ADHD Genetics & Social Issues

[cjnolet]

If I have ADHD, how likely is it that my father had ADHD? I grew up with a father constantly telling me "stop fidgeting, stop talking so fast, stop overreacting. You have selective hearing. Normal people don't do things like that."

He passed away a couple years ago from colon cancer, unfortunately. I did love him very much. But we were on bad terms during that time because of a problem that had grown from seemingly uncontrollable ruminations that would happen when I got suddenly woken up from a sound sleep late at night- largely due to stress.

It turned out, I'd take something that was on my mind and ruminate on it until it became delusions. I ended up ruminating on old memories of my dad when I was a kid until I started sending him nasty emails out of the blue and ruined my relationship with him.

Anyways, I digress. I remember my dad staring off into the blue at times when I was kid. Something I still do to this day that I don't recall anybody else I've ever met ever doing. It's what I do when I'm hyperfocusing. I also know that he had problems containing his emotions and had no problem crying. When my parents divorced, he had no problem crying and had gotten borderline abusive at times.

Needless to say, he'd never had admitted he was ADHD, but i have a strong suspicion he was. I have an uncle who takes medications for ADD and I think my grandfather may have been ADD as well. I know it has a tendency to run in families and my son is about to be diagnosed.

I'd consider myself having gotten pretty far in life and my father never allowed me to use ADHD as an excuse (he also never really believed there was anything wrong with me... but that's a different story.) I don't really want my son using ADHD as a crutch either, but I will say that I believe even in my mid 30's I'm still learning some important social skills that I was unable to pick up as a small child as a result of my obsessions and hyperfocus. It's unfortunate because as an adult, and as my father warned me as a teenager, people don't come out and tell you when you've committed a social fallacy.

They just simply turn the other way or decide not to associate with you. Some people even berate you publicly or socially tar and feather you in front of your peers in subtle ways that don't come out until months later when you are ruminating over conversations and realize the "between the lines" in things that were told to you.

It's rather sad.

[Hidden]

Not sure what the science is, but I notice it does seem to run in families. My family for sure. Many with ADD type issues. Myself included.

[ignisalamort]

Current research seems to lean towards it being strongly linked to genetics due to its pattern of inheritance in families.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Here's a study from pubmed where it's noted in the in the abstract that "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity is a childhood-onset disorder that can persist into adult life. Traditional family, twin and adoption studies have shown that ADHD defined both categorically and dimensionally is familial and heritable. Twin studies are now being used to examine ways of defining the ADHD phenotype, to investigate gender differences, the effects on genes on continuity and comorbidity and to consider gene-environment interplay."

[Eclecticentric77]

From some of the studies I have come across, there is said to be about a 75% chance that a parent with ADHD will have a child with ADHD and if both parents have it, then it is nearly certain the son/daughter will have it. I have what is known as Inattentive ADHD, it's quite different from the commonly known hyperactive subtype in that people with Inattentive Adhd do not have the hyperactivity part, are usually more introverted, frequently/easily irritated, and can get emotional easier. The staring off into the blue you mention is quite common with people of the inattentive subtype because of their deep, analytical, and most of all introspective nature. I do that all the time and people in public places sometimes think I'm staring at them (especially at the gym) when in reality I'm visualizing, planning, organizing, wondering, or creating a multitude of things in my mind. Just incase you may not be aware, a person can be what is called a combined type ADHD, meaning they are both a Hyperactive Type and Inattentive Type, the ratio varies for individuals. After reading this, if you suspect your father might be an Inattentive type, click on my profile and it will show a link to a video series I made of problems people with Inattentive ADHD face from elementary school to adulthood.