an autistic child, or two autistic parents to have an NT child, although the former is more likely than the latter, I believe, as a guess.
Autism isn't caused by a 'faulty gene' - there are hundreds of genes thought to be responsible for the incidence and development of ASD.
'Contagious' isn't a word associated with the passing along of genes, the word 'contagious' is more associated with infections or pathogens.
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“I was ashamed of myself when I realized life was a costume party and I attended with my real face” - Franz Kafka
01 Aug 2025, 12:14 pm
