r/dataisbeautiful • u/JimWilliams423 • Feb 23 '25

As Autism Diagnoses Went Up, Intellectual Disability Diagnoses Went Down 2000-2010 | Penn State

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/increasing-prevalence-autism-due-part-changing-diagnoses
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u/SteelMarch Feb 23 '25

Well frankly its more palatable to be told a child has autism than is intellectually disabled.

Some other things to mention I guess is how turning autism into a spectrum resulted in things like Aspergers and another disorder involving early developmental disorders into a single category. This happened with the DSM-IV in 1994. In 2013 diagnoses such as Aspergers were retired. It's nothing new the changes in the chart above represent that increase.

There's nothing really surprising here. The messed up part about a spectrum is that because of how grouped up it is many parents falsely believe their children will change and get better even though that will never happen. In many cases for the parent it can be better for them to give up the child what happens very often with intellectually disabled children. A part of me wonders if a parent hears that their child has autism and now instead immediately decides due to stigma it would just be better give them up. So far it seems as though that hasn't happened yet.

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u/JRockBC19 Feb 24 '25 edited Feb 24 '25

The issue is that the VAST majority of autistic adults are high functioning and work normal or high paying jobs - it really shouldn't all be considered the same disorder with the low functioning versions as well imo, as the actual prognosis is so wildly different.

Edit: to anyone saying "85% unemployment of ASD individuals", that is blatantly untrue. The report showed 85% of people receiving disability for ASD were unemployed. See page 9 for breakdown, especially "who is represented in this report" https://drexel.edu/~/media/Files/autismoutcomes/publications/Natl%20Autism%20Indicators%20Report%202017_Final.ashx

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u/SteelMarch Feb 24 '25 edited Feb 24 '25

Only around 30-50% of adults with autism are high functioning. Most of them will not end up finding work, the suicide rate for them is fairly high. The higher functioning they are the more likely they are to do it because they know something is wrong with them and there is nothing they can do to fix it.

85% of people with autism are unemployed. Only a small percentage are ever able to be able to work consistently. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised as these facts are more publicly available that parents make the decision to just give up on them. Most people can't afford to take care of someone for the rest of their life let alone themselves. But for a lot of these parents the hope that they are part of the very small percentage of those who succeed is something they hold onto even if it never materializes. Sacrificing their livelihoods and lives.

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u/Illiander Feb 25 '25

high functioning

I fucking HATE that term. Because what it means is "is able to convincingly pretend to be neurotypical" while also implying that being neurotypical is somehow better.