Why Autism Is Trending

6 reasons autism and ADHD are suddenly popular

In wealthier countries, the upward trend in autism cases is undeniable and the standard explanation is trotted out — “we are noticing it more; we have better diagnostics.”

Yes, but why now?

Less than 20 years ago, it was 1 in 110 children who got tagged autistic; today it is 1 in 36 and the numbers keep growing.

The key to understanding some of this lies in the curious history of left-handed children.

At the turn of the century, 3% of people were identified as left-handed, which meant as children, they chose to perform most tasks left-handed, from drawing to dodgeball.

Today, 11% are classified as left-handed, with an estimated range from 9.3% to 18.1%.

The explanation for this precipitous rise in left-hand dominance is unknown, but it seems reasonable that some children chose to conform to the majority because some teachers scolded anyone who dared to write left-handed.

Coaches, too, might’ve corrected switch-hitters and southpaws — although this seems less likely as sports are far more logical than pedagogy.

Parents stopped berating or insulting their kids for being left-handed freaks and stopped forcing them to eat right-handed.

The science of left-handedness has posited it may be a pathological condition resulting from trauma, with researchers also noting:

“Yet, even if [stress and] birth trauma account for some left-handedness, not all left-handedness is of pathological origin. Thus, the origins of left-handedness in healthy humans remain unclear.”

Considering left-handedness as pathological strikes me as baloney, but it’s the perfect illustration of how we pathologize differentness. Since we can’t explain why some kids inconveniently hold their pencils with their left hands, we have to find a problem.

The meteoric rise in cases of autism and ADHD may be, in part, because we aren’t being shouted down anymore.

We’ve got a long way to go, baby, from left-handed love to autistic acceptance.

The Disorder Theory

Autism and ADHD exist on a spectrum.

An extreme case might look like this: a boy with a low intellectual capacity, raised in a family of limited resources, with obvious social and verbal deficits, who sits by himself and doesn’t engage other people.

Another extreme case might look like this: a boy genius who grows up in a socially successful family who goes on to begin his own computer business and becomes a billionaire.

The first case is the classic disabled autistic child who needs significant support in Special Ed, and was diagnosed early. He is nonverbal and doesn’t make eye contact.

The second is Bill Gates.

It’s a spectrum.

We can label Bill Gates (and Steve Jobs, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, etc.) as having the same “disorder”, or we can apply common sense.

We all live and perform on many spectrums, from wealth to height to good looks.

There may be a good evolutionary explanation as to why some people think by making connections rather than using linear reasoning, or why some experience intense sensitivity to sensory stimuli while others don’t.

As the dialogue opens up, here are six reasons more autism is better, and it makes perfect sense.

1/ Special Education

On July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, providing a comprehensive set of protections for disabled Americans. For more on how this landmark civil rights legislation evolved, the film Crip Camp explores the origins of its 1973 precursor, which prohibited federally funded and administered programs from discriminating against disabled people.

Special education classes operate in millions of classrooms across America, using federal funds under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act) and providing protected resources for disabled children. Once these educational programs were put in place, more children were diagnosed as having “learning disabilities.”

2/ Girls

It turns out girls are people. Once female researchers began entering the academic and clinical spheres of psychology, medicine, and sociology with their PhDs, the doors opened to wider possibilities in research.

For example, early autism research relied on observing children on a playground. The autistic kids were easy to spot, as they were likely alone and playing by themselves. They were almost all boys, because girls and boys have markedly different styles of socializing, and girls learn earlier and better how to connect with other people.

The standard of classroom behavior is to be quiet, and girls with ADHD can do that — while they are spaced out and disengaged. They didn’t exhibit obvious behaviors such as restlessness, defiance, and talking out of turn.

3/ Non-white people

Autism and ADHD do not discriminate by race. We are approaching a more honest dialogue about how BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) have been left out of the conversation and denied a seat at the table when it comes to recognizing neurodivergent styles.

BIPOC kids are still less likely to be diagnosed than White kids — the only exception is Asian-American (boys).

We’ve moved past the unscientific assumption that autism and ADHD affect white kids more.

4/ Autistic parents of autistic kids

As we get better at diagnosis and understanding the nature of neurodivergent conditions, clinicians and educators are more cognizant that this divergence runs in families.

Parents who discover their child has autism/ADHD see it in themselves, and they seek out a diagnosis. Although significant financial and stigma barriers stop some of them from getting a formal diagnosis, many adults are now seeking out a diagnosis.

5/ Social media

The term social is loaded.

I first began suspecting autism/ADHD after reading a Medium article The Highly Sensitive Person is Autistic, Autistic, Autistic.

Medium is a form of social media.

I looked for guidance on YouTube, which is also a form of social media.

I made a point of posting on FB to let anyone paying attention know that I identify as neurodivergent.

Facebook is a form of social media.

I’ve written on Medium about a lifetime of feeling disoriented, lost, out of sync, frustrated, and left out — and one reason I’ve written about it is I am grateful I found somebody else brave enough to write about it.

I researched autism using Reddit — also a form of social media.

As a trained university-level researcher, I also used Google Scholar and got a formal diagnosis from a neuropsychologist. I’m lucky I had the skills and financial resources to take those steps.

Most autistic people don’t.

People put down social media as if it’s one thing but despite the many flaws of YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, and Medium nobody will deny they offer first-hand accounts that cut through much of the corporate-sponsored mainstream media drivel.

6/ Destigmatization

When Bill Wilson founded AA in 1935, the stigma around alcoholism was so pervasive and virulent that he made sure it was Alcoholics Anonymous — and it still is to this day.

Addicts hold their cards close to their chests because being stigmatized is an economic and social disadvantage. Others never seek recovery because being an addict is considered such a lowly condition.

We who diverge are not stupid. We don’t want labels that further marginalize and impoverish us.

Despite the stigma, parents and other neurodivergent people are standing up and being counted.

Today, we have destigmatizing language like invisible illness and neurodivergence. Even the controversial moniker “highly sensitive person” is helpful.

4 Reasons Neurodivergence Stays Underestimated

1/ Money

People in poor countries can’t afford private therapy and diagnosis, and in many cases, schools don’t offer support. Even in wealthy countries, many people can’t afford diagnostic services ranging from $800 (quick and dirty) to $3,000 (comprehensive).

2/ Ableism

The HSP book remains controversial, as the overlap between highly sensitive people and autistic is obvious and not going away.

Some online mental health sites promote getting a diagnosis by pointing out that a tiny number of people are autistic and a huge swath of people are “highly sensitive” without delving a little deeper and asking the obvious:

How many people who self-identify as HSP are autistic but don’t know it because of stigma, money, or ableism?

Ableism is the pervasive attitude and mindset that being handicapped, disabled, differently abled, or otherwise imperfect is a weakness.

Ableism promotes the idea that some of us are more valuable than others.

Ableism is similar to sexism, racism, xenophobia, and homophobia. It assumes pathology for anyone who doesn’t fit the monolithic white, male, able-bodied narrative.

3/ Lack of research

Funding for mental health research runs parallel to treatment for mental health conditions and “disorders.” Considering the cost to society of untreated, undiagnosed, and misdiagnosed autism and ADHD — especially for women and BIPOC — we should be pouring millions of dollars into research.

4/ Sexism

Sexism remains the most robust barrier toward a realistic perspective on autism.

As a society, we have a terrible time fessing up about our view of women as being Other.

We view women as non-people and this problem has infiltrated medicine to the point where research dollars on women’s illnesses don’t get raised or spent because the standard patient is male.

With autism and ADHD, the presentation of these conditions is wildly divergent between boys and girls.

Girls can develop sharply disparate and arguably more advanced social and communication skills. Since recognizing autism largely depends on observing social and communication deficits and differences, girls and women remain invisible.

I am ADHD. I was a quiet, spaced-out, gifted little girl.

Nobody had a clue. The condition made my student life hell as studying was never straightforward. Like so many undiagnosed girls, I blamed myself for not “living up to” my so-called gifted potential.

I am the classic “anxious and depressed” female but I figured out the problem after removing every last crumb of “anxiety-inducing” or “depressive” elements from my life.

I turned over a lot of rocks to finally discover the key: autism, with a side of ADHD.

Girls and women shouldn’t have to self-diagnose from their libraries of self-help books.

Final Words

We’ve managed to accept lefthanded people, despite the laughable theorizing in academic research that the condition might be “pathological.”

In some circles, we no longer blame addicts for being morally inferior.

We don’t hate LGBTQIA+ individuals for making “the wrong choice” — at least, those of us who are educated don’t.

But the truth is we have internalized ableist, sexist, racist, and homophobic programming.

It’s impossible not to because human nature makes us lazy creatures who dream of a single narrative to explain life.

We want a cure, we want certitude. We want one right answer.

You can be left-handed, right-handed, or ambidextrous but our primitive programming still screams: “You’re different and that’s bad.”

The human capacity for simple answers will never die, and as long as we neurodivergent folk remain hidden, the majority will continue to vilify us for the mere fact that we dare to be alive.

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Jean Campbell is based in Hot Springs, Arkansas. She has been writing on Medium for years and recently published her first novel, Down and Out on the Road South, with Wings ePress. She is serializing the first part of her second book, City of Lies, on Substack.