Why is autism becoming more common?

Why is autism becoming more common?
Let's connect the dots.
Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disability that can cause social, communication, or behavioral challenges. New research from Rutgers found autism rates tripling in 8-year-olds since 2000.
Now, one in 44 kids across America is being diagnosed with ASD and
that's because there's a greater awareness of the disorder, as well as improvements in diagnostic tools and education.
READ MORE: www.wcnc.com/article/news/loc...

[@thesilverblack708]

Listening to autistic people from a diverse range of backgrounds. You get your answer: Autism has always been around, we're now doing a lot better at recognising that it's: A) Not the worst thing that can happen to a human being, and B) A natural part of human diversity.
As for why autism rates are higher, this comes down to 5 factors. All of them natural, none being the case of "environmental factors" it's time to put that argument to rest.
Factor 1: Better research and awareness - The breakthrough in modern day autism criteria didn't emerge until 1991 when Hans Asperger's work was translated from German to English. Before that breakthrough, the only people getting a diagnosis were extremely non-verbal children or those with zero sense of recognition of the outside world. Even then, adoption of this criteria has been extremely slow. Contrary to popular belief: Every medical expert does not now every single developmental conditions off the top of their head. Furthermore, after the research was translated to English, it took even longer for the work to be translated into other languages. Vietnam for example didn't even have an autism criteria until the 2000's.
Factor 2: Breakdown of Gender Bias - For a long time. Autism was originally considered to be extremely rare in girls. With the ration originally being 20:1 in the 90's But we now know this isn't true. The reality is that many girls were often overlooked for autism due to a combination of a few things: Gender bias, societal norms on "how to act like a lady", girls being able to mask better than boys, and many male psychartrists misdiagnosing autistic girls with other conditions like BPD. Officially the ration is now 2:1, but it's now believed that ratio may be 50:50. As many women who get diagnosed with autism, get so later in life.
Factor 3: Breakdown of Racial Inequality - Due to barriers that many marginalized groups faced in medicine, autism is constantly falsely believed to be a "white boy's disease". Which was so wrong on so many levels. Improvements in access to affordable medicine has made autism diagnosis more available to marginalized groups. Including accounting for cultural differences that may have attributed to autistic traits being missed. It's still a long way to go, but it's in a far better position than it was 20 years ago.
Factor 4: Streamling of the DSM-V - In 2013, various other developmental issues were all brought in under the Autism umbrella. That not only retroactively added a whole new group of autistic people, but also those who would have been diagnosed under said previous conditions now also get the Autism diagnosis.
Factor 5: Destigmatization - This is perhaps the biggest barrier that no one talks about. Because of such negative media portrayls of autism, including the perception that autism is somehow "worse than death" according to Autism Speaks (Yes they held that belief once) So many people refused to get their kids diagnosed, because they child didn't reflect the fear porn that was being portrayed. This is also why so many autistic adults refused to get diagnosed themselves, because of such unwarranted stigmatization. The worst of which came from anti-vaxxers, who continue to dehumanize autistic people to push their selfish agenda. They fail to see how harmful there rhetoric is to the mentality of an autistic person. Because they refuse to shatter their own illusion of autism being a "tragedy" in order to fuel their agenda. It's time we call the "vaccines cause autism" claim out for what it is: It's hate speech.

[@carbonfibercrypto2919]

lol this was rigorous

[@jessieeyy908]

To many vaccinations