Is Autism a northern European trait.

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I saw something on the internet that says Autism is a northern European trait I want to know if that is true.

In our local support group there are autistics of every race so the answer is obviously no, its not a trait of one small part of the world like that.

If it was then my life should be easier than it is now since I'm from Northern Europe. I'm pretty sure that some people say that simply because of cultural differences. For example, from what I've understood we have less small talk, less talking to strangers and we tend to get to the point faster than people in the USA.

I've read that autism is present across the globe.

They've actually discovered it is more prevalent in immigrant populations to North America and Europe, such as the Sudanese. But this does not seem to be related to higher rates of autism in their birth country. It might be related to the high levels of stress experienced by young women as part of the immigrant experience - perhaps by an epigenetic mechanism.

It’s obvious that autism is not a “Northern European trait.”

Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger who discovered Autism were from Austria which is in Northern Europe.

Actually Austria is in central Europe (look at the map). It's closer to the Mediterranean than it is to either the Atlantic, or the North Sea, and its right smack dab in the Alps (the Mason-Dixon line of Europe).

But even if your assertion had been correct what is it supposed to prove?

Austria is where psychoanalysis was invented and where pretty much where ALL psychiatric disorders were first discovered. I don't think that would be considered evidence that Austrians are more looney tunes than every other nationality. What it shows is that all disorders are discovered where there a folks qualified to look for them: in countries that have advanced mental health care. So you would expect more autistic children to be recognized as such in rich advanced countries (south korea, USA, etc) then in poor countries like Bolivia or Chad.

Maybe it's more that people of N European descent have access to the types of drs who would diagnose it as autism?

I was actually wondering recently and going to start a thread to ask about how it's perceived in more traditional cultures (actual traditional, not westernized somewhere else). When I spent time in Hawaii once, I was in areas of local Hawaiians, not tourists. In general native islanders tend to dislike tourists (I can't imagine why ), but I felt more respected than I ever had. One guy randomly walked up and gave me a shark's tooth fish hook necklace and said only those who speak truth are allowed to wear them. That tells me he saw the autism, and really interpreted it for what it is, but had a totally different take. I've had similar experiences in rural parts of other countries. Anyone else?

My theory is that whoever posted that doesn't like northern Europeans for some reason and thinks autism is a bad thing, so naturally they would say, wrongly, that it's a Northern European trait. It exists everywhere. It's just that some cultures are more aware of it existing than others.

Lately on WP I've been hearing so much more nonsense and misconceptions than usual about autism. Watching Barney the Dinosaur causes autism, all autistic people like chicken nuggets, and on and on. It's really getting on my nerves.

I don't know that it proves anything, I just find it interesting (Bruno Bettelheim hailed from Austria also).

I have seen Austria described as being in Northern Europe as well as Central Europe sometimes.

Apparently the diagnosed rate is highest in Japan. However you have to be careful interpreting this, because we don't know what diagnostic criteria are actually applied there (in fact, we don't really know how the criteria are applied in any country, as there seems to be a huge variation according to personal views held by different clinicians, and how much of their diagnosis technique is subjective is not known).

What we do know is that psychoanalysis and psychiatry latched onto autism and this happened in the Northern Hemisphere - it was and is a good little earner for them, and that creates a false impression of it being located where they tend to be. Unfortunately for AS people it tainted AS as a mental illness, which it is not, and the taint is deeply woven into public consciousness in the countries with the most active psychoanalytic movement (like France, in particular, where the treatment of AS people remains appalling).

I'm of mixed European heritage (German and Italian), so I don't think it is all Northern European.

The "rate" of autism might be lower in Sub-Saharan Africa----but it certainly exists there.