Autism Spectrum on the rise?...

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Wondering if anyone has any good educated guesses as to possibly why it seems that there are just more Auties out there.

One I would go for is that diagnostic procedures are just better. But still, I wonder if that actually could account for us all.

I had another thought of a lot of ASDers getting dx in adulthood, which would mean they were ASD when they were children, too, but undx and not in any sort of statistics.

It also makes me wonder though, since a vast majority of ASDers have someone in their family (often undx) who has the same disorder or a shadow disorder. If this is true, that means there were many ASDers "back then" as well. I think so many older adults (like my father who never heard the term "Aspergers" up to his death) go undx their entire lives. But these days, their kids or their grandkids are getting dx instead. I wonder if this in part could account for the seeming "rise" in ASDs.

And just wondering, how many in this forum have a parent or near relative who has an ASD or seems to but is undx??? Show of hands please.

I was not diagnosed as a child (60's and 70's) because AS was unknown, and probably would still be clueless if it weren't for Google because I've accumulated so many coping skills I can almost pass for normal unless someone sees me in a variety of situations. I found out about AS when researching my dysgraphia on-line. The first time I saw the DSM-IV text for AS I knew I'd hit the bulls-eye.

I think it reflects an overall trend in society to pick apart and classify any kind of behavior that deviates from the norm. Fifty years ago, odd behavior would be called unusual but not pathological. A hundred and fifty years ago, the field of psychology didn't even exist. The worst cases of autism would be shuttled off to asylums - the rest were probably written off as eccentric misanthropes. Today we have social anxiety, separation anxiety, codependency, borderline personality disorders - all fancy psychological words for things that would once have been considered just part of human nature. Maybe it's drug companies pushing for medication sales, maybe it's simply a greater understanding of neuroscience, but either way, it's a new phenomena. (Also explains why many older adults are resistant to the concept of psychology, because their generation was just taught to shut up and deal with it.)

Combine that with the rise of the internet, which provides information most of us might never have stumbled across otherwise. And written communication in a chat room or message board is far less nerve-wracking than in-person conversations, which helped people break out of their shells and form meaningful, private, anonymous communities. Suddenly people discover that many of the things they took for granted their whole lives and perhaps never even realized were unusual - like sensory overload and face blindness - are the answers to a lifetime of questions.

I wonder how many of the cases which have led to increased diagnoses were people who found out about the spectrum on their own and then sought out an official diagnosis, and how many sought help for related issues and then had a doctor or psychologist introduce them to the concept of autism.

Well spoken. I hope that the next generation
learn that coping skills, not their med's is the answer.
Too bad we live in a pill popping society.


I like this point. I have de-coded rapidly
and with clarity in a step by step fashion
due to this chatline. I would still be wondering
how to cope on certain levels if I didn't use
the internet medium.



Very Good coping skills. What amazes me
is how these children suppose to develop
them if they become victims to our labeling
society and i'ts drug pushing mentality?

I found out about AS on my own, because of a brief comment posted on a Gifted/Talented email listserv. That spark sent me off into days of internet research, at the end of which I knew I had finally found an explanation for the last 40 years of my life.

Better diagnosing? More readily available information (internet)? Mercury in vaccines? More social acceptable "spectrum" careers (NASA, Silicon Valley) and therefore more spectrum marriages producing more spectrum kids?




A hand up here. I'd bet money on my dad.

My dad bets money on himself.......


More knowledge is my bet. After all, I do do psychology and up until 4 years ago, none of my teachers didn't know about it.........

Lets see:

I would bet: My mother, maternal grandfather, uncle, and a cousin.

I raise my hands to both parents, and an uncle, who are "shadows"

My opinion on the rise of DX'es. The prevalance of the internet.

For me at least, it was newspaper article that clued me in. I first heard about it the way someone would have 10 years ago, by reading something in print. The internet for me was step two in my discovery process.

EDIT: Today is the 11th month anniversary of my discovery of aspergers BTW.

The rise of numbers for any disease, disoreder, epidemic, sydrome,etc., is because of the rise of population. More people means more everything.
%2 of 6 billion is more than %2 of 2 billion.

Hand up for grandfather and eccentric great uncles I've never met. Grandfather probably AS, most things in my family skip a genaration.

I remember I first heard the word "Autisitic" from an episode of Touched by an Angel when I was about 16 when my mother and I used to watch it together. It was the episode with an autistic adult character on it. That was the first time. And my mother, being a psychotherapist, explained it to me a bit more.

Then several years later, I was taking Child Psychology and came across the Autism section before we ever got there, and I went and bought Autism: Explaining the Enigma because I thought it sounded highly interesting. Then after becoming familiar with Autistic Disorder, I suddenly came across Tony Attwood's book on Aspergers and found many similarities at the time, but brushed it aside because I knew I was like this now, but I couldn't remember being like that when I was a kid (not that I wasn't like that, but that I just couldn't remember).

Then I read the book again, and was talking with my mother who said I was like that when I was a kid. But still for some reason she didn't believe I had Aspergers.

I continued to study ASDs and study myself as I went through each day and didn't realize how much of that stuff I do that I thought was completely normal. Such as stimming. I always stimmed but never really thought about it being unusual.

Finally, when my mother came with me to a seminar on AS/HFA/NLD with Dr. John M. Ortiz, after we left she was completely convinced. I think she's even more convinced than I.

I don't think its the nature of the disorder or its prevalence that has changed. I think its because society has now gotten more fast paced and that what is considered socially acceptable has become a lot more stringent. Anybody who is not trendy and gregarious is considered outside the norm. As a result many of the milder cases get singled out for their social awkwardness.

I also feel that academically, there is a shift away from things such as rote memory, focus, learning at ones own pace and individual work, all domains of strength for ASers and towards improvisation and groupthink, so I think that by the time an ASer reaches elementary school, he gets singled out for problems.

I

'm 49 and I was part of the "deal with it" generation, and it was horrible! The categories can be obnoxious, but at least you know you're not alone. I was finally diagnosed with manic depression (aka bipolar) at 33, ADD at 35, and believe me---I totally advocate better living through modern medicine. Those little pills at least gave me some control over my life... I'm still peculiar though. I won't dispute the bipolarity, but I'm trying to figure out if there's something else going on. I realize there is no pill for HFA/AS, but at least I'd understand why people sometimes react to me the way I do (aside from having to endure an occasional manic/depressive bout)

Ghosthunter,

With all due respect, I resent that comment. i have bipolar disorder which is a biochemical illness, which like autism/AS can cause alot of disabilityIn fact I think the bipolar disorder causes me greater impairment, than the ASD.Anyways, I need to take those pills,or I will not be able to function as efficiently, if at all. I could also die because my judgement becomes impaired when my mood gets out of control. If this was the old days, the combination of my autism and bipolar disorder, i probably would have been in an insane asylum. So I don't want to hear anything about me being weak, or having poor coping skils. if anything my coping skills are pretty strong considering what i;ve been through.

Medication and coping skills both have their places. Some people might benifit most from medication, some from coping skils. Others might benifit from a combination of the two.

That's interesting. I don't know if I have AS or HFA--I'm thinking I might; on the other hand, I might just be slightly manic and need more risperdal. Maybe it makes no difference but somehow I think it does. I still have problems that are outside BPD.