Autism Epidemic?

[inkfingers]

I've heard that autism rates are rising, and autism is becoming more common. I know this is kind of a weird notion, but I don't want autism to be common. I enjoy being out of the ordinary, and to have autism become a common-place, everyday occurrence, does not sound good to me. Does anyone else feel this way? And is this really an "epidemic" of autism?

 

[Pats]

I don't think that it's more and more people are being born with autism, it's just that they are realizing more people have it than I thought before. Look at the number of people here that didn't learn until much later in life that they were autistic - because not as much (if anything) was known about it.
But I agree with you in that I don't want to be common and glad I'm different, even with the struggles.

 

[Fino]

I see what you mean feeling like it's an epidemic. I keep trying to remember everyone I ever interacted with as a kid to see if it was this common. Every piano teacher I know teaches autistic students, all students learn about autism and know autistic people in their schools, and education courses use a large portion or an entire class on the subject, depending on your specialization.

It makes sense to say it's just rising awareness, but my feeling is that it is more common now. I don't think I have that problem with the ego though. But maybe I'm just saying I don't out of ego!

When I think of the things that make me unique, none of the diagnoses come to mind, so everyone could be diagnosed with everything I have and I wouldn't feel any less unique.

I don't think..

The world may never know!

 

[GrownupGirl]

It's not an epidemic because it's not a disease. It wasn't really that long ago that you didn't see as many autistic people because they were usually locked up and treated like prisoners, and due to it being a spectrum disorder there are many people who are autistic who have been just seen as odd or eccentric, especially if they are female.

 

[Fino]

epidemic
adjective
ep·i·dem·ic | \ ˌe-pə-ˈde-mik \
Definition of epidemic
(Entry 1 of 2)

1: affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time; typhoid was epidemic
2a: excessively prevalent
b: CONTAGIOUS sense 4epidemic laughter
3: characterized by very widespread growth or extent : of, relating to, or constituting an epidemic; the practice had reached epidemic proportions
epidemic

noun
ep·i·dem·ic | \ ˌe-pə-ˈde-mik \
Definition of epidemic (Entry 2 of 2)

1: an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time : an outbreak of epidemic disease
2: an outbreak or product of sudden rapid spread, growth, or development; an epidemic of bankruptcies

Definition of EPIDEMIC

 

[Iamnotarabot]

This is partially an "epidemic", and not that much.

People are more and more diagnosed when they are on a more functionning range, because they need it for their own personnal developpement in order to know who they are.
We say society is more open and inclusive but our society needs more social flexibility than ever and it is a problem for hight functionning people.
They are more excluded and need to know why.

But most of them have parents on the autism spectrum aswell, they managed to live their lives despite their little weirdness , they didnt get diagnosed ( because hight functionning autism was largely unknown )
Their autistics traits are just personnality traits for them and they dont bother.



What I mean is that the number of autistic people is actually not that much higher, this is just that our generation is more diagnosed and less missdiagnosed especially women.

And our generation feels like autism is a more common thing because of all the website and all...the communities online ect...

(I add this part of the message because I started on mobile but it bugged)

But look at the numbers, the autism and asperger reddit doesnt even get 100k sub , while mainstream reddits have millions of subsribers. And reddit may have 300 millions active users.

And online we are from many countries (even if its mainly the US and UK because of english) If we stayed in our neightbourhood we would feel realy alone, we have more opportunities to communicate with other autistic and this is great. But it make us feel less unique I guess.

What can actually increases the number of people with autism, is the fact that women are more and more exposed to stress during their pregnancy.

Common stress causes are working, or being obese during pregancy, and both of this things increase in our society.(iv read a study about blood pressure during a phase of pregnancy related to autism)
In addition more and more women build a career therefore they have children later in life and this aswell can increases the risk of autism or other issues.

But even if this can increases the amount, well we will be a minority for a long time.
And I am not totally sure about this last part but also the age of the man during the conception can affect the chance aswell , it's actually not just women.
And they have themselves their first child later in life, in general now people gets kids a decade later.

 

[Crossbreed]

ASD2 & ASD3 was and is on the rise. I have come to believe that these are actually ASD1s with amplified co-morbid conditions. And a particular advancement in modern medicine appears to be the trigger mechanism. In that sense, it IS an injury comparable to anaphylactic shock. I believe that the ASD community should be very concerned about this.

Without that injury, I believe these people would be healthy ASD1s.

 

[Iamnotarabot]

ASD1s with amplified co-morbid conditions

I have read about this aswell, I think it was about the correlation with EDS for instance, and other more "physical issues" that actually make people more sensitive overall , not just from a neurological standpoint.

 

[UberScout]

The world is awakening to the realisation that Autistic people are human too.

I welcome this epidemic. If there are more of us, then there will be less people to shame us.

Now the world will see just how useless it is to shame our kind!!

 

[Iamnotarabot]

The world is awakening to the realisation that Autistic people are human too.

I welcome this epidemic. If there are more of us, then there will be less people to shame us.

Now the world will see just how useless it is to shame our kind!!

This is somekind of Magneto's speech xD
Mutants are rising!

 

[UberScout]

I speak the truth. For decades our disability has gone shunned and unappreciated by the rest of the world. If people aren't making us feel bad that we can't help what we do about it or that we are excuse makers, then they're BULLYING us and making us the butt of every joke. It is an inexcusable problem that wasn't going away.

Just because we are different doesn't mean we deserve to be punished.

We deserve to be understood. We WILL be understood.

Humanity was foolish to shame us for our eternal plague!

Let the Aspergers Uprising begin at last!

 

[Progster]

I agree with @Pats that it there isn't a higher percentage of autistic people in the population, there appear to be more autistic people because more are getting diagnosed. I also agree with @Crossbreed that those with ASD2 and ASD3 are actually ASD1 with ampified comorbid conditions and learning difficulties.

Also, I believe that since the advent of the digital age, the gap is widening between neurotypical people and autistic people, and that means that autistic people are more prominent and stand out more in society. People have become more social: whereas, in the past, people might have known 100 people and had a social circle of 20, it's not uncommon now for people to have 200+ social contacts, especially since the rise in popularity of the socia media. The world is more socially complicated, and more challenging for autistic people.

 

[Iamnotarabot]

there appear to be more autistic people because more are getting diagnosed

So it doesnt realy increases the number of people with autism right? Sorry to be nitpicky

 

[Progster]

So it doesnt realy increases the number of people with autism right? Sorry to be nitpicky

Perhaps not, but it does make them more prominent, highlights or intensifies their difficulties and more likely to receive a diagnosis.

 

[SusanLR]

I also don't think it is on the rise, just more are being diagnosed and recongised.
Having lived a good number of years, I would never have made it through school without
probably being noticed and diagnosed in today's world.
But, in my school years the awareness just wasn't there. Teacher's and doctor's
saw the traits and called them other things.
Many times the co-morbidities were seen and you were labeled that.
But, ASD just wasn't something the teachers or doctors knew much about and didn't think about.

 

[Autistamatic]

Asperger's Syndrome and the Autistic Spectrum were only incorporated into the DSM IV in 1994 and the ICD 10 in 1996. Before then diagnoses were extremely rare because a diagnosis of "autism" was generally regarded to refer to Kanner or "classic autism" - what we would now consider to be ASD 3 (or severe autism as the anti-vaxxers and Jenny McCarthy like to call it).

That means there's only been 25 years in which to formally diagnose all of us with Asperger's, HFA, ASD 1 or whatever the current diagnostic label is at the time. There are people who were diagnosed in the 90s who may not even be diagnosed autistic now, and others who were not diagnosed who would meet the current criteria.

All these idiots who go on about an "autism epidemic" because "there weren't any around when I was young...
I was born in 1970. Even after my first diagnosis in the 80s (quote: "Autism {consistent with Asperger Syndrome}" because AS was a theory not yet in the ICD at that point) nobody had heard of it.

The first time I ever discussed my AS with anyone I knew was in 1999 because a few people had heard of it by then, but not many. When I sought clarification of my childhood diagnosis in 2003, finding a practitioner to do so was a chore even then.

The phenomenon has nothing to do with there being more ASD people out there, there's not been long enough to catch up with the backlog of undiagnosed people from the decades before. Look at @Pats , diagnosed at 59. Only yesterday I was talking to people diagnosed at 52, 64 and 69. They were there in the 70s when I was growing up (along with many of our politicians, parents and lobbyists) but nobody knew. All those people found out in the last few years.

 

[Fino]

It might be interesting to note that the same worry of an epidemic happened with ADHD, depression, anxiety, and I'm sure others, mostly around the 90s.

People were like OMG WHY EVERYONE SUDDENLY HAVE THIS, IS IT EVEN REAL

Followed by perfectly logical reasons for the apparent rise.

So I'm probably wrong about my "feeling," teachers probably just called autistic students "difficult students" instead.

 

[Fino]

Asperger's Syndrome and the Autistic Spectrum were only incorporated into the DSM IV in 1994 and the ICD 10 in 1996. Before then diagnoses were extremely rare because a diagnosis of "autism" was generally regarded to refer to Kanner or "classic autism" - what we would now consider to be ASD 3 (or severe autism as the anti-vaxxers and Jenny McCarthy like to call it).

That means there's only been 25 years in which to formally diagnose all of us with Asperger's, HFA, ASD 1 or whatever the current diagnostic label is at the time. There are people who were diagnosed in the 90s who may not even be diagnosed autistic now, and others who were not diagnosed who would meet the current criteria.

All these idiots who go on about an "autism epidemic" because "there weren't any around when I was young...
I was born in 1970. Even after my first diagnosis in the 80s (quote: "Autism {consistent with Asperger Syndrome}" because AS was a theory not yet in the ICD at that point) nobody had heard of it.

The first time I ever discussed my AS with anyone I knew was in 1999 because a few people had heard of it by then, but not many. When I sought clarification of my childhood diagnosis in 2003, finding a practitioner to do so was a chore even then.

The phenomenon has nothing to do with there being more ASD people out there, there's not been long enough to catch up with the backlog of undiagnosed people from the decades before. Look at @Pats , diagnosed at 59. Only yesterday I was talking to people diagnosed at 52, 64 and 69. They were there in the 70s when I was growing up (along with many of our politicians, parents and lobbyists) but nobody knew. All those people found out in the last few years.

View attachment 51160

OMG DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY POPTARTS I'VE EATEN??

 

[Autistamatic]

Don't push me @Fino
There's worse than Pop Tarts lurking on my hard drive

 

[Crossbreed]

All these idiots who go on about an "autism epidemic" because "there weren't any around when I was young...

Here is the problem with that theory,

ASD1s have always been here. We flew under the educational radar as nerds, geeks & eccentrics. (I even gravitated toward others in my teens 30+ years before my diagnosis.)

Beginning in the 1980s there was an unprecedented increase in children who needed extensive educational intervention.

• They were not Downs. They were physically healthy.
• They were not ASD1s. We always flew under the medical radar.
• They most resembled autism as described by Leo Kanner, but in unheard of numbers.
• These same numbers were not experienced, previously, under a different diagnosis. If they had been, the education system would have already been prepared for such.
• They are what we currently diagnose as ASD2/3. (I have one of each.)

In that sense, it was and is a type of epidemic, not of autism, but of amplified co-morbid conditions among autistics. And that is where our efforts at therapeutic analysis should lie.