Do you think there is an actual increase in Autistics or is it mostly misdiagnosis/self-diagnosis?

[Colon capital V]

On one hand, given the type of diets people eat, exposure to tablets and phones at an early age, staying inside and other behavoiral conditioning kids grow up with in the west, I could believe that kind of shit doesn't do anyone good in the long run and develop some serious problems later.
But on the other hand, it seems like anyone who is even slightly a bit of an oddball or social outcast is immediately labeled an autist. "Oh you like to shake your legs up and down while sitting? You're stimming so that must mean you're an autist, let's stim together xister!!!1!1 " you'd find this mostly on spaces like Xitter where "people" like to put a million different mental illnesses in their bio for clout. I won't deny those types probably do have something wrong (i.e. not enough parental love and unrestricted internet access clearly), but it makes it hard to believe those types truly have autism if they flaunt it around like a victim card.

 

[DiggieSmalls]

i think if you're not terminally online, most people dont ever talk about how autistic everyone is.

 

[ArnoldPalmer]

There's only so much environmental damage that a human can take in vitro, and especially in vivo.

 

[gorgoroth7134]

Autism isn't real. They're all faking it.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Anything is possible.
I have asperger diagnosed since childhood and even trying to hide it in work is wasted.

 

[The Foxtrot]

I firmly believe most of these "increased cases" are just misdiagnosis/self-diagnoses. 99% of all people online who claim to be "autistic" haven't gone through the battery of tests administered by licensed medical doctors to properly diagnose it. For me, a massive giveaway is when they say "I'm neurodivergent!". In my experience, nobody who is actually a diagnosed autistic says that, that's pretty much only said by wannabe special snowflakes.

 

[Misericordia]

I believe it's frequently misdiagnosed. Many people who get the diagnosis simply have a comorbidity of trauma and undersocialization; add in above average IQ and you have an "Asperger's Syndrome" or "Autistic Spectrum Disorder" diagnosis. Same as most ADHD cases, it's a natural response kids have to the extremely unnatural environment of grade school.

 

[booklover]

Nowadays, it seems that all children are assumed to be ADHD and/or autistic until proven otherwise.

Many parents say a mentally disabled child is autistic, because it sounds better than the alternatives. Granted, there are a lot of genetic disorders that have autism as a symptom (and Jenny McCarthy's son is one of those people; he has a disorder called Landau-Kleffner syndrome, that is not caused by vaccines).

I have 3 niblings who have autism diagnoses. The one who is a blood relative has normal intelligence, but I knew something was going on when she was a toddler. The two who are not are her first cousins, and half-siblings (they share a mother) and I figured out the boy, who is now about 40, probably had Asperger's when his mother was still married to his sperm donor. They divorced when he was a tween, which surprised absolutely nobody, when she left him for her second husband, the father of a girl now in her early 20s who has obvious mental AND PHYSICAL disabilities.

 

[rusty shackleford 1]

In parenting and mom groups on normie book women make posts every single day pathologizing their 1 year old+’s behavior. Like absolutely normal stuff kids do, these women will run to the doctor and post about going through numerous doctors until they get the diagnosis they want. The other day a woman specifically asked if it was normal that her 1.5 year old liked to line up his toy animals and remarked on how odd and disturbing it was that he’d throw a fit when one fell over and he had to try a couple times to stand it back up. She had like 7 pics in the post of little animals to prove her kids tism cred. It’s absolutely terrifying. They all praise “gentle parenting” and run straight to amphetamines for their 5 year olds when the kids don’t listen in school. I’m sure the environment of current year and all the shitty food/constant screen time etc don’t help but the “autism mom” thing is like a badge of honor, and when the kids get old enough to be around their peers on social media they find countless memes praising neurodivergence that pathologizes normal behavior and traits.

 

[booklover]

Yeah, kind of like how there's something wrong with you if you AREN'T something other than cishet.

 

[Audit]

Technology is a cancer that rots the mind. Isolation breeds strange behaviors. Suburbia is a wasteland devoid of stimulation for kids. Helicopter parents expunge anything slightly risky from their kids lives.

Yes, autism is definitely a genetic ailment. There is nothing environmental about it at all. The covid measles vaccines rewrote your kid's DNA to make them a tard. This is it.

 

[Kulee Baba]

More children are being born by older adults so that’s one big reason why.

But that would only concern true autism. I’m pretty sure ASSBURGER’S SYNDROME was taken out of the DSM because it was way to easy to diagnose anyone with a shit personality with it.

We used to stress people learn etiquette, girls once were sent to “finishing schools” to know how to act, it used to be all men had to serve in the military and if they didn’t learn how to get along with others they’d get the shit kicked out of them till they figured it out. Now people try to excuse their antisocial ticks by claiming “””aneurotypical”””

Spoiler: Powerleveling

I had to have a talk with one of my underlings, he constantly interrupts coworkers during meetings and I’m 90% sure he’s a Tweaker. But anyway he explains to me that his problem of interrupting is due to him being on the spectrum. I’m more mad that he pulled that autism card than him being a druggies. At least with druggies they’re scared of being caught.

 

[anon483637]

Older parents + 99.999% early childhood survival rate don't help. Harsh to say, but if you prevent natural selection you obviously get more fuckups.

Doesn't necessarily mean autism is medically "real", it could be a catchall term for social weirdos.

 

[Seething Troon Collector]

I firmly believe most of these "increased cases" are just misdiagnosis/self-diagnoses. 99% of all people online who claim to be "autistic" haven't gone through the battery of tests administered by licensed medical doctors to properly diagnose it.

Spoiler: Mild PL

Receiving a real, official diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder took hours of evaluation by a licensed psychologist over the course of a couple of days. It isn’t something you can self-diagnose and those stupid tests you can take online are useless.

For me, a massive giveaway is when they say "I'm neurodivergent!". In my experience, nobody who is actually a diagnosed autistic says that, that's pretty much only said by wannabe special snowflakes.

The phrase ‘neurodivergent’ is fucking stupid. It’s only said by people who want to larp as having some special superpower that makes them different. It masks the real issues that comes with any of these disorders so you can play pretend.

I’m pretty sure ASSBURGER’S SYNDROME was taken out of the DSM because it was way to easy to diagnose anyone with a shit personality with it.

Funny enough, the real reason was that Hans Asperger was retroactively guilty of the crime of living while Austrian during the period between 1929-1945.

 

[Otterly]

But on the other hand, it seems like anyone who is even slightly a bit of an oddball or social outcast is immediately labeled an autist

I think there’s two questions here. Has real severe autism increased and is society over diagnosing normal personality traits.
I know a lot of us like to joke about a touch of the ‘tism but the severe forms of autism are pretty grim. Kids who are non verbal and require 24 hour care. As those kids get older they have adult strength and hormones. This end of the spectrum is very different even to the middle of it, which is significant impairment but not 24 care stuff.
Being diagnosed because you like Lego amd find people tiresome is an issue. There’s a whole set of personality traits that are not abnormal, but are being diagnosed as such because our society has no place for those people.

In parenting and mom groups on normie book women make posts every single day pathologizing their 1 year old+’s behavior. Like absolutely normal stuff kids do

Oh man. Yes. Kids are weird. But that’s normal. Rigid thinking is normal, they will have a tantrum over the wrong shaped pasta or you bringing them the wrong socks. Kids are tiny tyrants and psychos. And eventually with a million repetitions of you telling them how things work they turn into fairly normal people.
even worse is that there are professionals pushing this amd they’re predatory.
I’ve experienced first hand meeting someone at an event I was at with family kids, and someone who was a professional speech and whatever therapist going after one of the kids who was acting like a kid. Was he sensitive? Did he do x and y? Had his mum considered he might need a diagnosis? We met this same woman again a year later and she beelined again for the child. His mum and I had to be really firm and get her away from him. It freaked me out and I think it opened the eyes of the mum as well. (Said kid is now 15, and totally normal.) there are parents who won’t parent and there’s a whole industry ready to greet those kids with too open arms. To be clear I am not talking about kids with genuine issues.

 

[rusty shackleford 1]

there are parents who won’t parent and there’s a whole industry ready to greet those kids with too open arms

Perfectly said. And the available information and support for parenting is totally conflicting. I’ve seen people calling moms abusive for swatting their kid on the butt when he bites his playmates. Moms called abusive for disengaging and putting the kid in time out for bad behavior. One such sperg raised hell the other day against a timeout mom because she accused the mom of letting the kid know he’d be abandoned for undesirable behavior. You can’t spank them, you can’t use timeout, you can only ask them really nicely not to do that again - if you admit you do anything otherwise you’re dogpiled and ostracized. Circling back to what you said, they don’t wanna parent and it’s validating to hear your lack of effort in raising your kids is a medical condition that requires everyone around you to accommodate your special bean.

 

[Dysnomia]

I firmly believe most of these "increased cases" are just misdiagnosis/self-diagnoses. 99% of all people online who claim to be "autistic" haven't gone through the battery of tests administered by licensed medical doctors to properly diagnose it. For me, a massive giveaway is when they say "I'm neurodivergent!". In my experience, nobody who is actually a diagnosed autistic says that, that's pretty much only said by wannabe special snowflakes.

It became so trendy to self diagnose on Tumblr. A big excuse as to why it's totally valid to diagnose yourself is that they can't afford testing. But I've even seen lists of what to say and how to act to get a diagnosis. They want the 'tism card because it's trendy and gives them an excuse for whatever bad behavior and habits they have. Some of them would have these lists like "my special interest is", "I like to stim with these toys", "I have meltdowns when this happens" ect... It all looked like a LARP. I never trusted anyone on Tumblr that used the #actually autistic tag.

 

[not william stenchever]

I feel like it has something to do with replacing the lead in brass plumbing fittings with cadmium. Yay heavy metal poisoning.

 

[polar bear]

I think that one of the autistic traits - enhanced pattern recognition - is something that threatens the system. Which is why autists are being demonized, because they seem immune to propaganda and oversocialization.
I feel that sometimes, what they call 'autism', is some sort of an evolutionary trait developed in response to constant oppression by lunatics and demonic entities.

 

[Colon capital V]

I think that one of the autistic traits - enhanced pattern recognition - is something that threatens the system. Which is why autists are being demonized, because they seem immune to propaganda and oversocialization.
I feel that sometimes, what they call 'autism', is some sort of an evolutionary trait developed in response to constant oppression by lunatics and demonic entities.

So are you saying by conditioning people to falsely believe they have the 'tism, it muddies the waters for the normies to believe what actual autistics are?