this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (17 children)

We run into a few interesting possibilities here. Start with the assumption that more children are being diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. That gives us a few possibilities.

  1. Because there's more and better screening autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is being caught more often. Okay, maybe. But.

1.a) If more children are being appropriately diagnosed with ASD, then perhaps the criteria needs to be tightened up; at a certain point, behavior/feelings/thoughts are just normal.

  1. Because there's more screening--but not necessarily better screening--children are being pathologized as having ASD when they do not, because too many clinicians don't have the necessary expertise. This is a distinct possibility, in much the same way that kids are being labelled as having ADD/ADHD--and then getting drugs--when they're more frequently just being kids.

  2. More children are actually on the autism spectrum now than there were 30 years ago. E.g., it's not that more kids slipped through the cracks 30 years ago, but there is actually a higher rate of ASD than there was 30 years ago. This is the one that should cause the most concern; if this is actually the case, and can be demonstrated to be the case, then what factor is causing this maladaption?

[–] thisisnotgoingwell 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Agree on the better testing for ASD. According to the CDC, autism rates have doubled from the year 2000(1 in 68, vs 1 in 150).

The consensus is that ASD is mostly genetic, however, there is some research going into other causes of autism, such environmental/biological causes. Personally, I think growing up with modern technology(kids being raised by YouTube/TikTok) impacts brain development/connections, so there are people with symptoms of ASD that otherwise would be "normal"

The issue with diagnoses like this is that you arrive to the conclusion by looking at the symptoms. And there's a lot of fucked up things going on right now that could cause more and more people to show symptoms.

i've worked on building better habits such as exercise, maintaining social connections, and working through my emotions instead of repressing them, and I've noticed that many symptoms that I used to associate with ASD were really depression. Like some sort of coping, catatonic state. I'd imagine that with mental health being what it is, there's probably a lot of people similar to me. Surprise, did you know ASD is far more common in males? 1 in 42, vs 1 in 189, for females.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There's some thought that autism rates are identical in men and women, and that the difference in diagnosis has more to do with the presentation. It's plausible.

[–] spikespaz 3 points 5 months ago

My ex wasn't diagnosed with anything, but has an autistic sister and strange behaviors herself. Being suspicious of myself (I was diagnosed with ADHD during a time you couldn't have both) and having always carefully observed people (to mask better), I noticed some qualities the two shared, but the symptoms were more subtle in my ex. She has been tested but not diagnosed, and I think the doctors were wrong. But, yes, symptoms observed had a distinctly feminine skew, or even a different mode of application. She did not get the help I know she needed (and she mistakenly held the opinion that the doctors are nigh-infallible, and that I am not ASD either).

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