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Autism rates are surging - should we be worried?

NAS66915

I just read about a recent CDC report stating autism rates have increased by nearly 10 percent over the last two years. Should we be worried?

Check it out: https://www.mentaldaily.com/article/2020/04/what-are-the-characteristics-of-a-person-with-aspergers

  • I think there's a lot more awareness about autism now, particularly autism in women and girls (in the past, it was viewed as a 'male' condition), so I just believe that more people are being diagnosed.

    Even if autism rates were increasing, I wouldn't see that as a negative thing. Our brains are wired differently, but different isn't wrong. 

  • You don't really know how prevalent a condition is until you test for it.

    As a result of the increase in awareness of the condition there are more people being assessed and therefore more diagnosed. This is especially true in females where the manifestation is often more subtle and would have been missed historically, and probably often still is.

    As has been said above, people who were once considered misfits are now identified as having social communication difficulties and being diagnosed.

    Just because more people are identified as having a condition, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's become more prevalent.

  • I believe that most auties/aspies could function perfectly well is society up until the 80s - that's when life started to get really complicated and the self-absorbed/greedy/selfish NTs really excelled.

    Before that, you bought the gas from the gas company, the electricity from the electric company, you had a job for life and a good pension.     After then, it got so competitive that we couldn't compete on an even playing field so we started to fail at the new game.     We stood out and got noticed.  

    Life now is sooooo complex that we don't stand a chance so we are easily spotted and counted.

  • I don't think it's necessarily the rates going up as in more people suddenly being on the spectrum but it is likely due to increased awareness which in turn leads to more assessments meaning more people diagnosed. Think back 20 years ago, how aware the population was of autism and the signs of someone being on the spectrum. 20 years ago a child/teen struggling socially, with sensory issues etc would likely have just been seen as a bit odd by teacher's/family whereas now with more awareness parents and teachers are more likely to question if it could be more then just being a bit quirky. Same with adults now getting diagnosed having lived through their childhood/adolescence believing they were just a bit different they finally have an understanding of why they had/have certain issues/struggles. So of course the numbers are going to go up with everyone being more aware - adults going for assessments after recognizing traits in themselves as well as parents/teachers recognizing what could be traits of autism in a child and going for assessments.