Do You Think Autism Is Getting More Common?

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Me personally I think it is because more people are being born and it is getting diagnosed better.

Autism and Autism diagnosis are two different things. The diagnostic criteria are much much broader. Plus in many ways the world is more autistic unfriendly these days with more sensory stimulation and group work and multitasking expected to be a functioning member of society. Thus more people are "impaired" enough to meet even today's broad diagnostic criteria.

In terms of brain nerve pathways (excuse my lack of knowledge in this area), i think nobody's brain is perfect, there will always be a divergence (or neurodivergence in this case) of peoples way of thinking, as evolution progresses there will always be changes in our genome, our DNA. Therefore there will be more instances of people who have part of their brain cut off from whats normal, some might be able to restore the broken pathways through EMS, or shock therapy but unsure whether these have been successful or not. I don't like to think autism as a singular thing, neurodivergent seems more appropriate in this case, and seeing as it could be seen as similar to alzheimers where part of the brain seems to be dysfunctional but isn't degenerative.

In a somewhat related note, i experienced a slightly severe head trauma as a child but unsure if that could have affected things.

I don't think it's becoming more common, it could be many things.

There is an increasing understanding of it.

The (plural of) diagnosis are becoming more common.

You may notice it more if it directly affects you.

Some may claim it, but not actually be the case as if it's something special the want to be a part of. (A mentality I've never understood).

I don't think its becoming more common I think people are more aware of it so it gets diagnosed more. I do believe it will become less common though because I think the modern world is harder for us, previous generations had much more structured lives they tended to have one job, one lover, large close knit families for support and didn't have to meet so many new people. Because life is harder for us now fewer of us will have children.

I'm reading Temple Grandin's book The Autistic Brain. She says that when there was an increase in autism diagnosis, there was a proportional decrease in other diagnosis which would explain the same symptons, such as speech and language disorders or mental retardation. So that suggests that there were not less autistic people before, they were just being incorrectly diagnosed.