Autism is NOT Influenza.

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Hmmmm, "Stupidity Speaks".

Sounds like a telethon subject. Help us to stamp out stupidity in your lifetime. Our researchers are working on a vaccine to prevent stupidity. Call us now with your generous donation ....

I think autism is very common. True, it's a minority, but I think there is some flaw in assuming that a "disorder" (though I prefer not to use the word) is rare.

Also, autism ranges from the most severe up into a broader phenotype or "autistic cousin". I think it is many of these autistic cousins who are finding the similarities (and rightly so) and perhaps self-dxing. Do I find this a bad thing? No. Should we be an elite group? No. Do I think autism is overdxed? No, I think it's underdxed.

We are not "Alzheimers" or "Parkinsons". We have a developmental condition which ranges in severity from the kid in the wheelchair who is mute and just rocks and hand flaps for most of the day, up to the functional nerd who may not be the greatest at social stuff but is a brilliant such-and-such in his chosen field of interest.

We as individuals do not own autism. It is a label. We also do not own the "autistic" portion of the human race, as though one person's achievements or failures reflect on us all.

It is a cognitive style. Yes, it often includes social difficulties, sensory issues, anxiety, etc. But to me, the defining feature in autism is HOW we process information, because in that we are similar. And we, the ones who wear the official rubber-stamped label, are not the only ones who process in this way. Our lesser phenotypes do as well. So to me, those people-- our autistic cousins-- are also autistic; they just don't fall within the confines of the accepted labels. Labels, mind you, which humans invented, imperfect labels.

Evolution knows no labels. It isn't black and white; it's grayscale. Autism doesn't occur or not; it's a gradient. The ones with the labels just happen to fall into the far end of the bell curve, that's all.