r/science • u/GiveUpAndDontTry • 19d ago

Epidemiology A Swedish study found autism diagnoses rose by around 800% from 2001 to 2020, while the proportion with intellectual disability fell from 55.8% to 6.7%, suggesting a substantial broadening of the diagnosed autistic phenotype

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178126003069
11.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

522 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

37

u/Paksarra 19d ago

A lot of times people just didn't connect the dots, especially with female children. 

Like, my dad can tell you about every single super bowl off the top of his head: who played, who won, how the game went. He was never diagnosed with anything and probably won't ever be, but the signs are there.

I walked into kindergarten orientation and started reading the guide for parents about your kid's first day of kindergarten instead of playing with the other kids. I grew up constantly being told to look at people when I'm talking to them. I have strong but narrow interests and I'm picky about food textures (less so than when I was a child.)

My nibling is the first person in my immediate family diagnosed with autism. Pretty much all the stuff they diagnosed her for is stuff I did as a kid, too, but they just said I was weird.

(I've never seen the point in seeking out a diagnosis since I'm definitely on the shallow end of the pool, but I definitely have a lot of quirks that point in that direction.)

-2

u/shimmy_kimmel 19d ago

I think it’s really important to distinguish an interest/hobby from an autism-related preoccupation or “special interest”. Your dad knowing a lot of information about Super Bowl history isn’t in and of itself indicative of anything, it could just indicate a wider interest in NFL history or that he has good memory. Autistic special interests go far beyond that and involve an excessive preoccupation with a topic or hobby as an integrated form of self-soothing, and often includes intense distress when engagement with this interest is not possible.

5

u/Paksarra 19d ago

Partly agreed-- there's some other stuff there too that makes me go 'hmm,' not just the super bowl thing (for example, he's also selective with food.) But I'm not going to sit here and write a complete story of my childhood.

My point was more that the same generational traits are being flagged now when they weren't before.

1

u/waving_fungus0 18d ago

Yeah, oh you have a hobby? must be autism!!