People are freaking out over the rise in autism

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As a vaguely relevant aside regarding prevalence in particular places, the internal Autism Info Exchange distribution list at Microsoft currently has 236 members; this DL is for people with or, more commonly, parents of children on the ASD spectrum.

By comparison, Microsoft employs over 80k people worldwide (not counting vendors); the actual percentage of MS employees who are members of said DL is ~0.282%

Good fortune,

- Icarus knows software is not neurotypical...

I think they're freaking out because their offspring are unresponsive to them, are encased in emotional shells and the parents have no way reaching them. When the numbers are increasing at this rate - culprits are being sought, answers are being demanded and headlines are making waves. Is it WIFI? Is it mercury? Is it karma? What in the world is sealing off the children?

Then we need our own talk show! Hosted by Alex! We can decide who the guests will be!



Thank you for sharing that story, Goche21. You would make a good guest on our show.

The addition of Asperger's disorder to psychiatry is why there's an increase; it also allows those with Kanner's autism who were missed before to be picked up as the awareness of autism is more prevalent nowadays.

People with Asperger's add to the incidence of ASD. Adults with autistic disorder are being diagnosed now due to a greater awareness.

Well said.

I have to wonder if the increased number of Asperger cases led to its inclusion to psychiatry. I'm sure awareness was compounded by the rise of internet, which allowed a safe way for us to reach each other in numbers never before possible.

The first time I ever saw the word was when I dug in out of the DSM-IV myself, after my Bipolar label kept falling off. Maybe a year later I saw it on the cover of Time and thought, great -- now no one'll take me seriously.

That was six years ago. I joined WP just this week. Gotta give this amazing place some credit for the rise in awareness of ASD.

dp

I'm sorry, but that just cracked me up.

It painted a superb image in my mind, of you sitting in a psychiatrist's office, with a big, gaudy not-so-sticky sticker on your forehead...

Your sarcasm is greatly appreciated.

I didn't mean just me, look at how many people on here only fit one or criterias, but are jumping to this conclusion without exploring other options. In order to fit in a diagnosis you need at least a majority of the symptoms. Phycology is the only field where a perso can have one symptom out of twenty and still be diagnosed the disorder!

Supposedly, 30%+ of AD?D people have autism! MOST AD?D are diagnosed because of parents or teachers to get them drugged up to "behave", or get the money. So the "IT" factor was understandable.

Social ackwardness by reason of experience isn't diagnosable as ASD. Obsessiveness could be LOTS of things. Don't think YOUR experience is indicative of all. So the "teacher" was an IDIOT! What else is new?

Why panic about it just because there are people different from you who are succeeding? Aw, are you jealous?

It might be in other people's best interests to get along with Aspies and autistic people. Afterall, I"m sure many of us don't mean humanity any ill will. We could still further it in terms of science and technology. Heck, accepting us might mean people are beginning to have a broader perspective of people.

lol. A reporter would say just that.

I wonder about envy sometimes. That is one of the feelings I don't like others displaying because they end up doing the meanest things over it or if they can't get to you out of their own insecurity, they will then act friendly towards you to find out why they couldn't upset you at the first attempt and act so manipulative in the process.

Envy, get over it. It's not what's for dinner. I could sit here and get pissed off and envious of all that can do gymnastics because that is not my forte but what good would that do? Oh just look at her doing cartwheels! GRRR....(snaps a pecil in half).

So someone else can do a cartwheel. I can't but I can do things they can't do. Why is it considered so weird and limited interests anyway when I still haven't met a single person that does it all and does it well?

From my observations thus far on this website, people's interests in my opinion are not limited and in fact are interesting. More interesting than cartwheels!

Well, it is entirely possible to have envy and not act on it. It's probably quite difficult for some people though. I think it's mostly from people who have ego problems and believed themselves to be on the top consistently, when they have found their positions challenged and their egoes being fed as less. But I think they need to take a good, long hard look at reality again.

But the fact that someone is better than you is not only a natural concept but that perhaps that there is someone out there better than you who exists might motivate you to do better. Jealousy over such people is a wasted effort--instead of spending all that energy pretending to be nice to those people in order to manipulate them, that effort should be spent getting to know them so that you could learn from them. It is better to better yourself than to make someone else worse off.

Now I wonder if my father's words were true--I certainly might have been considered talented when I was younger--I played the piano better than most of my friends, and aced the first few grades easily when I started, surpassed them, drew fairly well, and also excelled at math--he said that my "friends" must have been envious of my talent, and I continued to display it because I was proud of it, and unaware that perhaps these people I called "friends" were arrogant pricks, jealous of what I had that they didn't have. So they tried to manipulate me by pretending I was their friend. I had difficulty realizing it because of Asperger's.

Thank you for sharing that story, Goche21. You would make a good guest on our show.[/quote]

Your sarcasm is greatly appreciated.
[/quote]

I don't think he was being sarcastic

i am finding this really interesting...my daughter aged 13 was recently diagnosed because she really can`t handle break times at school. After diagnosis it was blatantly clear my husband has aspergers and i hit on the scale somewhere (can`t be bothered with official diagnosis what`s the point). What i want to say in my round about way is that both hubby and myself coped with school lunch breaks and the like by going home for lunch or nipping to the chippy. In this day and age when there is a potential paedophile around every corner (so some would have it) my child has to be locked up with a bunch of intolerant kids who hassle her because she is different. We coped quite well without diagnosis but if we had been treated the same way as my daughter we would probably be one of the ever increasing numbers....personally i feel people are getting less tolerant of differences and non-conformity.

Here is something to discuss...is Aspergers the next step in evolution?

nipping to the chippy? Does that simply mean eating snacks? BTW I ALSO basically ate lunch I brought from home AWAY from all the noise, etc...!