Why Is There so Much Autism Now?

Is is societal or something worse?

Source

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The elephant in the room no one wants to talk about is the increasing number of autistic kids.

As a summer camp counselor in my college days, every year, we had more and more severe cases like this video:

Also, I've seen this with my own eyes in my circle of acquaintances. I personally know at least 6 or 7 people who are high-functioning autistic. This was not normal when I was growing up.

Autism rates tripled among children in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area from 2000 to 2016, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Pediatrics.

So, what’s happening here?

Are we getting better at testing & detection?

Is this true?

Were people 10 years ago twice as bad as us now at detecting autism?

I’m not so sure.

The chart doesn't convey the catastrophic extent of the problem. For autism to be a new diagnosis and accelerate exponentially like that without any sign of slowing and without any serious investigation by health authorities is scary and shocking.

More kids are also getting screened with broader criteria for diagnosing autism, creating more opportunities for misdiagnoses. According to NBC and Santhosh Girirajan, an associate professor at Pennsylvania State University who studies neurodevelopmental disorders, this might further contribute to the rising rates.

"You might see a child and you won’t be able to tell if it's ADHD or autism or just mild intellectual disability. And what happens is you need to use more standardized testing to have a uniform way of identifying children who have similar features," he said.

So what are the compelling theories of why this is happening?

Is it only mature women?

Nope. Debunked.

Arab countries have young mothers and are the countries with more autism in the world. Here are the global autism rates above 100 per 10,000:

1. Qatar — 151.2 per 10,000 (1 in 66)

2. United Arab Emirates — 112.4 per 10,000 (1 in 89)

3. Oman — 107.2 per 10,000 (1 in 93)

4. Bahrain — 103.3 per 10,000 (1 in 97)

5. Saudi Arabia — 100.7 per 10,000 (1 in 99)

Is it vaccines and modern medicine?

Simply asking this question on other platforms—you know the ones— would get me banned.

But it is a mildly popular theory out there.

Some think the rise in autism is related to Thimerosal and mercury loaded in modern vaccines. Others think it’s pesticides.

Doctors are universally against the idea of it being vaccines:

"We know for sure, for so many years now, that vaccines don’t cause autism," said Santhosh Girirajan.

However, doctors aren’t against the idea that autism is caused by other external factors, including what we are/aren’t eating.

The medical expert’s opinion

The medical consensus for autism’s rise is narrowing down to these five factors:

• Bad microbiota (c section births + food and environments where children grow are too sterile).

• Lack of sunlight. (Necessary for vitamin d and the calibration of the body clock, developmental issues without it).

• Stupid parents giving their kids internet access at 3 years old (doctors didn’t use the word ‘stupid’—that one’s on me).

• Diagnostic criteria getting looser, combined with misdiagnoses that Professor Girirajan alluded to earlier.

• Viral infections in childhood.

  "These are novel, emerging concepts," Girirajan said. "We don't have solid evidence that these are indeed causing autism."

What would you do if you had a severely autistic kid?

In middle school, I remember getting into a lunch table discussion and one of the kids said, “If I ever had an autistic kid, I’d throw it in the dumpster.”

Some cringed. Others laughed. I ate my tatter tots paying him no mind.

(Kids say mean things in middle school)

My question is, what is the age where people speak candidly about what they think about autism to the moment now: when nobody is discussing the current epidemic (or diagnostic epidemic) that is happening today?

Asking why is there a rise in autism is taboo.

Clearly, something is happening. Why are we too afraid to find out?

Regardless of what we find it doesn't mean you should ever treat a person living with autism differently or make them feel less than because of it.

All I'm saying is, let's not be afraid to start an open discussion on this subject and find out what's really going on. After all, knowledge is power, right?

👉 Feeling lonely? Show this post some 💖 and share it with your friends. That way, you won't have to be the only one who knows its dark secrets!🙏