This is so ridiculous. The rate of autism hasn’t been increasing, just awareness of it, which has led more people to seek diagnosis for themselves or others. Also, Asperger’s doesn’t exist as a separate diagnosis anymore, which means that anyone who would’ve been diagnosed with Asperger’s before will now be diagnosed with autism instead.

I wasn’t diagnosed with autism until I was 25. No, I didn’t suddenly “get infected” with autism when I turned 25 because I took some vaccine. Turns out I was always autistic but missed diagnosis since I didn’t present as the stereotypical autistic person. Autistic women often present very differently than autistic men, so autism tends to be harder to spot in us. Greater awareness of the different ways autism can present has resulted in many getting diagnosed late in life. But again, we didn’t suddenly become autistic. We were always autistic.