People are freaking out over the rise in autism

Post Reply New Topic

Panic panic they are everywhere now!

These aspies are breeding at college campuses and in Silcone Valley plus they are all over microsoft work places hooking up and breeding more autistic children! The horror of it all!!

(end dramatic text)

What is really going on here? I'd like to know your opinion about the panic. I'd also like to know your opinion about why talk shows are excluding all guests during their screening who have something nice to say about autism.

I dont know anything about your second question because I dont really watch TV but I do have an opinion about the rest of it so I suppose I will just jump straight into that.

My mother is prone to hit the panic button at any given time. She would prefer it if I kept my 12 year old daughter locked in her room all the time. I've been telling her for years that the world is not a more dangerous place all of a sudden. There arent more violent crimes being commited, there is just more media coverage of the ones that are, and it is still incredibly difficult to find the real story.

In my eyes the same philosphy applies to Autism. There arent more Autistics in the world, its just that there is more publicity about the people who are and its still really hard to get the real story. People see a sudden increase in the number of diagnosed cases dont put two and two together that these cases didnt just develope overnight. They always had Autism, they just didnt know what it was.

The majority of humans are prone to panic, imagine getting upset over a broken nail like some girls do. They are also prone to mob think which in this case tells them this is an epidemic. It only takes one ignorant fool with charisma to sway hundreds.

The good news is that the more of us who are diagnosed, who speak up, the harder it is for them to not to hear what we have to say. Change takes time.

I would like to know that myself! HECK, some autistic people that are BADLY affected, whom you'd THINK would be screaming for a cure, AREN'T! And THEY are angry at ones that are! That SHOULD be a clue to others that they are barking up the wrong tree! I spoke here earlier about how larry king basically told ed asner to shut up when HE said something positive!

Last edited by 2ukenkerl on 20 Nov 2007, 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

David Letterman told someone to shut up about something positive regarding autism? What a jerk. I think as usual it's all about what's in it for them.

Alei, you are onto something. I keep hearing about people claiming it just didn't exist before (insert date) and it's all over vaccines. Maybe it is? I don't think so.

Prior to such psych labels, people were called geniuses for being able to do complex things even if it didn't involve alot of socialism.

When did being social become such a big deal that if you aren't then you are dysfunctional?

Why does everyone have to be the same?

I feel the world would be scary if everyone walked, talked, dressed, thought and acted the same.

Societies all around the globe indulge in their approach of what is approved in their hierchy structure resulting in their form of cleansing which does not involve soap at all!

Experts are just getting more experty. There aren't more autistic ppl.. they're just getting more noticed.

Kitsy,

He REALLY just cut him short(BTW I mispoke. It was larry king), switched back over, and just wouldn't let ed asner continue. I'm saying it amounted to the same thing. They let a person call CDD autism, and speak of things that the autism diagnosis EXCLUDES, but they won't let ed asner speak of his AS diagnosed son, and AS IS considered a type of autism. That IS pretty remarkable.

As for the autistic behaviour? Aloof, single minded, eager to talk about interests, not caring about sports/fashion, being bad at sports, being bad socially, having odd quirks? Those used to be things said of the average genius! One wonders how much is mere coincidence. BTW that stereotype existed BEFORE modern vaccines!

Steve

Darn, beat me to it... But seriously, I don't see a problem with the so-called 'rise' in autism. Sure, it can't be very nice for the people who are REALLY badly affected by it, who feel that they need a cure but are shunned by their own BECAUSE they want a cure (no, I'm not pro-cure, I'm pro-choice), but some people pick up on someone whose autism doesn't hideously interfere with their life, take a picture of them framed in isolation, stick a 'thought-provoking' headline above it and a load of emotive language alongside it, and the 'CAN' logo in the bottom corner- without the knowledge of the photographed Autie- and use it as propaganda! (Sorry, that was a bit of a tirade, not to mention a long sentence.)

It's harder to be gay than straight. It's harder to be black than white. The majority population seems to naturally reject minorities unitl those minorities and supporters speak loud enough for them to "get it.". Right now they have on blinders about autism spectrum people and oppress a minority temperament that has much to offer.

The saddest are the parents who reject their own kids, all the while pretending to help them by looking for cures.

As others here have posted, it's the incidence of diagnosed autism that has gone through the roof. Obviously, beofre it was recognised as a medical condition there would have been no diagnoses (just as schizophrenics were probably 'diagnosed' with demonic possession, etc). It may be that the true incidence of autism is rising, but at least part of the reason for the rise in diagnosed autism is that someone with ASD is more likely to get diagnosed than in the past.

It's just NT's who want to sell more of their books about Autism, or Therapists who want more parents to drag their kids into their office, or more Celebrities who want more publicity, or NT-run charities who want more donations...

Makes you sick of NTism, doesn't it? They gin up an impression that the world is hip deep in Autistic people, and by GEORGE SOMETING NEEDS TO BE DONE ! !! !

Blllaaaeuughhhh....

Hey, don't knock teh NTs! Sure, some of them are dimwitted and publicity-seeking, but it's not just them running the CAN campaigns- there are a fair number of (possibly brainwashed, I'll grant you) Auties involved. I see a lot of NT stereotyping and bashing around here... And really, how is that any different from an NT stereotyping Aspies (and there's outrage and more 'OMG, ST00PID NTs' here when they do!)?

NTs are as varied a folk as Aspies and Auties.
Not all NTs are bigoted, ignorant as*holes, and not all Auties are shining, innocent beacons of light, period.

Sorry, for going off on a tangent, Prof, but you really hit one of my pet peeves.

Agree 100%. We don't know if the real rate is going up or not. We do know that diagnosis has increased, which could be do to an improvement in the medical system. The answer to the really interesting question is hidden behind the larger, more obvious trend.

I believe that this is just because autism is the 'it' desease of this decade. Last decade it was ADHD, and next decade itll be something else. Parents always look for why their kid is different, and wont take 'it's normal for kids to be different' as an answer. Adults look for the reason why they were not socially accepted.

People who only fit one or two symptoms are rushing into the diagnosis. This is what happened to me, a neighbor said I had it, so my mom instantly clung to that diagnosis. ((granted this naighor had two autistic kids, and was a special ED teacher, but she was not a phyciatrist))

The only symptoms I display are social akwardness ((which appeared after my sexual abuse)), and some obssesivness ((which I learned from my very obsessive mom)). These are it, I don't stem, and don't have any sensory issues, and developmentally I was on track as a child. I don't see why I was diagnosed, after coming here t's obvious I'm an NT.

And how common is autism anyways? Everywhere I've looked for numbers I've either read that no good prevalence estimates exist or seen baseless guesses. It's rather difficult to claim that the incidence of autism is rising if you can't even say how many are autistic.

There are no more Aspies/autistics now than before,its just that we ain`t riding in the back of the bus any more...

I think there are probably quite a few things playing into this. Although the BIGGEST factor is most likely the broadening of diagnostic criteria and the inclusion of Asperger's and PDD-NOS into the DSM and ICD.



For the same reason that most news stories focus on crime rather than "happy ending" stories. For the same reason gossip is usually negative. When something bad occurs, it's juicier material.