In the Genes

[Techdog]

I found out my Dad’s side of the family had Bi-polar ADD where as my Dad found meeting people enjoyable. My Uncle and I are loners home and family is our safe place. Friends for me has always been hard even when a cousin married a talented comedian-actor I admire this person but keep screwing up when we see each other ? Another cousin drinks heavily to dampen her depression and refuses to get help.

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[blackdog]

Not surprising. When I mentioned ADD to the therapist I was seeing, he asked right away if anyone else in the family had it. Which surprised me at the time because I hadn’t read anything about ADD in the last decade. Last I knew it was still being debated whether it was genetic or a learned behaviour. Nature or nurture.

But when he said that the light bulb came on. My father had ADD. Much as I hate to give him an excuse for his behaviour, it makes perfect sense. And his brother had OCD for sure and might possibly have been slightly autistic. My grandfather died when I was a baby, I never knew him, and grandmother died when I was 13 so I didn’t know her well. But I can remember one time at Sunday dinner when she had baked a cake for dessert and forgot to put the sugar in it.

My brother has one son with ADHD and one with Autism. I’m not sure if he himself has ADD or not, it’s hard to tell. But I know he does have a mood disorder and there are definitely a lot of ADD traits, like switching jobs frequently, impulsivity, disorganization, projects that never get finished, always trying something new, failure to consider consequences, inability to budget money properly…..

Yup, he has ADD. I never put all of those things together before. He calls me “ADD girl”. I’m gonna have to start calling him “ADD boy”. But he’ll never believe it.

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[kc5jck]

Girls are “Chick A-D-D”

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[Techdog]

Dad was a financial wiz at accounting so I thought something was wrong with me struggling with math. He said once he learned a system to work for him as everyone should find what works for them. As far as public speaking think as everyone as sheep and not who they are it makes stage fright easier . Again music was also his release and system for math .

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[blackdog]

@kc5jck Okay, I finally got it. 🙂

@Techdog, that is the key. Find what works for you. Too bad most schools don’t think about that and allow kids to learn their own way.

Lack of mathematical skill is a genetic trait in my family. Not a single one of us can do more than basic addition and subtraction. And I have to count on my fingers to do that much.

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

The gene thing is tricky.  The first suspect gene that was identified was DRD4.7, the D stands for Dopamine. (Not sure which D, now that I think about it. Hmm. But one of em does.)

Since then a bunch more have been identified… DRD5, DAT1, 5HTT, HTR1B, and SNAP25 are some of the ones that I’ve seen referenced in various articles. (Maybe someone with some scientific credibility can explain more about genes.)

But the key word that I missed when I first heard experts referring to the genes was ‘suspect’. As in, ‘we suspect it’s part of the cause of ADHD because this gene is switched on in a lot of ADHD people, and not in others.’

Then came the realization, out of the Human Genome project where they mapped the entire human DNA, that there are far fewer genes than they expected, and how the genes are ‘expressed’ is equally important.

Again, can someone else explain this better than me?  Please feel free to add to this.

But from what I understand the same gene can be expressed many ways, like a character in the Chinese alphabet, which might stand for Eat, Submit, Drink, Go Forward, or Receive, depending on how its used, what other characters are around it. And how the gene expresses itself, or what it does, depends on the layer of protein around the outside. (Is this accurate? Man, where’s a Molecular Biologist with a Minor in Genetics when you need one?)

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[blackdog]

@Rick it all sounds good to me. But then I’m not a molecular biologist with a minor in genetics.

The key word is “suspect”. I only recently found out that there is supposed to be a connection between dopamine and ADHD. But since there is no way to really test that, no one can know for sure. All I know is my life is a mess and there has to be an explanation. And I’ll take any explanation I can get.

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[dithl]

I was at a talk about genetics and hearing loss a few years ago, and that’s similar to how the presenter described it. Like a typo in a very long string of letters. “Ohhhh – that was supposed to be an “e”, not an “o”! My bad – have fun with the ADD”.
I haven’t ever really thought about genetic counselling – but does anyone know if it exists for this area and related disorders? Bipolar has raised its ugly head again in my family. My greatest fear / nightmare is that it will one day claim the future of one of my sons. Not an entirely rational fear, I know, as odds are still very much in their favour to lead “normal” lives. But beyond educating them to take care of their brains and to recognize early symptoms, I don’t know of what else I can do…I don’t even know if we would want to know if they were genetically susceptible. If ADD is a tragi-comedy, bipolar/schizo is a sci-fi horror/comedy. (There’s always something to laugh at, in a dark humour sort of way).

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