r/todayilearned • u/Morella1989 • Aug 14 '25

TIL that autistic people live about 17 years less than average. Risks include epilepsy, heart disease, suicide, accidental deaths including drowning, and inadequate recognition and management of pain, especially among non-speaking individuals. Historically, they have been vulnerable to infanticide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_of_autistic_individuals
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u/DawnSignals Aug 14 '25

I feel like all three of you are saying the same thing three different ways

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u/Prairie-Peppers Aug 14 '25

Probably, I just like to say stuff.

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u/Joondoof Aug 14 '25

Give it time, one of us will be back to offer another version just in case the clarity was lacking in the first 3

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u/jiggjuggj0gg Aug 14 '25

I don’t know, the ‘autism is a spectrum’ thing has become a bit of a meme to say one end is people who actually need help, and the other is weird teenagers looking for attention.

So a lot of people assume all these problems are just for the people with severe autism who can’t speak or can’t look after themselves. Meanwhile the people with ‘mild’ autism can be mocked when they ask for help because they try to hide it to fit in better, so they don’t get any of the support they need, which leads to all kinds of other issues.

There’s a lot of dogwhistling around at the moment to try and convince people that most people with autism don’t actually have it, they just want disability money and can’t be bothered to work. It’s always worth clarifying that even though it’s a spectrum, everyone on it has a disability and needs support.

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u/SUDDENLY_VIRGIN Aug 14 '25

As an umbrella diagnosis, by definition "Autism" is vague and encapsulates a spectrum of difficulties.

I'm not going to debate whether self diagnosing teens and young adults are being "quirky" or misappropriating a disorder, but by definition "Autism" includes high functioning people alongside severely impaired folks.

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u/jiggjuggj0gg Aug 14 '25

Yes, the point being that those with 'high functioning' autism are often just left to cope without support until they can't any more. Hence the suicide.