So according to the media there has been a huge rise in cases of Autism over recent years. Personally I don’t think this is the case.
Is it not obvious that the apparent rise in cases, is due to a large increase in diagnosis, and generally more awareness in society of Autism.
In past years people that would now be thought of as being Autistic were diagnosed instead with all sorts of mental health problems depression anxiety OCD Bipolar etc. Yes Autistic people are also very likely to suffer from mental health problems but Autism was often not even considered by unknowing doctors.
Until relatively recent times some of us were also wrongly diagnosed with schizophrenia. Many of us were thought of as being “maladjusted, retarded, backwards and not quite right” In these cases Autism was not mentioned and people like us were often institutionalized for many years until being diagnosed with Autism only in the last few years.
So is there an Autism epidemic?
No
There have probably always been Autistic people. It just wasn’t called Autism
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