To think autism gets worse with each generation

As I said earlier I dont think you need to explain what autism is like and how it can present to most of the posters on this thread. I’m actually not sure what you are trying to impart. If you judge “severity” by how well a person can pass as neurotypical then I would suggest you rethink that as it seems a rather fluffy way of thinking about it. Severity surely must be a measure of the impact of the disability on the individual’s health, happiness, and independence?

I'm talking about autistic people who have behavioural issues, self injurious behaviour, who can’t delay their meltdowns/shutdowns, can’t make conversation (due to their deficits so for example lacking reciprocity, wanting to dictate everything, not being consciously aware of what is and what isn’t acceptable to say or do, haven’t learned to change their tone of voice from sounding “flat”, and ultimately can’t pretend to come across as non-autistic.
if an autistic person can’t make a meal, wash or go to the toilet alone then they’re unlikely to make good decisions and that will come out in their behaviour too.
there are autistic people with severe autism who can’t mask it

Well you might have an individual who stims continuously but manages other difficulties without too much effort or someone who appears to be calmer but can’t make a meal, wash or go to the toilet alone. You might see someone fairly calm in public who implodes in private. How could you know?

if a persons autism is visible that’s a pretty good indication that their autism is severe and I don’t see how that might not be the case ?

I didn’t say that you couldn’t observe autistic traits or behaviours, I said how obvious they were wasn’t an indication of how impacted a person was by their ASD. Most of the people posting on this thread have direct experience of autism.

not in all cases, but it can be. you can look at people and tell that they are autistic because it is so severe. Usually if they can’t mask it and/or have severe behavioural issues and it is very outward. They may even make inappropriate clothing choices or have an “off” tone of voice. It can’t always be masked.
I also think it can be obvious when that person has an inability to make or keep friends due to the misunderstandings their deficits create and the fall outs

I don’t think so. Children need boundaries to grow into happy and well-adjusted adults. If those boundaries are not put in place, children do not become familiar with the behavioural framework that underpins adult life. Their expectations of life are unrealistic, and they often lack the patience and resilience to cope with the unfairness and normal disappointments of human life. It is too simplistic to attach a label to the behaviour of those whose upbringing has failed to prepare them for life, or who are simply going through that well known adolescent turmoil. Labels are stuck on for life, and can become stigmatising or an excuse for bad behaviour. This is a huge failure of ‘the ‘ autistic spectrum’, and the ever expanding human classifications that professionals assign to us, rather than simply accepting that some of us need more support and guidance than others.

I don’t think how “visible” it is is really an indication of how severely you are impacted by your ASD

a high functioning autistic person can also have meltdowns and self harm, go mute at times or shut down.
will say though that unless in very obvious cases where you’re looking at a person who is visibly autistic/uncontrollable and can’t mask their symptoms. - Then you can’t say if someone is more autistic than someone else unless you know both of their deficits/issues with their sensory issues/any intervention they’ve had
I hope that makes sense

You can have more autistic traits than another person to more of a severity. It is partly an impairment of social functioning and also affects the nervous system. Not everyone has the same number of deficits that are associated with autism and you don’t need to meet all of those deficits to be diagnosed which allows some Lee-way. I do believe that someone can be “more” autistic than another person

The ‘cause’ of autism is unknown if there is actually one. However autism is a social communication disorder and the main criteria for diagnosis are based on struggles with this particular thing. However there are also other ND ‘traits’ which can class over with other ND conditions such as ADHD.

This is a good link to read about the diagnostic criteria (not cause).

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis/assessment-and-diagnosis/criteria-and-tools-used-in-an-autism-assessment

Seriously?

Well since it's not caused by the same thing I think it's entirely possible for some people to be a bit autistic I don't think it's as black and white as having it or not.

Does something have to be caused by one thing to describe a group? I’m not sure that’s true. Does it even have to be caused by the same thing?

eg the deaf blind community. To be part of it you must be both deaf and blind (though there are members of the wider population who share the “trait” of blindness or deafness) it doesn’t matter if you are born deaf blind, injured to become deaf blind or experience a degenerative process and develop deaf blindness.

You may of course see “traits” of autism in the parents of autistic children but those traits are actually human behaviours as all autistic traits are. The idea that autism diagnosis is not rigorous but more of a feeling or impression is a bit offensive.

I don't believe everyone is a bit autistic. I can't help but think that some people have quite a few traits but not enough to be classed as autistic.

When people use the analogy of you can't be a bit pregnant so you can't be a bit autistic, you either are or you're not....that makes it seem like there is one thing that causes autism but I have never read that. The way it is diagnosed is through behaviour which is so subjective and it changes.
Please do correct me if I'm wrong. Is autism caused by one thing?.

I’ll add another Some people believe we are all on the spectrum to varying degrees. I think what the “some people” you are talking about are trying to express is that we are all human not all autistic. Being autistic is not a personality trait and there are as many different personalities in the autistic population as there are in the general population. If you work with autistic people you really should know this.

At least one of those things is easy to answer - there is no line between ASD and personality. It's baked into the brain's structure and a fundamental part of that person. You can't separate the person from the autism...despite what all the "let's cure autism!" folk will tell you.

I’m often surprised that the posters on these ND threads that display a multitude of rigid, black and white, my way or the highway thinking never pause to consider that they might be wrong and that the very neuro diversity that they have means that they don’t handle disagreement very well. (I’m well aware that I’ll now be rained on with the SCIENCE even though the SCIENCE doesn’t have perfect knowledge)

As someone who works with children with ASD, I meet the parents and can see the traits though they were never diagnosed themselves, I believe it's talked about more, recognised and diagnosed easily (sometimes too easily) hard to draw the line as what is ASD what is personality? Some people believe we are all on the spectrum to varying degrees. More people are alao paying privately which wasn't an option with the last generation.

I beg your pardon?

It cannot be great if it is considered brain wired unto abnormal way

Not arguing at all - just adding to what you were saying to show how this proves how much we need to question the data rather than blindly accepting it 😊 Hope that's clear now.

So you are arguing with me even though you agree

Yes, you are correct. Some, but as you admit, by no means all. This was the point I was making - that we need to question the data rather than accepting it blindly.

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread so may be repeating what others have already said. I think the changes in our society have had a huge impact on autistic individuals. For instance years ago there wasn't constant noise, flashjng inages on tv and you tube, constant access to video shorts, classrooms in schools field with information, colours, things on the walls. Food was simpler without so much sugar etc.

Everything was slower paced years ago, so autistic individuals didn't have as much sensory overload as they do now which can trigger meltdowns etc. Autistic children that could have coped in routine led school environments can't manage as well with changes to schools.

We also have had advances in science that mean babies are being saved at much younger gestations than thwy could be previously, e.g. 22 weeks etc. Babies this premature are much more likely to be neurodiverse, especially autistic.