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Sharkey's avatar

There's an issue here that people are simultaneously treating autism as a waste basket category (throwing anything that remotely looks like difficulties with socializing, sensory issues, etc) and wanting it to be a Real Thing. It can be one or the other, that's fine! We can decide that "autism" just refers to a list of symptoms that can be caused by any old thing--autism due to brain cancer. Autism due to being kicked by a mule. Autism due to anemia. Schizophrenia with autistic symptoms. OCD with autistic symptoms. Etc.--or we can decide that autism is a specific set of impairments with a particular cause, like Down's or the flu. What it CAN'T be is BOTH, and that's what trying to redefine WS as autism in order to save the autism/schiz dichotomy is trying to do.

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Craig's avatar

People trying to better understand autism spectrum should be aware of this hypothesis which should be considered as a possible explanation for a subset of ASD.

(scroll to both places TripleTaco shows on the page)

https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2023/09/07/mysteries-contest-winners/

It presents a non-genetic cause which could explain the rise in diagnosis rates.

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