To think autism gets worse with each generation

[eastereggg]

Genuine question.

Why does it seem that autism gets worse with each generation?

Example: a mother is a late diagnosed autistic but her child is very clearly autistic and displays much more severe characteristics than she did. The grandmother would probably be diagnosed autistic today as well.

There seems to be a recurring pattern that I'm seeing where autism is getting more severe with each generation. Is there an explanation for this?

I didn’t say it was preferable I said it was less rigid in response to a posters belief that there was more of the autism about because kids have less boundaries these days.

OTOH there are also a lot of people that 40 years ago would have been perfectly fine at their job in a little workshop or back office, or even in a lab somewhere quietly doing their work. No one would care if they were quiet or said the wrong thing sometimes or was only good at one specific thing. They may well have got married, bought a house and had a family but probably with an NT person.

Now a lot of them wouldn’t get past the first interview, or they get the job but they can’t keep it because they can’t concentrate on doing the job and answering 17 slack channels or they say something inappropriate. I’ve seen this happen to a few people now!

The Sheldon Cooper types can still work in Shoreditch or Silicon Valley because they can either mask or their aptitude outweighs their social difficulties but the more average ones can’t and struggle.

Well I’m too invested so I really don’t care if people try to silence me from discussing the possible triggering effect vaccines might have on babies.

If people stop questioning the science, it really isn’t science any more.
Anyone saying ‘the science is settled’ is wrong! The science is never settled!

People should use their own discernment and never be afraid to question anything.

Interestingly, I’ve read and re-read the retracted MMR research paper and not once did Andrew W say the words ‘MMR vaccine causes autism’. Neither did any of the other 12 doctors who did the research. Yet he was used as the scapegoat and lost his licence permanently…,whilst the other 12 doctors got theirs back once the hype died down.

I’m not saying I definitely believe vaccines are the cause of the increase in autism but i think it’s very interesting to ask questions about. The retracted Lancet MMR paper looked at the relationship between the brain and gut and simply said more research was needed.

I don't feel that way. And I have no idea how it is to live in someone else's body so I'm not for a minute saying that. One can be disabled in one aspect yet certainly not what you'd see as malfunctioning.

The problem with these discussions is that every ND person is so different that we just can't ever have a reasonable discussion about this ' group' of individuals because people are exactly that , individuals and not one homogeneous lump.

Within this group of individuals who would be termed Autistic, there will be individuals who are not some sort of malfunction. I believe that for some ( and I have no idea who or how many( that they would possibly not feel so disabled if society was set up completely differently than it is.

I am not for one minute talking about every Autistic person as how do I know what someone is suffering with inside each day. I don't. And I know life is bloody difficult based on the people I care for and know. But there are individuals within this ' lump ' who I believe will see themselves quite differently, not necessarily defective but rather disabled by society more than anything else.

I repeat, it entirely depends on each individual. Every situation and person is unique.

I have no idea how it must be for every person. But I believe what someone says about their own lived experience every time.

Rolls Royce too is pretty much built on men that would have been classed as having Asperger’s but now ASD………incredibly intelligent but socially awkward.

Not as such, but it's what I was thinking too. Talking to people such as parents who knew "mildly" autistic people when they were kids can be pretty revealing. If you met my boyfriend (high flying career in tech, has friends, can navigate social situations albeit awkwardly), you'd never guess he didn't speak a word until he was 3. If you met me (dozens of friends, usually perfectly happy in social situations), you'd never guess I spent every lunchtime for a year at the age of 9 standing stock still in the corner of the playground with my face in the hedge.

High and low functioning refer to iq not how happy you are. I’m not sure why you are suggesting more disabled people are default more miserable it’s simply nonsense.

More recently low functioning autistics would be described as having ASD with a LD (learning disability), and High functioning just ASD. These are very useful descriptors and I think there are also many who are not offended by the terms but who are offended by the idea that having a LD is something unmentionable or of no consequence.

This

The terms high and low functioning are not referring to IQ. They are literally describing someone’s ability to function.
https://psychiatry-uk.com/higher-or-lower-why-using-functional-labels-to-describe-autism-is-problematic/

People are having children older ...older dads also

I think the incidence of autism in general is increasing (and I don't just mean due to better understanding and diagnosis.) When my son was diagnosed 9 years ago we were told it affected 1:100 kids, by the time he started school we were told 1:65 and looking at the kids in his school I think it's probably about 1:30 now. I'm utterly convinced there are triggers in the environment that mankind hasn't identified yet - microplastics, air quality, mercury in fish etc.

Maybe the figures were always inaccurate and incorrect and those stats were wildly out of touch with reality. How many people who appeared to function better in society would never have been considered years ago. Instead they would just be seen as ' weird' or ' odd' because they were different somehow.

Government won't do anything about people having children at older ages ...as it would mean they'd have to address the housing situation. This way more of the population have to live in cramped conditions for longer...renting for years, house-shares. That's my opinion anyway. It's a symptom of people having children older which is a symptom of the appalling housing situation

I think the society each generation has grown up in has become less nad less tolerant to individual eccentricity such that neurodiversity has become increasingly difficult to manage.

My kids are ND, so am I (late diagnosed) and I am now 100% my mother and uncle were too. Whilst I can see that huge parts of my life were impacted negatively, my daughter has absolutely been blown away by the current education/exam system and the covid/post-covid disconnection she and her peers have experienced.

So no, I personally don’t think each generation is ‘more autistic’, but I do think each generation is experiencing an increasingly stressful and intolerant environment that makes managing autism very difficult.

I always thought the stats were 1 in X people, not children. Which means I count in the figures of the 2020's but I should have been counted 1980's or late 70's. It makes sense but If the stats are indeed just children, then that's wrong

I agree with you verbena17. I The intensity of modern life has created additional stressors.
Also some of the personality traits in my Autistic family members - e.g. deep thinkers and feelers, quiet, taking people and situations at face value, considered, nature loving - are qualities often at odds with modern society.
I wonder if we could (wave a magic wand) reduce some of the modern stimuli and provide the setting, time and space for EVERYONE to process and respond in their own time and way...would there then be a reduction in the examples described by OP and other posters?

The National Autistic Society state the following below…
Taking my own DS as an example, he has level 8 GCSEs, is grade 8 piano, speaks a complex language he’s taught himself, has taught himself to code and has an IQ of between 135-145. And yet….some days he cannot talk due to anxiety, cannot eat due to anxiety and ARFID. He has never called anyone other than me on the phone, he doesn’t go into shops, he won’t use public transport and won’t learn to drive as he doesn’t trust others. Until quite recently he couldn’t tie his laces and cannot currently work as he is selectively mute and therefore cannot do an interview.
He is super intelligent (cognitively and emotionally) and yet isn’t high functioning at all and needs a lot of support from us.

Well obviously. If you are full time carer and single and do not work, most likely you will get benefits.

Just to ask whether you feel this is more financially beneficial than working and not caring for an Autistic child? I don't want to assume that's the suggestion but it does feel a little like that. Benefits will never cover the outgoings the poster has referenced here.

Those who don't experience this don't realise that incredibly skilled mothers will be leaving their well paying, tax contributing salaries in droves in order to care for children who are unable to care for themselves ( virtually no provision exists any more here). Alternatively, as we see at almost epidemic levels- mum's leaving their tax contributing careers and having to stay home with kids who can't cope in mainstream school and are having mental health breakdowns because of it.

For those who don't have experience, the provision for SEN kids in schools has become so stripped back that parents have nowhere for their kids ( many very capable) to go. This problem is growing significantly and impacts everyone.

There is nothing financially preferable about these situations. Anyone who thinks as much needs to stop reading the Daily Mail.

I get that some people have very spiky profiles and I have a friend whose son is similar to yours and he's is very disabled by his autism
But this does ignore people like my son who cant function on any level without 1:1_support and can't communicate with anyone other than on a very basic level I'm not sure what the answer is but to say it's all but a blanket diagnosis of unhelpful and I don't buy in to it s the co morbid disabilities that are the issue because where do you start trying to define the two?

I dont think the NAS are saying there is no need to define support needs.
They’re saying to describe needs rather than saying they’re high /low functioning.

Sometimes if I have to explain my DS’ autism to someone who clearly doesn’t understand autism, I might say ‘he has what some people used to call high functioning autism’. It means though that they think he’s like Rain Man or he’s savant.

Is that your own research or did you just copy and paste it from somewhere without bothering to cite your source?

My dad was obviously autistic with hindsight. I don't remember him well as we lost him when I was small but I have his scrapbook, textbooks about his interests and stories about him that all point to it. He was a precocious and "odd" child and a rather "difficult" adult by all accounts. When I was younger I was a square peg in a round hole, though I did well academically, and at 12 school wanted to refer me to the child development centre as they thought there might be something "wrong". My mum wouldn't engage with the idea as she didn't want me to be stigmatised as "not the full shilling" (got to love the 80s). I've struggled with relationships all my adult life but I mask quite well due to having to. My DC are all either diagnosed or on the pathway to it. I'd say it's obvious it runs in the family and I don't feel labelled or stigmatised but other people's judgement can be very hard to cope with. Especially with my youngest who is likely PDA. I would opt for us all to be NT if I could as it must be so much easier.

I don't think autism gets worse with generations.

I'm diagnosed, as is DS. I was hyperlexic he had significant speech delay is an example of differences but he has the right support to thrive whereas even non-verbal or speech delayed autistics back when I was young where segregated and didn't receive any support other than the questionable ABA therapy, many were put into abusive institutions and this is even more so true of my mums generation and my grans generation. These people would not be reproducing. They would be isolated.

Referring back to DS and I, he isn't more autistic than I am. We are both just as autistic but I was just fortunately born with a combination of traits that fall within the triad of impairments that meant that I could still cope with the limited support tools available to me.

Given we no longer institutionalise our high support needs individuals you will see more of them around compared to previous historic generations (and rightly so, the abuse was abhorrent) but our highest support needs individuals with limited speech and developmental delays and who will need significant daily support for the rest of their lives are still unlikely to have children and therefore you aren't likely to see a positive uptick in autism in the way of support needs decreasing each generation whereas individuals with lower support needs who have lived independently and had the opportunity to form relationships are more likely to have children. Those children will either be autistic or they won't, and if they are then they may also be lower support needs or their support needs will be higher than their parent/s.

I agree with the PP that also pointed out the schooling system these days seems a lot more intense, and we're in the midst of a SEN crisis as there is not adequate support for SEN pupils, which leads to oberwhelm, both over and understimulation and is a curriculum that leaves no room for alternative learning styles. The lack of SEN alternative provision means thst perceptually you're once again more likely to encounter higher needs children to autistic parents in a mainstream setting. Their needs are higher in these settings and not having their needs met creates trauma and trauma leads to dysregulation and this can generate behaviour that may make a child appear "more autistic" but actually they're just more traumatised.

Trauma and autism go hand in hand with eachother.

My assessor who assessed me in April this year said that CPTSD rates are high in autistic individuals, and it's especially the case in late diagnosed autistics as you've spent most of your life not knowing what your needs even are to get them met. It's not exclusive to late diagnosed autistics of course, and as an autism advocate for SEN children, reducing trauma is something that I feel extremely passionate about and making sure schools understand.

So I don't think we get more autistic with each generation. I think we understand autism and how it presents and the triggers of dysregulation more now than ever before but there still isn't the right support or intervention structure in place for our young autistics of today.

@CraftyNavySeal you raise a very valid point about what is considered functional. My dad's generation probably didn't need the executive function that my kids do as their lives were simpler. DS has to bring various PE kit items to school on the right day, cookery ingredients, instrument on lesson day, maths equipment, remember passwords and logins for multiple platforms etc. My dad got dressed and went to school.