The first person to be diagnosed as autistic passed away last year at 89 years old. Please remember this if you find yourself being hypercritical of “all these people being diagnosed as autistic now”. The first documented clinical autism diagnosis was made less than 100 years ago.
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The DSM is a tool used especially by insurance companies to decide who and what gets coverage in America
It has also been used as a political tool
We are still very much in our infancy regarding mental health and neuropathic conditions
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106591.Lincoln_s_Melancholy
Big surprise that people with my age have so much trouble with the concept of ASD. Including me at times.
It materialized suddenly.
Autism is only there if you diagnose it, otherwise it's not real.
As long as I don't get diagnosed, I won't be autistic. Just quirky. (And more denial/masking logic.)
Wait... I'm not going in that direction...
That's only if you ignore the woman who first described it. Her work got buried in history when certain men got interested in the subject years later.
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/22/1183842725/remembering-donald-triplett-the-first-person-to-be-diagnosed-with-autism
Right now, somebody is struggling with something we've never discovered. Be compassionate out there.