100%. Autism wasn’t such a “problem” until we industrialized and that’s not a commentary on food. It’s a commentary on shipping hundreds of kids to one school where they are expected to all act the same or be punished.
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Maybe before we “indistrialized” we just didn’t know what autism was, or how to diagnose. Just like ADHD. Not necessarily new, just new to being diagnosed. Especially in girls.
aug 19, 2025, 6:20 pm • 1 0 • view
Sadly, as an autistic, i can speak from experience.
aug 19, 2025, 4:45 pm • 28 0 • view
“Act ‘right’ (Mask) or be punished”. I’m sorry if that was what you went through. Maybe autistics didn’t deal with overstimulation quite as much when schools were smaller and students still went home for lunch.
aug 19, 2025, 8:05 pm • 11 0 • view
Thanks for your concern. I did end up going to a special school. But by then i was pre to late teens.
aug 19, 2025, 9:38 pm • 3 0 • view
Between 1% and 3% of the world population is on the autistic spectrum. A rise in autism diagnoses is due to increased awareness, improved diagnostic tools, and changes in diagnostic criteria. Autism has always existed but was not always called autism. In the past, it was developmental retardation
aug 19, 2025, 5:03 pm • 9 0 • view
Thanks for your post. The important part is that the diagnostic criteria changed. One of the DSM authors wrote an Op Ed piece in the NY Times stating that he was responsible for the increase in autism because of the change in criteria.
aug 19, 2025, 7:31 pm • 2 0 • view
My sister was born in 1959 and was eventually diagnosed with a "lazy brain" and she was "backward" She has never had a modern diagnosis but she is definitely somewhere on the spectrum.
aug 19, 2025, 7:37 pm • 0 0 • view
That’s the point. It’s not that autism, and its spectrum didn’t exist, the individuals were given other diagnoses due to the criteria being used at the time.
aug 19, 2025, 7:43 pm • 1 0 • view
Exactly. The number hasn’t changed, just the society’s awareness/regard over time.
aug 19, 2025, 8:11 pm • 4 0 • view