Washington Post on the rise of autism

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which revised its estimates of prevalence upward this year, calls autism an urgent public health concern. The number of U.S. residents with the disorder, estimated at 1.2 to 1.5 million, could grow to 4 million within a decade, according to the Autism Society of America.

This according to WP. They add that it does not seem only the reasult o better DXs.

God forbid the better genes take hold! Quick, get the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, we've got an emergency, we could be replaced!

It's so disgusting. Everything alien must be inferior, hmm? It's like we're living in Victorian times again, and we're the heathen savages in the cages.

ive never understood why they worry about autism when diseases like cancer, aids, MS, diabeatis run free to do whatever they want. what needs to happen is jack mcoy from law and order needs to get the cdc in the courtroom

But I like the cage!! ! Personally, I think everyone should find someone to write to and write in huge letters "I'm autistic - what's your excuse!?"

heh. Some days, I really would love to climb onto the roof and scream that I'm autistic but a.) I'm afraid of heights; b.) they'd call the local authorities and have me locked up; and c) I like being in the closet, so to speak.

At my last job, I actually told a gay guy I worked with that I'm not ready to come out of the closet as an Autistic. He thought it was kind of funny, but I think it's sad that a person of either group has to hide who they are. I'm going to have a shirt made that says "I'm Autistic and I'm smarter than you" made so I can screw with the pre(mis)conceptions that everyone I know has. They all know I'm intelligent (and suspect I'm more so than themselves) and any time I've mentioned Autism to any of them outside my family most of them have said something about being "ret*d" or "defective". It'll really jack with their heads to find out that way. lol I've got all kinds of Autism shirt ideas, they keep popping into my head. I think I'll just have a week's worth made up at once and have myself a personal Dispersion of Delusions week.

I can't remember where I first read it, but I like it - the description of a hidden autistic being "in the cabinet"...

(After all, for some of us, those closets are just too spacious for a properly comforting experience!)

There is no shame in being autistic and it is a label that I am comfortable with; but few people I know would accept the assertion that I am autistic. What they see is someone who is oddly, and unpleasantly, eccentric. They regard my ″misbehaviors″ as a willful choice and sought constantly to teach me how to be ″good″. Conform or be quashed, and invariably, I was squished into a pulp. The world has always recognized that I was smart, and intelligence seems to disqualify one from being autistic. To claim autism is tantamount to a cop out. The basic thinking is that if everyone can do it, why can’t you? Indeed, why can’t I just do what everyone else does so naturally?

It has made no difference whom I have told, they have at best only half believed me. And even when they did think that there was some truth to it, they have not shown even in a small way that it makes any difference to them.

BECAUSE I'M NOT "EVERYONE ELSE," YOU MICRO-WIT! I'M ME!
(Sorry, Zeno -- that wasn't directed at you. I'm just yelling it here in lieu of yelling it at several of my former bosses / )

I've always been rather fond of caves myself.

Micro-wit. . . micro-wit. . . micro-wit. <muttering to self>
I like that 'un!

I can understand some of the concern. It's natural for people to be social, and autism hurts that development. At the same time, strides must be taken to see that people with autism are still treated with dignity.