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 think it might be this.

I can remember being extremely uncomfortable and crying a lot as a child - particularly in the nativity which I had to be removed from and at weddings etc.

I remember my parents acting embarrassed and being really angry with me for crying over things. My overriding memories of childhood are being frightened of both my parents and grandparents that I would say or do the wrong thing. So consequently I said nothing and did nothing. I was the same at school.

yes and also, living that way, there was no time for girly cliques and gossips or hen dos or girls drinks so no one even bothered trying to fit in. Good morals was enough to be left in peace

@DrCoconut I really hear what you said at the end. I've recently - as his struggles and challenges have intensified - thought I wish sometimes my own child was NT because I can see how difficult life is for him in this world - set up for people who are not like him ( PDA). It's such a horrible and hurtful thing to even think.

Part of me really wonders how different life could be if society was set up differently ( schooling, work, communication, societal expectations, all this bombardment of sensory stimulation). I think my own son would be so much happier and so less disabled by life. Only he would know that of course and in our lifetime this situation regards how society is structured isn't changing so we'll never know.

( I'm only applying this to my own child and observations regards his own challenges, not all ND people).

I mean ND people tend to couple up/ have kids with ND people.

My kids are clearly asd but their traits aren't that different to me or their dad.

We also have older relatives that have more obvious ND and needed lifelong care and couldn't live independently.

I do think we recognise more so there is confirmation bias.

I also think we live lives that exacerbate struggles - even tv is faster paced and brightly coloured in a way, the bombardment of images and screens and information. I do think for those of us who are high functioning it can be easier to be overwhelmed or let the mask slip so to speak.

i think it is just more widely known by schools, health visitors, parents
much more so than 20 years ago
mainstream TV programmes with autistic people

then parents/adult search for a diagnosis and receive it, because more is known, it is a spectrum
not environmental.

The original meaning of high functioning was to do with IQ. The problem is people now use it to mean something else.

You are quoting work published in 2022, looking at the molecular structure of brain tissue obtained from just 49 deceased autistic people compared to a similar sized control group. The study observes differences in brain tissue but does not make claims as to the causal mechanisms responsible for the differences it observed. (It also uses some pretty contentious language).

I’m not sure what you are trying to tell me?

The photo I attached explains that the NAS considers high /low functioning terms are now not acceptable to use and are considered offensive in the autism community.
I gave you the example of my own DS - saying that if you looked at him and his achievements you would think of him as ‘high functioning’ but that would be totally incorrect (as explained by the NAS attachment).

He finds it extremely difficult to function (highly) every single day - hence why the terms are not correct.

Definitely. Any wiring, even though naturally occured , which is not normal and stops certain functions proceed normally, is obviously affecting one's health and can be called disability

I should have said originally referred to IQ (LD or normal to normal plus). The meaning became blurred over time and got even more lost (or replaced) once Autism and Asperger’s was merged into ASD. It now is taken to mean how well you pass as non-autistic (which imo is far to vague to be of any use) and as such is now fairly offensive if you use it that way and so we’ve lost a useful descriptor and gained yet another nonsense.

Theres lots of places you can read about it on line eg https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-1698-3_344

gives a brief outline at the beginning of the paper.

The original meaning of high functioning was to do with IQ. So, using the original meaning, if your DS has an IQ of 135-145, he would have been considered to have high functioning autism. Using the actual original meaning, that wasn’t a judgement on the amount of support DS requires. The problem is people started to use it to mean something else, how much support someone needs. Which is why functioning labels aren’t helpful.

This!

Not true in my family. My generation is affected less than the one above and below. The generation above is worst off.

True. My DS gets very upset at people misbehaving and this seems to happen a lot at school.

Also, the NHS has been hugely ideological recently and clearly serving two masters - Asclepius and unfortunately, mammon from their American godessed, big pharma

I'm not applying my thoughts to every person who would be identified as ND. I am not saying this is some superpower and people aren't disabled by it.

I would like to know if the difference compared to an NT person in some cases is not necessarily a fault or abnormal. Are there people out there in this ND group ( which is huge clearly and probably still massively underestimated) who don't feel disabled in themselves but rather disabled by society. In a different society with different social norms, might there be individuals who fall within this ND category who have significant skills far beyond say me for example, yet the ways in which they are disabled are because of the social structures we live in which are incredibly difficult to conform to. Would they see themselves as defective in some way? I can believe there are people like this who might not.

I don't know how it is for anyone outside myself and their lived experience so as said prior, only each individual can say how it is for them and if course their lived experience trumps my thoughts and opinions.

There is a theory that autistic people are more likely to have a relationship with someone who is ND also, meaning that children will inherit characteristics from both ND parents.

I find it fascinating listening to family tales through a ND lens. The great uncle who kept himself to himself, spent hours in a shed and liked trains; my grandmother who was a bit odd, set in her ways and was a bit of a battle axe who rubbed people up the wrong way etc. So many times now I think that surely they're describing someone with autism

As the parent of an autistic child, I really cringe when I read things such as the above. Being "a bit odd" does not mean autistic, nor does "keeping yourself to yourself", or liking trains, nor "being a bit of a battle axe and rubbing people up the wrong way". It's perfectly 'normal' for all of these traits to be in ND people, they certainly aren't a surety of describing an autistic person. This is horribly minimising of the struggles that many autistic face.

On another note I'm sure the prevalence of autism is drastically increasing, and I don't believe it's because there is more awareness. Looking back in primary school I can't think of any children who displayed any stereotypical autistic traits, but in primary schools now there seems to be several in each class.

That paper is from 2013!

Yes there’s lots of references to what it meant originally, obviously in older papers because we’re talking about a shift in use of terminology. I just thought you might like to read it from someone else IYKWIM.

"My husband works in the field and he has observed this with some families. The benefits that come with very disabled adult children with autism support the entire household and are very reluctantly given up, when actually sometimes the person with autism could be doing a lot more outside the home eg day centres, even volunteering, taking public transport but that would involve some loss of benefits and is resisted tooth and nail by the parent(s)." @TheGander

This is bollocks. My son volunteers. He takes public transport - he has a disabled persons bus card, as well as a motability car I drive him around in. But I have to accompany him to these things. He's still in education but will probably go to day centres once he's finished - a local one does pick ups in a minibus, because these adults can't travel on their own. He will still be entitled to benefits because he will still be disabled, and still won't be able to work. Ffs. Benefits don't stop because someone takes public transport or goes to a day centre, or does one day of volunteering a week.

Again and again and again with the bollocks that there are people doing this for money.

And yes, some of his money does support the entire household. Because I can't fucking work with a disabled adult, and I'm quite sure he'd rather have a roof over his head with his family than me be homeless and him shoved in some residential place somewhere (costing tax payers far far far more than the paltry amount of benefits we get)

Aha ok cool. Yes sorry! I misunderstood.

I was going to say exactly the same but gave up as it just beggars belief that anyone would think people made money in this situation.

It doesn't seem very wise to start speculating about 2 ND people having children together leading to more severe presentations of ND in their children. Seems like a quick way down the slippery slope of trying to control/police who has children.

I'm also confused by so many people saying that the increase in tech is stopping ND children coping. I'm very anti tech generally but I thought that devices had actually improved life for ND children and made it possible for them to cope in public whereas in previous generations, the general public wouldn't even know these children existed as they'd be stuck at home.