I’m curious as to the seeming rise of autistic humans in the last decades.
Is it that it was just not understood and therefore not diagnosed/reported?
Are there environmental or even societal factors that have corresponded to this increase in cases?
In: Biology
Before, the weird kid was just “the weird kid.” Now we have a better understanding as to why, and it’s a lot of different stuff rather than just “weird,” so we can treat/accommodate/be more kind.
I would honestly chop it down to there not being a great understanding of Autism as a whole (IE the phasing out of Asperger Syndrome)
It used to be impossible for someone to be diagnosed with autism if they were not *significantly* intellectually delayed, if not disabled.
This isn’t part of the modern understanding of the condition.
Imagine a very specific set of characteristics, and give it a name (e.g. [frindle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frindle); it’s a fun enough word). When you describe this characteristic (for example, people with brown hair that is curly), *you* are the only person that knows what this ‘frindle’ means. So you tell the nearest ‘frindle’ that they are a ‘frindle’. They realize, “huh, so it is.”
This one interaction increased the amount of ‘frindle’ cases by an infinite value (0 to 1) in the time span of 5 seconds.
In socially diagnosed conditions, if the word doesn’t exist yet then the cases of the condition are 0. Further, if society doesn’t understand the condition (such as ‘they are just a trouble maker’ when they actually have an attention issue), the condition will be underreported. This is a large reason why ‘autism’ has been diagnosed more often in the last few decades: we know more about it now then we used to, and are willing to use that information to help people.
My daughter was recently diagnosed with autism by a psychologist, but just barely. Meaning that in her professional opinion, my (high functioning) daughter was right on the edge of the spectrum. She went ahead and gave her the diagnosis so that we could know what to do going forward and get her any necessary accommodations.
So I would chalk it up to better understanding, better diagnosis, and just more acceptance. The typical behaviors and signs have always been there; we just didn’t have a name for it. And high functioning people on the spectrum learn to “mask” well, and to fit in the best they can, though it’s a constant struggle and pretty exhausting.
So, the seeming explosion of autism diagnoses in recent decades is a pretty complex issue. It’s not so much that there’s been a massive increase in autistic folks; rather, we’ve gotten way better at spotting it. Back in the day, autism was this tiny, rigid box that few people fit into. Now? We understand it’s a whole spectrum, and our diagnostic net is much wider. Plus, there’s way more awareness these days. Parents, teachers, doctors, therapists —we’re all more clued in to the signs. Toss in earlier diagnosis, reduced stigma, and better access to services, and you’ve got a recipe for higher numbers. Some researchers are poking around at environmental factors, but there’s no smoking gun there yet. Genetics play a big role too, so when autistic individuals have kids, it’s more likely that some of those little ones might also be on the spectrum. So yeah, while we can’t rule out a true increase, most of us in the field see this “autism boom” as mainly a reflection of our evolving understanding and improved recognition. We’re not necessarily making more autistic people; we’re just finally seeing the ones who were always there.
Talking to someone involved in childcare for 40 years they said there was way way more now. It’s not just better diagnosis.
Autism as a diagnosis wasn’t widely accepted until 1980 or so. A number of things we now consider part of the autistic spectrum were labeled as other conditions until quote recently. Aspergers, now considered a relatively high functioning part of the autistic spectrum, didn’t leave the DSM until 2013 for example.
Before that they were labeled as something else. It’s not new, just categorizing and treating it is.
Modern mental health, as a full science with its own verbiage, official diagnoses, pharmacological tie ins, etc…. is only about a century old and is still developing rapidly.
My uncle in-law who was born in the 60s is “not autistic” 🙄, but you wouldn’t know it from meeting him. They didn’t classify it back then.
Our understanding of autism has changed.
It used to be you were either “autistic,” and screamed and had breakdowns in class, or you had “Asperger’s,” and were a little eccentric and hyper logical (obviously this is oversimplified but you get the idea).
Over the past 30-40 years we’ve realized that the two are actually one and the same, and that there are varying degrees, hence the more modern term “autism spectrum.” Due to the broadened definition of autism, more people who fall on the “high functioning,” side have been getting diagnosed and getting the help they need.
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