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walkthemoon
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02 Jun 2014, 7:54 pm

Do you the media should be calling autism an "epidemic?" I see this term everywhere.

Personally, I don't agree with it because it makes it sound like autism is some dangerous and infectious disease...


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02 Jun 2014, 8:28 pm

dictionary.com wrote:
adjective

1. (of a disease) affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent.

2. extremely prevalent; widespread.

noun

1. a temporary prevalence of a disease.


According to the definition I pulled up, autism is not number 1 but it is number 2. I don't really have an opinion. I think the term is used because of the massive increase in prevalence, for whatever reason.



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02 Jun 2014, 8:33 pm

I suppose it's a little bit better than a plague of autism.

Look on the bright side! :wink:


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02 Jun 2014, 9:01 pm

I'm old. We,ve always been around. We've always been poked fun of in movies and books. We've been called "The absent-minded professor," "the ugly duckiling," and the "village idiot."We've been the "wearer of the dunce cap" "that spaz", and "the ret*d kid." We've painted masterpieces, written great literature, and composed some of the most achingly beautiful music of all time. We've explained physics and advanced technology in almost unimaginable ways, but we've never quite got the formula down for tying our shoes. We've led revolutions and fought for the rights of the disenfranchised everywhere DESPITE our awkwardness and anxiety because these qualities are NOTHING compared to our perveserations, integrity and demands for fairness. We have always been around.

So, exactly when did we turn into an epidemic?



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02 Jun 2014, 9:07 pm

vickygleitz wrote:
So, exactly when did we turn into an epidemic?


When the rate of autism went from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 250 to 1 in 150 to 1 in 100 to 1 in 88 to 1 in 68 in a span of 10-or-so years. That's when.

It doesn't matter why that happened...it did happen (officially-speaking).



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02 Jun 2014, 9:36 pm

Officially speaking. We were not one in ten thousand when I was a kid.



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02 Jun 2014, 9:46 pm

Autism had a more specific meaning before the 1980s.

People with Aspergian-type symptoms were not considered autistic then; they had other labels attached to them (e.g., "minimal brain dysfunction, "brain-damaged.")

Then, there were all the "unofficial" titles which Vicky mentioned ("egghead," "absent-minded professor", "village idiot, etc.).

Autism, from the 1940's to the 1970s (and probably through most of the 1980s) was classical autism of the Kanner type, exclusively.



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02 Jun 2014, 10:01 pm

"Officially-speaking" meaning whatever the current statistic was. Stats regarding autism are not accurate at all due to the massive changes in how autism is regarded and I'm not arguing that they are. I'm arguing that the stats are where this "epidemic" idea is coming from...

Edit: when my first son was diagnosed in 2002, I was told it was 1 in 250. The previous stat I'd found in my research leading up to his diagnosis was 1 in 10,000- mostly looking at stuff regarding MMR since my son was born in 1999. That's where I'm getting those numbers from but I have no idea where my sources got their numbers from.
[Disclaimer: I don't believe MMR causes autism but since my son was born as that scandal took off, I obviously read about it]



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02 Jun 2014, 10:14 pm

I personally don't think it's an "epidemic". It's just that people are more aware now about it than they were even a decade ago. But that's mainly because it's the media's job to report why anything "new" is something terrible and that we should all be completely paranoid and in helpless fear. They also misuse and overuse words a lot. Autism is not an epidemic because it's not a disease.



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03 Jun 2014, 1:07 am

You could say that with a lot of things. For example, cancer wasn't always able to be diagnosed. So, when the criteria and diagnostic tests became available, did people all of the sudden start getting an epidemic of cancer?

Well, some people believe that. Also, they are usually the same people who don't understand how better diagnostic tools makes diagnoses easier, not more prevalent.



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03 Jun 2014, 7:41 am

Yes, you could say that with a lot of things. It does get said with a lot of things. Cancer is referred to as an epidemic all the time by the media...

Anyway, I stated my opinion in my first post. My other posts have been why I think this happens. They were in response to the poster who said "when did we become an epidemic?" and since it's an epidemic according to the media, the answer has to be from the perspective of the media. I'm not the media though so it's not my perspective.



kraftiekortie
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03 Jun 2014, 7:59 am

The reason why the prevalence of autism is higher: 1. The definition of autism has broadened. 2. There is more awareness of autism.



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03 Jun 2014, 5:17 pm

am not a fan of the epidemic BS on autism as it just shows that people woud rather accept there is some wacko conspiracy over autism increase rather than accepting that that the world has got better at understanding and spotting milder forms especialy which has brought in more numbers of people who originaly woudnt have been called autistic.


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03 Jun 2014, 6:53 pm

I can't believe it took me this long to realize how ridiculous this whole "autism epidemic" thing sounds. :lol:

That's like saying teh gay will spread if we keep giving more rights to homosexuals.



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03 Jun 2014, 7:08 pm

raisedbyignorance wrote:
That's like saying teh gay will spread if we keep giving more rights to homosexuals.


That's a great comparison.


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Aristophanes
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03 Jun 2014, 7:50 pm

raisedbyignorance wrote:
I can't believe it took me this long to realize how ridiculous this whole "autism epidemic" thing sounds. :lol:

That's like saying teh gay will spread if we keep giving more rights to homosexuals.


Yes it's called the domino theory, best example being: "If we don't have a war in Vietnam communism will spread all over the globe."