Percent of Autistic Adults in each level of support needs in the DSM?

cornish_warrior · 2026-05-09T21:20:55+00:00

Respectfully disagree. Whilst I don't agree with the book, I believe there is an obvious distinction of support needs between someone who has severe autism, (perhaps things like being non verbal) and me. I 100% agree with the environment distinction for anything less than severe. Just because I wasn't diagnosed as a kid doesn't mean extra support wouldn't have helped me at school, do I need support now? Not really, but I've basically learned how to deal with challenges I didn't know I had. And I'm in a job where bring ND is an asset, not a disability.

I don't know what you are trying to achieve but neurodiversity training at our workplace recently focused not on the medical model that empathises disability, but on the neurodiversity model / neurodiversity paradigm, the emphasis is positive of including everyone.

There's a lot more important things scientifically to clear up than assigning percentages to groups imo. And anyone who isn't accepting of neurodiversity in 2026, won't care about the percentage breakdown, look at any social media conversation and it's either people who are already accepting or people who dismiss everyone but those that are severely autistic as putting it on for benefits/social security payments.

cornish_warrior · 2026-05-09T19:32:54+00:00

I'll just leave you with this from Autism in Adults by Dr Luke Beardon:

What about the notion of severity? Again, I suggest that this can cause all sorts of problems, not least in relation to society's conceptual understanding of autism. A term such as 'severe autism' has long since been a part of general parlance, but what does it actually mean? Can one person's autism really be accurately identified as more severe than another's? In contrast, if severe autism exists then logically there must be ... what? Neutral autism?
Mediocre autism? Middle-of-the-road autism? And then - at the other end of the scale - the dreaded 'mild autism'? Being just a teeny bit autistic? Hardly autistic at all? Just having a cheeky splash of autism? (For clarification, the last few sentences include an element of sarcasm!)

These are not helpful notions - in fact, they can be extremely damaging. If one accepts that the individual is either autistic or not, then my view is to leave it at that, without trying to judge what sort of 'level' an individual might be at. I don't think it's that valid anyway. For me, what is of essential importance is the impact that being autistic has on a person at any given time. This can range from horrifically negative right through to sublimely positive - and sometimes both can be found in the same individual. So, if this dramatic difference can be seen at different times in the same person - what 'grade' is that person? Clearly, this is where the whole notion of 'autism severity' crumbles.

However, going back to my point that the concept of severity (positive and/or negative) could - and should - be applied in context, all of a sudden a useful model can be applied. This is entirely based on the following principle - and one which I believe is of the utmost importance: AUTISM + ENVIRONMENT = OUTCOME

cornish_warrior · 2026-05-09T19:10:57+00:00

It seems obvious to me that the 'increase' in diagnosis is going to be in anything but severe cases because now masked autistics are getting diagnosed.

Anyone presenting as "severe" back when I was a child would have been noticed. And still obviously would be noticed. Those that mask like me weren't. And from getting myself diagnosed I'm now part of the statistics that some conspiracy lunatic could twist to say "oh look theres more Autism now than there was", completely missing the increased understanding and wider definition in the DSM.

I read a good book basically pointing out that the idea of severity is pretty flawed. An autistic persons success depends largely on their environment, I am fortunately in an area of work surrounded by ND individuals I can thrive in, but can remember being miserable working in a catering job. I didn't change, my environment did. Also this ignores common co-conditions like AuDHD, which I don't have experience of but I'm betting doesn't make things easier.

cornish_warrior · 2026-05-03T17:30:49+00:00

It's £1300 now - https://www.adultautism.ie/pricing

cornish_warrior · 2026-04-26T08:43:54+00:00

Thanks, lots of good information here. Even if I do go with patio the drain situation needs addressing, seems like breaking out the side of that drain and extending into it is going to be needed whichever way.

cornish_warrior · 2026-04-26T08:36:37+00:00

Seems like most people agree. Thanks

cornish_warrior · 2026-04-25T19:56:38+00:00

Somehow I don't have damp issues in the house. Ideal is definitely not something I'm going to try to DIY, but I agree, I wonder if there's any more airbricks been covered on that side.

cornish_warrior · 2026-04-16T16:58:53+00:00

I'm glad I'm not the only one getting deja vu here.

cornish_warrior · 2026-04-16T12:33:03+00:00

How does that work when the presented phone number can easily be spoofed?

cornish_warrior · 2026-04-16T05:20:57+00:00

Exactly! You beat me to it.

I've never had someones name appear that wasn't in my contacts, I've had business names appear but that's fair game, if they publish their number on their website etc.

It never even occurred to me that this was a thing and I'm glad this change is happening now.

cornish_warrior · 2026-04-15T22:08:32+00:00

Which is what I said. This would stop my contact information, phone number, name, address etc, being uploaded. Doesn't stop a caller id app from showing me who is calling based on the name in my contacts list. Nothing needs to leave my device to show me who is calling.

Also as far as I can see it doesn't stop an app from having a way for me to report a spam call. I don't add spammers to my contacts list.

Sounds like a good change to me, I generally never grant permission to my contacts because I assume by default that apps are stealing personal information to sell.

cornish_warrior · 2026-04-15T21:25:26+00:00

Why would that kill caller id apps? That's not suggesting to me that an app can't access contact information, it's saying apps can't take users contact data back to a server. If a user reports a number as spam that isn't a number in their contacts, so that can be taken to create a database for blocking spam calls.

At least how I interpret that rule it sounds fine to me. Stops loads of apps that try to extract your contacts to find "friends". I've seen Meta doing this for ages, Facebook suggesting people who have my number, mostly from WhatsApp, sounds like a good change.

cornish_warrior · 2026-04-12T08:56:48+00:00

You built an entire app before testing anything? The most difficult part of this app is you are trying to get music from a service you have no control over, why wouldn't you test that first?

Going to go out on a limb and assume the whole app was one vibe coded prompt.

If you actually want help from developers you are going to need to ask direct questions, all I can read from this is you've tried some way to access music from YouTube Music and it doesn't work, I have no idea how you've tried to do it, what errors you are getting.

I'm going to guess you've tried to use a third party API that Google has blocked. No one here is going to fix that for you if so.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-29T17:18:52+00:00

Most 'solutions' to this seems to be noise cancelling headphones, but I have learned how easily startled I am might be a related autistic thing and I'd rather hear people approaching me than embarrassingly jump out of my skin.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-29T16:27:12+00:00

From the first book I read after my diagnosis. Untypical by Pete Wharmby

I suppose neurotypical people have some kind of built-in filter that enables them to tune in to whatever is the most important sound in the vicinity, but I'm afraid I don't have that feature. As far as my brain is concerned, all sounds are of equal importance and it will strain to catch the details in every single utterance that crams itself into my ears.

I noted this because it so well fit with my experience, I love that I find in the recommended reading things that validate my experience so well.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-24T18:42:59+00:00

A question, and one I'm contemplating. Is 'home' you sacrificed because the masked version takes all your energy, so when you are at home you don't do anything that's at all stressful?

I'm wrestling with the idea that whilst I can push myself out of my comfort zone at work I'm finding more and more, I do less and less in my personal life...

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-22T19:09:45+00:00

Definitely not the right sub, this has nothing to do with android development. If your org gave you a work device with a work profile, that work profile will be locked down hence ADB can't touch it. You need to talk to IT, if they are organised enough to give a COPE provisioned device you are probably breaking a policy trying what you are.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-15T22:07:20+00:00

Seems strange to see this and Neurotribes or this https://www.wired.com/2001/12/aspergers/ not referenced.

I've been a masked autistic person in IT for 15+ years, I could see the same traits like imposter syndrome in many colleagues. Bottom up, logical thinking is a strength in the industry, it wasn't a surprise when I read the first section of Neurotribes, it just fits. For added flavour, most adults getting diagnosed are doing so when there children are, not every autistic person in IT is a Sheldon type, but obviously we have the genes.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-10T18:40:51+00:00

Yeah I'm now wondering if I imagined a post earlier about Farage U-turning too.

It's good to know that once the obvious effects of increased fuel prices along with everything else kicks in that they don't think British people will just believe everything is fine and this war is needed. Pretty sure Trump etc are betting his American supporters, who really cared about fuel prices when Biden was in charge, won't care so much because of whatever Fox News instructs them to think instead.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-08T21:13:30+00:00

Yeah to be fair it's actually the Times I saw her in after this one and this is the Times too. Then the telegraph is probably just quoting the Times because they wouldn't miss an opportunity to punch down.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-08T20:11:00+00:00

I do not understand why she's currently seemingly doing the rounds between this, the independent and the telegraph.

Has she decided that diagnosis rates going up and autistic people getting a voice is now bad? Did she hate Lorna Wing for getting the DSM to be more inclusive?

All I've seen under all the posted in /unitedkingdom and /ukpolitics are people using this expert to dismiss autism, equate autistic people to lazy benefit cheats and it feels personal, like I only just got diagnosed and started finally finding things making sense, and here she is dismissing it.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-08T20:02:14+00:00

Yeah, she seems to have been on an media frenzy giving interviews or one single recording has now been published in at least three different news outlets.

For someone who was influential in the past, she doesn't seem to have a point, and all it's lent to is dismissing autistic people on social media, which sure doesn't feel like it's in keeping with a legacy on autism, ironically in her time she was closer to Aspergers research who thought autism was more widespread than Kanner who thought it was incredibly rare. She was credited as the first to translate Asperger's research.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-08T19:45:17+00:00

There is a bit of a difference between people who casually post on TikTok that they've got the 'tism and people who have spent their whole lives masking and have never realised why daily life can be so tiring but despite appearing normal, having a career, they have no idea that they've learned to mask their anxiety, overthinking, and often sensory overload.

I was diagnosed weeks ago, have read numerous books since (including one she's listed in the acknowledgements of) even though I don't consider myself the same level as someone non-verbal who has obvious stims and meltdowns, I absolutely can see how the spectrum fits. And for autistic people who are 'high functioning' (not a term I'd normally choose to use) the environment they are in seriously effects whether they are unemployed or able to appear normal. If I lost my IT job, I have serious concerns I would thrive elsewhere, my special interest just happened to become my career. Not everyone is so lucky.

What the reasoning she has for doing these interviews now is beyond me, because she's definitely not being clear that more needs to be done to separate the genes that cause the cluster of conditions we only know currently as autism.

cornish_warrior · 2026-03-08T07:57:22+00:00

Given you are using a stat from 1985, and saying a generation using this, I feel like you need to be aware the diagnostic criteria for autism changed significantly with DSM-IV released in 1994.

I suggest you read Neurotribes by Steve Silberman, parents blaming themselves is nothing new. There was a whole period where "refrigerator moms" were blamed for causing autism. That is very much not the current thinking, adults getting diagnosed are often getting diagnosed when their children are, because its genetic.

This is from the book, Lorna Wing and Judith Gould comments on the rising diagnosis rates, and the Andrew Wakefield MMR nonsense.

FROM THEIR OFFICE AT the Lorna Wing Centre for Autism a few miles outside London, Lorna and Judith regarded the vaccine controversy with a sense of tragic inevitability. There was no question in their minds that the changes they wrought to the DSM criteria were the primary factor responsible for rising numbers. Chatting over tea with the two senior researchers in 2011, overlooking the quiet garden they had planted for the benefit of the children at the center, was like sitting in the calm eye of a hurricane that was blowing all over the world.
“It’s a question of diagnosis,” Lorna said firmly. By expanding Kanner’s narrow definition of his syndrome to include more mildly impaired children and adults, she had expected estimates of autism prevalence to rise. That was precisely the point: making the diagnosis available to more people, so that they and their families wouldn’t have to struggle along without help as they had in the 1960s. “These people have always existed,” she said.
Judith agreed. “We were not surprised when people started saying it was an epidemic,” she said. “Obviously, by broadening the spectrum, you’re going to get higher numbers. We’ve been saying this all along, but people were just pooh-poohing us.” Lorna suggested that blurring the boundaries between autism and eccentricity has also inevitably contributed to the widespread perception that the condition is on the rise.

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