The cases are on average more extreme now though.
My dad’s full side is ADHD/ASD. But the millennials/genZs have more severe cases than their uncles and great uncles did.
You can look at all the related disorders that are often comorbid like autoimmune, thyroid, MCAS, etc.
Look at conditions like Type1 diabetes which is growing ~3% per year! This isn’t just better diagnostics but explained by the stress diathesis model of disease interacting with our modern synthetic world.
The cases are on average more extreme now though
This is based on your personal experience and not the evidence, which does not bear that out
Please present this evidence that rules what I said out.
Took 2s to find this
https://fortune.com/well/2023/04/19/rate-of-profound-autism-rising-not-as-fast-as-milder-cases/
That article doesn’t say what you seem to think it says. It only talks about an increase in diagnosed cases, which can be explained away by more frequent assessments, better awareness of symptoms, the loosening of diagnostic criteria in the DSM IV, and over-diagnosis to get children with other severe developmental disorders qualified for services. There are lots of reasons we know about that autism is being diagnosed more frequently, but the best you’re going to get on your hypothesis is “we don’t know.”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-real-reasons-autism-rates-are-up-in-the-u-s/
Experts say the bulk of the increase stems from a growing awareness of autism and changes to the condition’s diagnostic criteria.
https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.28.021406.144007
Environmental risk factors may also play a role, perhaps via complex gene-environment interactions, but no specific exposures with significant population effects are known
https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-statistics-asd
Autism prevalence is lower among white children than other racial and ethnic groups:
White – 2.4%, Black – 2.9%, Hispanic – 3.2%, Asian or Pacific Islander – 3.3%
These changes reflect an improvement in outreach, screening and de-stigmatization of autism diagnosis among minority communities.
