Is the OP's claim actually supported by evidence? I thought the leading theory was environmental contamination caused autism, but it's impossible to study because microplastics are everywhere.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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The leading theory for the cause is (and bear in mind I'm simplifying a heckton here) "we don't know". There's possibly a genetic component involved, but if so, then it's super complex and doesn't have a clear causal mechanism (in that a person could have most/all of the genes of interest for autism, and not be autistic, and we don't really know why that is. Or why some people have none of those markers, but still have autism). Environmental contamination is a possibility, but we don't know nearly enough to guess what that would be, given that it wouldn't necessarily be microplastics
But there definitely is a lot of evidence supporting OP's claim, in that we are very confident that our increased understanding of autism has led to an increase in diagnoses (especially amongst groups such as girls; I am one of those girls who only got a diagnosis because of our shifts in understanding). We are extremely confident that our rate of false negatives has dropped over the years (i.e. people who actually do have autism but go undiagnosed). However, it's hard to estimate whether the actual underlying true rate of autism has actually gone up, given how much our understanding has changed in a relatively short span
That is an odd leading theory.
Afaik the leading theory is people are born with it, and "it" can show in a lot of different ways, but a list of symptoms are very telling and there are clear patterns of behavior associated with it. Also there's a specific age when people start to notice autism in children most prominently.
From what I can tell, you can't "become" autistic.
And vaccines and autism only overlap because the age where autism tends to stick out in children falls bang in the middle of the age range where children get their vaccinations. So it lines up. But in a bunch of studies a direct correlation was never found, and neither was causation.
I didn't mean to imply that people become autistic, just that gamete or gestational dysfunction caused by toxic pollution could be to blame.
You're getting downvoted, and I don't necessarily think this is correct. But we should study it anyway since we live in an extremely different environment than even just ten years ago. There is probably no link to autism, but the environment may be the cause of other disease states.
HOWEVER As the father of an (high functioning) autistic child, I think the main reason there is push back against looking at environmental factors is that it implies the autistic person is in some fundamental way "damaged." I can both assure that this is not he case and that that way of thinking, really, really pisses autistic people off. And rightfully so IMHO.
Right, those planets were always there, but the ratio of neuro-divergent to neuro-typical has never been where it is right now.
Autism used to be something that almost no one had ever heard about. ADD and ADHD were also in that category of things that no one had ever heard about.
I just want to get to the reason why these disorders are becoming as common as they are. much like you, I have no idea why the ratio is like what? 1 in 10? or is it an even higher concentration of neuro-divergents now?
One thing I'd like to add is that every autism specialist I've ever talked to didn't understand what autism is, I'm autistic myself and have spent time around many other high functioning autistics, I have no fucking idea exactly what it is. I've also noticed that you'll say one thing to them (the autism specialists) and they'll respond as if you said something totally different.
Autism used to be something that almost no one had ever heard about. ADD and ADHD were also in that category of things that no one had ever heard about.
When I was a kid in the 80's, people didn't have ADHD or autism. They were just weird or behaved poorly. The hyperactive kids would get scolded by teachers, who would send comments out to their parents to complain about how poorly behaved they were. Autistic children were called retarded because they couldn't figure out how to fit in and behave "normal."
I don't think they're becoming more common, they're just diagnosed more frequently because there has been a lot more research on the topic and people are more aware of them
You didn't get this post.
People have been behaving "weirdly" since written history. There have been countless stories and reports about "special" or "weird" or "possessed" people. If you compare these hundreds of years old stories to the definition of Autism, there are a remarkable amount of similarities, almost impossible to be coincidence.
But these ancient people were never called autistic... Because the word for it was only invented in 1911. And until the 70s or 80s, no one really investigated Autism very much, only a few people.
People that lived in 1910 did not suddenly get Autism in 1911. They were already autistic, just finally someone categorized and invented a word for this set of behaviors.
So in other words, it's not suddenly autistic people appearing, it's that the people that previously just were "weird" are now being discovered as autistic. Like planets that were there before, but now are being discovered.