04/16/2025
Autism Prevalence.
“In my day there was no such thing as autism, now everyone has it!” - “What is causing this new autism epidemic?”
Fluoride. Vaccines. Food Dyes. Heavy Metals?
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TLDR: Autism has always been a highly prevalent neurotype.
I’m going to say what you have already heard, but I am ALSO going to break it down:
As research and understanding of the autistic neurotype has progressed, diagnostic recognition and criteria has expanded to uncover this reality that many of us already know. Autism is, and has always been, a prevalent neurotype in the neurodiversity of the human experience.
🧠”LEVELS”/SUPPORT NEEDS: In the past, it was primarily “high support needs” individuals being diagnosed as autistic. Now we know the breadth and variety of the spectrum which presents uniquely in many individuals with many different level of support needs. Your autistic neighbor, your coworker, your family member, your classmate, your friend, or your teacher diagnosed today - would have never received a diagnosis in the past.
🧠GIRLS - Only recently is the research working to better identify autism in girls. Autism research and diagnostics were only focused on boys - this leaves out half of the population, and we know it presents differently in females for a variety of reasons. Because of this, boys are 4 times more likely to be diagnosed than girls, girls get the diagnosis LATE in life if at all, and girls are often misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and eating disorders.
🧠BIPOC - While the prevalence of autism is the same in BIPOC communities, this is not reflected in diagnoses rates due to discrimination and disparities in access. BIPOC are more likely to never received a diagnosis and/or to be misdiagnosed into behavioral disorders instead of an accurate autism diagnosis. This leads to lack of proper support and an emphasis on intentional misbehavior, inappropriate interventions, trauma, lifelong effects and further disparities and discrimination! We still have a VERY long way to go in research, diagnostics, and service access in this area.
🧬ADULTS/LATE DIAGNOSED and GENETICS: There is a huge increase in “late diagnosed” adults. These adults grew up during the narrower understanding and diagnostics of autism. As understanding has progressed and expanded over the years, many adults are finding their accurate diagnosis. We have a surge in what is called “late-diagnosed adults.” Because autism is highly genetic (80-90%), many of the parents of children getting diagnosed today are finding out through their children’s experiences, that they, too, have this neurotype. 80-90% - in case you missed that part.
💥”In my day there was no autism, now everyone has it.” The same amount of people are autistic, they are just now actually being recognized, understood, diagnosed. But let me take this disturbing rhetoric to emphasize another factor - “in your day” disabled and neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with higher support needs, were isolated, segregated and institutionalized. They were not at your school, not at the swimming pool, not on TV, not at the grocery store, not in the movies, and not in your shows. They were obviously not on the non-existent social media we have today. They were highly pathologized, infantilized, neglected, and abused as parents were urged to institutionalized them into these medical residential settings.
April is autism awareness/acceptance month. So maybe. Be aware of that?
🪐 “In the past few decades, we have detected thousands of planets outside of our solar system. They did not suddenly appear at the time we sound them. No one calls it an “exoplanet epidemic.” The planets were always there, just previously undiscovered. This is a tweet about autism.” -Invisible Strings
