The number of young people living with autism spectrum disorder is growing rapidly. A new study has revealed a nearly 52% spike in autism spectrum disorder prevalence among children and teens in the US between 2017 and 2020.

submitted by Orangutan from nypost.com

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[–]LordoftheFlies 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Okay, and how much of that is actual autism and how much of it is a combination of A) parents wanting a quick-fix, drug-it-away solution to a kid that they can't understand and/or control the way that they want, B) drug companies wanting to get more people stuck on potentially life-long courses of meds, and C) a medley of attention-seekers, socially-awkward fucks, and just plain assholes all looking to get an easy condition that they can use for their respective purposes?

Seriously, we've witnessed social contagions already, and fucking autism was one of them!

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well option A isn't enough to explain it because it isn't as easy to get an autism diagnosis as other conditions that are less clearly defined, like ADHD. The criteria is more specific and distinct.

B doesn't make sense because autism isn't treated with meds. Autistic people might be on medication for other reasons, like anxiety and depression, but from big pharma's perspective there is no incentive to diagnose autism.

With C you might be on to something in terms of people self diagnosing, but again because of my point with A, it's not like you can just walk into a therapists office and get an autism diagnosis. Attention seeking or not, it isn't that simple.

There actually are a lot more kids showing symptoms of autism that go far beyond social awkwardness. It's something I've noticed working in the mental health field and no one seems to be acknowledging it. In fact it seems like "they" are trying to cover it up.

There's so many possible reasons for it: our bodies are polluted with microplastics and PFAs, cellphone towers and wifi more prevalent than ever, kids faces buried deep in screens from infancy, shittier food and GMOs, the list goes on. We don't know what causes autism, so it's possible that any of these factors or a combination of them could be contributing to this. In any case, it's very real, and definitely not something that can be explained through social contagion.

[–]jet199 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Autism is a dustbin of tens of discrete disorders which have different causes and likely need different treatments along with a lot of kids who just have difficult personalities which is not really something which can be or needs fixing.

For instance the diagnostic criteria for aspergers used to include a strange way of crawling, up on the toes rather than knees, which would indicate a developmental problem affecting movement as well as socal issues. But that got scrapped so every middle class nerd could get diagnosis. However if there is a problem in development causing both issues that's which needs to be looked into and could lead to treatment but now it won't be.

Then you have the sheer number of autist kids with IBS and weird bowel microbiome. Why would something which is supposedly a brain issue be causing that?

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Then you have the sheer number of autist kids with IBS and weird bowel microbiome

On my side nephew had issues with his bowels and he's autistic, on the wife's there's a nephew who wasn't diagnosed autistic and didn't have bowel issues afaik, but he had the exact same kind of way of talking that you can only understand with time, if at all. I needed a translator to talk to them. But the wife's nephew is pretty fucking normal now, in fact, probably better than most people his age. He's getting married, you'd never know he had an issue with speech, and has a ton of kids already. Seems a better life than the hedonistic lifestyle most young people seem to idealize, while generally never leaving home.

Oh wait, I had a point. I think it's diagnosed more, not necessarily that it's new. We'd say the kid had a speech disorder and was a little slow, had behavioral problems. Now they're autistic. Same shit new label perhaps.

[–]Alienhunter 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think it's a mix of more awareness leading to more diagnosis, more medical profit margin push by corporate interests, crazy parents desperately needing an excuse for why their kid is weird that isn't "you aren't raising them right", and social isolation in modern society hampering normal social development.

How many kids diagnosed with autism have overbearing overprotective parents that run interference in their kids social development and try to micromanage everything and by consequence the kid lacks authentic friends and mostly spends their time on the computer or smartphone?

[–]IkeConn 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Back in the 1960's kids beat the autism out of kids by 5th grade.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Clown world causes mental disorders. The powerful are literally pushing absurdity on us 24/7. It started with "White people are the most evil racist group" and "everyone is exactly the same so all difference are the result of oppression" and now we are at the point that "gender is fluid" "sex is a social construct" "global warming will kill us all" "covid is the black plague 2.0 and other people will kill you by not believing that".

Thier brains can't develop because they are constantly bombarded with propaganda that does not line up with reality and they just can't make sense of it all.