To think more people do have autism nowadays?

[malificent7]

Everyone says it's because more people are being diagosed which is true BUT I am waiiting for my assessment , my sdd ( not genetically related) has it and 2 of my close school friends have children with it severely enough so that they can't attend mainstream.
Obviously several members of my family have it as it is genetic but it does seem odd that my 2 close school friends ( who dont have asd) have children with it.

I also think that assortative mating is one of if not the biggest contributor. ND people marrying and/or mating with other ND people more frequently than the past.

I was listening to a podcast the other day (or it might have been the radio?!) that said children in schools in Silicon Valley have a significantly disproportionate higher rates of Autism compared to the rest of the population (even when you account for other variables e.g. more parents with money to pursue a diagnosis). The same trends can be seen in other tech-based localities around the world (but not in traditional STEM industries that rely heavily on interpersonal, organisational or self discipline/resilience-based skillsets such as medicine, lab research or traditional civil/mechanical engineering). It was very interesting!

As a PP mentioned, I also think it could result in a cumulative effect of Autism becoming more severe/concentrated with each generation due to this assortative mating becoming more prevalent.

I'm not autistic and definitely have a favourite spoon 😄. It's between tea spoon and desert spoon size and perfect for eating with.

I find the empathy thing is wrong for lots of autistic people, although they may show it differently. When I was ill a few weeks ago, my son threw his favourite fidget at me and ran away. It actually meant: here is something I love to make you feel better and I don't know how to act around you now as you are slightly broken so bye. But anyone observing from the outside world have probably have though he was just being mean.

i know

This.
And chemicals used in Ultra processed foods are all tested and deemed 'safe' .
But none have been tested as a group ( that is if there are 4 chemicals in one product are they tested to see if they are safe all together?).
I can't find a link to something I read but it could be one factor. It doesn't have to be one thing in society though does it? It can just be a sprinkle of this and that.

However, my dad def was something like Asperger's or on a spectrum. He was a brilliant mathematician and became an Emeritus professor in his field in later life. He created things that changed the modern world in tech (though much of this we were unaware of until he died).
As children, we kind of understood that he didn't have enough 'space in his brain' for everything and would shut down as he had to mow the lawn all afternoon (it was a huge lawn) but he said the repetitive act of mowing 'unravelled his mind'.

What if no one is neurotypical and we are all just.. human. Whenever an autistic person refers to another person and make assumptions that they are allistic because of something they’ve said or a behaviour, that doesn’t mean they’re not autistic. What if we all just have specific individual needs and traits that need to be addressed

There's a lot to be said for this.

In the end the people I work with need their diagnosis for funding reasons and the ways the world would have to change to fit their needs without a separate setting are unfortunately almost impossible to imagine happening.

This is specific to autism with learning disabilities but I know very gifted adolescents who also only cope in specialist settings because of astronomical levels of overwhelm (individuals with PDA traits although this is a highly controversial diagnosis). Some individuals need outside help in order not to be overwhelmed by their own internal demands- the expectations they have of themselves, their own interior monologue or processing their own internal sensory information.

Yes, autism is a spectrum but not a linear one.

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen I was just pointing out that nd isn’t new, and that plenty has been written about it as a human feature - but that it’s a good thing that diagnosis and treatment is finally catching up…

Not sure why my post was deleted. It didn't contain any abusive or hateful language, and was not targeted at any particular poster. It didn't "contain personal attacks, to break the law and/or to be obscene, racist, sexist, disablist, ageist, homophobic or transphobic". It contained my genuine and highly considered opinion. How did it violate Talk Guidelines? I thought free speech was encouraged on here. But I see only groupthink on this issue is to be tolerated.

For what it's worth, many academic experts on the subject share my scepticism regarding the explosion in diagnosis and self-diagnosis:

The author of the 2021 study says the boundaries of diagnoses may expand further. Prof Ginny Russell, at the University of Exeter, said: “I do think it’s going to continue until maybe everyone is categorised as neurodiverse.”

Russell said while there could be an argument for there being a marginally higher proportion than previously of children with autistic traits who have low support needs, there was “no plausible reason” to support an argument that autism cases had increased substantially.

“What’s happened is that diagnoses have increased because of ever-wider assessment boundaries – boundaries that are still moving outwards,” she said. “Some go as far as to suggest that people diagnosed with autism today are united merely by not fitting their social environment."

“It may soon encompass people like me, for example. I have not changed but having some borderline autistic traits, I may soon be absorbed by autism – because it is itself changing.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/04/uk-increase-autism-diagnoses-neurodiversity

I can see that certain posters on this thread have even gone so far as to "diagnose" numerous historical literary characters with autism, which I have to say resembles the trend among gender ideologists of "transing" historical and fictional figures.

That’s like saying what if we are all disabled by hidden disabilities and pretty offensive .There are specific traits that have to meet levels that impact life. The vast majority of the population aren’t disabled and impacted on a daily basis by autism traits.

It was abelist and offensive to boot as you well know.

https://www.psypost.org/siblings-of-autistic-children-face-sevenfold-increased-risk-of-autism/

This article just popped up on my news feed. The figures they are giving were 1 in 100ish in 2011, but now 1 in 36 children. Its from a US research unit so assume they've used US stats. But this 'feels' more correct IMO from what I see in real life. I read before that there are a lot more children from ethnic minorities in the US diagnosed, which is fascinating and needs looking into I would have thought.

I still think it's higher. There's more than one in every class... (which would be around 3%) and if you include those diagnosed later in life it would be higher still.

Yes I agree. I'm guessing the figures from the US are more accurate than the UK as I don't know how you would 'count' diagnosis given that we now have such a fragmented system of private and NHS providers. It's gone up from 1 in 44 in 2021, to 1 in 36 in 2023. I think the question is when does it stop rising? And at what point does the argument that we are playing catch up with missed diagnosis cease to be valid? I think these figures are for children anyway so does that even apply? Are we really seeing this level of increase in ASD in a very short time, or are we seeing more diagnosis of what's always been there, in which case I do think there's an argument to be made about over diagnosis, or what ND actually means as a concept.

How was it "ableist"? As for "offensive", that's highly subjective and a minefield of a concept. Are we not allowed to post anything potentially offensive to somebody or other on here? I don't see that mentioned in the Talk Guidelines. There wouldn't be much of substance left, in that case.