{"id":8127,"date":"2026-09-05T06:48:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=8127"},"modified":"2026-09-05T06:48:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:48:36","slug":"im-on-the-spectrum-and-so-are-you-definition-of-autism-so-broad-that-its-meaningless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=8127","title":{"rendered":"I’m on the spectrum \u2014 and so are you! Definition of autism so broad that it’s meaningless"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In another 20 years, we\u2019ll all <\/em>be on the spectrum.<\/p>\n

That was my first thought after reading a recent report on the rise in people diagnosed with autism. European researchers have documented that over a 20-year period, from 2001 to 2020, the number of people who have some form of autism rose dramatically.<\/p>\n

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Yet they found no rise in the number of people with severe autism: autism with intellectual disability.<\/p>\n

The number of autistic people with intellectual disability remained absolutely flat over those 20 years. But the number of people diagnosed with autism who did not have intellectual disability soared, rising 1,800% over 20 years.<\/p>\n

In other words: for every one person diagnosed with autism without intellectual disability in 2001, 18 people were diagnosed in 2020.<\/p>\n

Professor Uta Frith at University College London has been studying autism for 60 years. Commenting on this study, she expressed concern about \u201cdiagnostic inflation,\u201d which has the effect of \u201cpathologizing normal human variations.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a fancy way of saying that Professor Frith is skeptical about whether all these people with autism truly have autism. They may just be normal people who are being diagnosed with autism because they have issues with social interaction.<\/p>\n

I have been a family physician for more than 30 years, and I think Professor Frith has a point.<\/p>\n

Social media is part of the problem. One popular TikTok video, with more than 11 million views, presents a series of statements. If you agree with the statement, then you may be on the spectrum. One of the statements in that TikTok video is \u201cYou don\u2019t like talking on the phone because phone conversations are stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, I\u2019m a family doctor, and I can tell you with confidence that about half of the adults I see would agree with that statement.<\/p>\n

American researchers recently studied 100 popular TikTok videos about autism and found those videos to be \u201cunsatisfactory\u201d and \u201coften misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Researchers have also documented that it\u2019s much easier to be diagnosed with autism today compared with 20 years ago: clinicians will make the diagnosis on the basis of many fewer symptoms.<\/p>\n

But it feels <\/em>good!<\/p>\n

Professor Frith notes that teenagers and adults newly diagnosed with autism \u201coften report overwhelmingly positive effects. They state that the diagnosis explains their lifelong struggles and liberates them from self-blame. In this way, the label itself can be therapeutic without any formal treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s not to like? Where\u2019s the harm? Why is this a problem?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a problem because it turns normal human variation into a diagnostic label.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on the spectrum<\/em>\u201d is so much cooler than \u201cI have trouble making friends; I feel myself to be awkward socially<\/em>.\u201d It also shifts responsibility.<\/p>\n

If I say \u201cI have trouble making friends,\u201d then maybe I should do something about that. Maybe I should make more of an effort. But if I say \u201cI\u2019m on the spectrum,\u201d then it\u2019s not a problem anymore. It\u2019s just who I am. It\u2019s not going to change. \u201cNeurodivergent\u201d is now part of my identity.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

In the new edition of my book \u201cBoys Adrift: The Six Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men,\u201d I explore the rise in psychiatric diagnoses in the United States. I cite a report from the CDC showing that 23% of 17-year-old American boys have now been diagnosed with ADHD, and the great majority of these boys are on medication.<\/p>\n

As recently as 1987, the official estimate of the American Psychiatric Association was that ADHD \u201cmay occur in as many as 3% of children.\u201d<\/p>\n

So we\u2019ve gone from 3 out of 100, to nearly 1 in 4, in 40 years.<\/p>\n

Resist the temptation to medicalize, to pathologize, to put a diagnostic label on who you are.<\/p>\n

If you feel uncomfortable talking on the phone, if you have trouble making friends, don\u2019t label yourself as being \u201con the spectrum.\u201d Find the courage to try, to make an effort, to be more human. You can change. I\u2019ve seen it happen.<\/p>\n

Leonard Sax, MD, PhD, is the author of \u201cBoys Adrift: The Six Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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In another 20 years, we\u2019ll all be on the spectrum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nI'm on the spectrum \u2014 and so are you! Definition of autism so broad that it's meaningless - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=8127\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I'm on the spectrum \u2014 and so are you! 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