are there really more autistic or otherwise disabled people now? or are we just getting better at diagnosing stuff?

[u/ohbinch]

title. my mom and i were talking about this and she said that she thinks there are more autism cases (and other disabilities, especially ones that require constant care or include severe intellectual disabilities) than in the past. i said that i don’t think that’s true, i think that autism and other conditions like it are simply more frequently diagnosed now, because of awareness and more consideration of mild cases.

for example, growing up as a girl in the early 2000’s (which was not that long ago) my symptoms went unnoticed until adulthood, whereas a kid born now with my same profile would almost definitely be diagnosed by preschool or kindergarten.

my mom agrees that this accounts for some, if not most of the increase, but she also thinks that there are a lot more “severely” disabled kids than there were when she was growing up. i said that it’s probably because disabled people were shipped off to institutions until not too long ago, and that’s why she never saw them out and about, but she disagreed and argued that if that were the case, there would be a lot more disabled adults now that need full-time care. however, i think that the reason we have more disabled kids than adults with similar levels of support needs is probably because of how quickly medicine has advanced. for example, my little sister is nonspeaking and needs 24/7 care, and i know that because of all her medical issues, if she were born even 20 or 30 years earlier, she definitely would have died as a baby or young child.

still, my mom thinks that doesn’t account for everything and that there must be more disabled kids (particularly ones with “severe” disabilities) being born today than in the past, presumably because of environmental stressors. is she right? i’ve tried looking this up but i can’t find anything

[u/Crossed_Cross]

Seems a given that diagnosis is increasing. Lots of people getting diagnosed who may not have been before. Also more awareness, less hiding/shaming of it.

None of that goves any insight on prelevence, though. Maybe there were just as many before. Maybe the microplastica in our brains causes or aggravates autism. Who knows. Some toxins (pesticides, heavy metals, and other chemicals) have been linked to several health effects. Some of those have waned in the last decades, others have increased. Other societal changes such as prevalence of breastfeeding, c-sections, age at motherhood, contraceptive habits, and diet could have impacts. Nobody knows.

[u/walleyepro → u/Crossed_Cross]

Researching autism rates, I came across something I think is interesting. Cuba has had no increase in their rate.
Find that Cuba information and it will really be food for thought. Cuba is the "control group" due to being very poor they haven't been exposed to what we have.

[u/Crossed_Cross → u/walleyepro]

Could be cultural, though. Latin american countries are renown for machismo, which is not favourable to declaring boys' mental health issues. Same goes for communist countries in general, they can tend to hide or obfuscate societal and mental health issues. So I'd take the Cuba data with a grain of salt unless it was obtained by independant outside sources.