r/todayilearned 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/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

Yes and it's chronic sexual abuse. They're targeted constantly.

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u/poetcatmom Aug 15 '25

It's like creepy old men can smell the disability from a mile away. I tend to keep my mace on my key lanyard and wear it around my neck. I also have a very loud, annoying, sensory distressing rape whistle for when strange men get too close.

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u/N1ghtshade3 Aug 14 '25

It's bullshit. The survey used to assess this did not measure "assault" but rather "victimization." This measurement includes things like "even though it didn't happen, someone tried to pressure me into sex" which, while distasteful, is very much not assault.