Correction: people with an autism diagnosis. You are much more likely to get a diagnosis if you are in contact with the psychiatric healthcare system (e.g. if you are suicidal)
Any statistics done on the subset of autistic people with a diagnosis would therefore be skewed towards the mean of the subset of the general population who are in contact with the psychiatric system
There's a huge number of undiagnosed - estimates range between 90%-98% of people who would fit the criteria for ASD remain undiagnosed. These people remain undiagnosed because they generally live normal lives with jobs, wives, husbands, children, pets, and so on, which provides a support system to help them with the challenges they face
The group of undiagnosed autistic people are however much more likely to be underemployed, i.e. they employed in a much lower position than their education and experience would generally suggest. This is due to the systemic issues they face caused by a lack of accommodations which naturally increases the risk of them having a mental health crisis that puts them in contact with the psychiatric system
Something, something, kettle, something, something, pot
My son is autistic. He massively struggles with life. I weep sometimes after some of his meltdowns, where he says he hates himself and wishes he didn't exist.
We do our best, and I hope we can help him learn the correct coping mechanisms. But reading some of the posts here make me quite enraged. He has a medical condition. It is called ASD. Would I medicate him if it meant he had a better chance of living a happier life? In a blink.
I'm genuinely sorry to hear that your son is struggling. I cannot comprehend how difficult and stressful that must be for you as a parent
I can however speak to what it's like being autistic and what would have helped me growing up - and it's wasn't medicine
I had my share of meltdowns and they were pretty much exclusively caused by being forced to fit into a rigid school system where my "weirdness" was punished by both teachers and my classmates
What I needed was teachers who had been educated in supporting neurodivergent children, a safe space where I could have gone when I needed to decompress, an academic schedule that was geared towards my needs, and counselling to help me navigate a society that is designed by and for neurotypical people
That my brain is wired differently than it is in a neurotypical person is not a medical condition
What enrages me is when I'm treated as if I'm somehow broken and need fixing. I'm sick and tired of being discriminated against and I'm even more tired of people arguing that it's somehow a super power
My needs and preferences might be different from other people, but I'm still just a person and that's what I'd like to be treated as
As a child, if I had been taking medication that would have alleviated the sheer terror I felt when the wrong foods were touching in school that lead to a meltdown, due to being totally overstimulated, I could have navigated the school system a bit better.
Any statistics done on the subset of autistic people with a diagnosis would therefore be skewed towards the mean of the subset of the general population who are in contact with the psychiatric system
There's a huge number of undiagnosed - estimates range between 90%-98% of people who would fit the criteria for ASD remain undiagnosed. These people remain undiagnosed because they generally live normal lives with jobs, wives, husbands, children, pets, and so on, which provides a support system to help them with the challenges they face
The group of undiagnosed autistic people are however much more likely to be underemployed, i.e. they employed in a much lower position than their education and experience would generally suggest. This is due to the systemic issues they face caused by a lack of accommodations which naturally increases the risk of them having a mental health crisis that puts them in contact with the psychiatric system
Something, something, kettle, something, something, pot