A researcher attributed the increase to awareness and improvements in detecting the developmental disorder.
      • OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works
        10·
        7 days ago

        There used to be a stigma against left-handed people, so a lot of lefties would hide the fact that they were left-handed. This isn’t really a history of how many people are left-handed, but rather a history of how many people are openly left-handed.

        • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
          7·
          7 days ago

          Stigmatized to the point that left handed kids were forced to learn to write with their right hand, including physical punishment from teachers if they were caught using their left hand. Not just voluntarily hidden, but actively suppressed.

  • qantravon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    461·
    7 days ago

    We have pretty good evidence that this is due to historic under diagnosis, expanding the definition of Autism, and improved and increased testing parameters. In other words, the actual rate hasn’t increased, we just detect it more often than we used to.

    • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      7 days ago

      This 100%. More diagnoses doesn’t necessarily mean an increase due to some nefarious cause - no matter how much the antivax loonies want that to be true.

      • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
        6·
        7 days ago

        For sake of argument: even if vaccines have some non-zero percent chance of triggering autism, their argument is basically that it is better to die than to get autism.

        I do not believe that vaccines cause autism, this is purely a hypothetical.

        • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          7 days ago

          Yeah they have a really fucked-up way of looking at autism. There are tons of autistic people out there living great lives and contributing a hell of a lot more to society than many of these antivax ghouls.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
    95·
    7 days ago

    I bet some corporation is sitting on a report that says their product is causing this. My bet is that it is Monsanto and the pesticides they put on our food.

    • odelik@lemmy.today
      9·
      7 days ago
      1. Wrong spectrum disorder.
      2. As someone with ADHD I wish I could get by without Adderall or similar stimulant. Even with stimulants, life is a fucking challenge. Struggling to listen to conversations that are important to you to only wind up thinking about another task or interest and getting lost in thought.

      Hell, just yesterday I walked inside while gardening to grab some tools from a toolbag that was left inside, while repeatedly saying out loud what I was doing. Got to the bag, and completely forgot why I was inside even though I had said why 3 seconds before and had to close my eyes and focus for 10 seconds before it came back to me. And this is a regular occurance that happens a dozen times or more a day WITH MEDICATION.

      The side effects of aderrall aren’t the most pleasant either. But the benefits of having some level of control of my brain, reducing the number of times thoughts drift away, and much much more, I take them. And I am somebody with mild-moderate ADHD issues.