Published on 12, July, 2020
I was trawling through some data, and I wondered if anyone has any official percentage of HFA (high functioning autistics) over the general population of ASD people. The psychiatrist and the therapist at PsychiatryUK told me that high functioning people (able to work privately and live independently) are a minority, but declined to give me any numbers. We also agreed that the "math genius" archetype of ASD adult is way overrepresented in media, since it is quite rare in real life.
Does anyone have any hard data about that?
I don't have any data about it unfortunately, but I suspect there are a lot more of us out there than people realise. High-masking, low support needs autistic people are much more likely to 'fly under the radar' and not be officially diagnosed. If we WERE all diagnosed, I think we would make up a significant proportion of the autistic community.
That would have been true about 20 years ago. Now, a lot of children get diagnosed very early.
Yes, but I'm talking about undiagnosed adults, not children.
I worked in schools, and I have noticed that pupils are screened for mental issues. I have seen many ASD children receiving assistance from the SEN people. Back then, when I was a student, there was no screening available. I wonder what I would have become if I had any support.
And you know this how? Where’s the data to make up that statement?
I think there is more of an awareness of ASD which means that more people are getting diagnosed in childhood, but I’m sure that there is a huge amount of high functioning autistics who still in adulthood have not been diagnosed. Just by going on the stories from the people on here, I don’t remember anyone having made a post saying they were diagnosed in childhood, seems to be all later on in life either early adulthood or even much later on in 50/60/70s.