Why Autism Has a Genetic Side That People Don’t Always Talk About

    When people talk about autism, they sometimes focus only on behavior or the social side of things, but I’ve been learning that genetics actually plays a big role too. I read a study that looked at thousands of families and found that autism has a strong hereditary component, meaning certain traits can be passed down genetically (Grove et al., 2019). That honestly made a lot of sense to me. I’ve known families where multiple people were neurodivergent in different ways, and it never felt like just coincidence. The study pointed out that autism isn’t caused by one single “autism gene,” but rather a mix of many genetic factors that each contribute a small piece. That idea really stuck with me. It shows how complex and diverse autism actually is, and why it looks different in every person.

    Another thing that stood out to me was how genetics interacts with the environment. A second study explained that genetic variations influence how the brain develops, but environment and life experiences can shape how those traits show up (Sandin et al., 2017). I liked that idea because it makes autism feel less like a strict category and more like a blend of biology and lived experience. It also reminded me that being neurodivergent isn’t something a person “chooses” or something caused by bad parenting, which is a harmful stereotype people still repeat. Understanding the genetic side helped me appreciate how naturally varied human brains are. To me, it’s a reminder that neurodivergence isn’t a flaw. It’s just another way of being human, and a lot of that uniqueness starts in our DNA.

References

Grove, J., Ripke, S., Als, T. D., Mattheisen, M., Walters, R. K., Won, H., … & Børglum, A. D. (2019). Identification of common genetic risk variants for autism spectrum disorder. Nature Genetics, 51, 431–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0344-8

Sandin, S., Lichtenstein, P., Kuja-Halkola, R., Larsson, H., Hultman, C. M., & Reichenberg, A. (2017). The heritability of autism spectrum disorder. JAMA, 318(12), 1182–1184. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.12141