This post casts British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, as the King Canute of the realm. The Autism Tribune argues that he has failed to understand the tsunami of disability that is sinking the nation. National and local government budgets are tied up meeting the rising costs of disability payments and it is not sustainable. Government needs to address the causes of the problems. Cutting entitlements and the benefit rate will do nothing to stem the rising tide of demand. Just as Canute recognised one thousand years ago, there is power in having advisors who tell you the truth.
When the truth comes out about the Autism epidemic and what`s causing it, this may be remembered for centuries to come.
We could have nearly 2 million young people harmed just in the UK alone over the last 30 years, the problem is it’s difficult to know how deep in mental health terms to the individual the cut is.
There's probably hundreds of thousands to a million young people with profound / severe autism ASD 2 and 3.
I regard anyone with IQ below 70 ( approx 40% of autism diag from CDC stats ) to have severe disabling autism regardless of the new profound term so that’s normally ASD 2&3.
However ASD 1 or Asperger's is no walk in the park with many crushing mental health problems of its own, many have even more hidden symptoms like the shy intelligent neurotic teenage girl with an eating disorder who is being assessed for ASD.
The 25 year old man with serious depression & poor social skills.
Where does high functioning Asperger's end?
When the dam bursts and the truth is known it will be like a social nuclear explosion, so much so that authorities will probably try to control or restrict the flow of information to the public or quietly make changes
Its personal for millions of people , not on the tv but someone’s child, brother , cousin etc.. , its difficult to judge how things will go from there.
Even those with mild autism & mental health problems will be very angry & want to have their day in court.
The scale of the damage is very wide as you say - and lots of people don't connect their milder immunological problems to vaccines (eczema, asthma etc as I had as a child) let alone the obvious neurological damage that has been done. People are often remarkably accepting of what has happened to them and their family. The experts tell them that this is normal and they accept it and make the best of it. I understand this - it makes for a much quieter life - but it is impossible for me and many others - like you - to do. Once you realise what is happening you see it everywhere and the full impact starts to sink in.
It also becomes imperative to try and stop it happening before it further cripples our society and even our species. We can already see the costs escalating beyond what is sustainable in the UK. Government need to wake up and do something different before they drown with the rest of us.
'Government' is too busy bailing out the boat to seek and plug the leak. Sadly, the leak will cause the boat to sink soon and then we will all be floundering. (My analogy for the day)
Unless people like you continue to shout out, nothing will be done until we are completely overwhelmed. Keep up the good work.
our sons are the same age, Jane. (mine just had his 'golden birthday' on the 21st of June!) our sons both got Dx in 2008. I've been saying, to myself and to anyone who will listen, that something has to give, ever since. are we finally seeing signs of a new dawn, or just hearing the sounds of more desperate sweeping under the rug?
Happy birthday to your son! And congratulations to you for keeping going and fighting so long. It's a struggle. I continue to pray for some sanity to arrive - what else can we do?
Realistically, while low-functioning ASD seems to be more recognized and treated, higher (as opposed to high) functioning ASD students are more likely to be left to fend for themselves, except for parents who can finance costly specialized help.
Nevertheless, if it’s feasible, parents should avoid enrolling their high-er functioning (as opposed to high functioning) ASD child in regular, ‘neurotypical’ grade school. Why? Because sound mental health as well as physical security needs to be EVERY child’s right, especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter; a world in which Child Abuse Prevention Month (every April) clearly needs to run 365 days of the year. And not being mentally, let alone physically, abused within or by the educational system is definitely a moral right.
Therefore, the health of all children needs to be of real importance to everyone — and not just concern over what other parents’ children might or will cost us as future criminals or costly cases of government care, etcetera — regardless of how well our own developing children are doing.
Many people still hold a misplaced yet strong sense of entitlement when it comes to misperceiving children largely as obedient property to misuse or abuse. ... If survived, early-life abuse and/or chronic neglect left unhindered typically causes the brain to improperly develop. It can readily be the starting point of a life in which the brain uncontrollably releases potentially damaging levels of inflammatory stress hormones and chemicals, even in otherwise non-stressful daily routines.
It amounts to non-physical-impact brain damage in the form of PTSD. Among other dysfunctions, it has been described as an emotionally tumultuous daily existence, indeed a continuous discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’. For some of us it includes being simultaneously scared of how badly they will deal with the upsetting event, which usually never transpires.
The lasting emotional/psychological pain throughout one's life from such trauma is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside one's head. It is solitarily suffered, unlike an openly visible physical disability or condition, which tends to elicit sympathy/empathy from others. It can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is prescription and/or illicitly medicated.
… As a boy (still) with an undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder, my public-school Grade 2 teacher was the first and most formidably abusive authority figure with whom I was terrifyingly trapped. I cannot recall her abuse in its entirety, but I’ll nevertheless always remember how she had the immoral audacity — and especially the unethical confidence in avoiding any professional repercussions — to blatantly readily aim and fire her knee towards my groin, as I was backed up against the school hall wall. Luckily, she missed her mark, instead hitting the top of my left leg.
Though there were other terrible teachers, for me she was uniquely traumatizing, especially when she wore her dark sunglasses when dealing with me. (For some other very young boys back then and there, there was her sole counterpart — a similarly abusive teacher but with the additional bizarre, scary attribute of her eyes rapidly shifting side to side.)
But rather than tell anyone about my ordeal with her and consciously feel victimized, I instead felt some misplaced shame: I was a ‘difficult’ boy, therefore she likely perceived me as somehow ‘deserving it’. I was much too young to perceive how a regular-school environment can become the traumatizer of susceptible children like me; the trusted educator indeed the abuser.
Perhaps not surprising, I feel that schoolteachers should receive mandatory ASD training, especially as the rate of diagnoses increases. There could also be an inclusion in standard high school curriculum of child-development science that would also teach students about the often-debilitating condition (without being overly complicated).
… Mindlessly ‘minding our own business’ often proves humanly devastating. Yet, largely owing to the Only If It’s In My Own Back Yard mindset, however, the prevailing collective attitude (implicit or subconscious) basically follows: ‘Why should I care — my kids are alright?’ or (the even more lamely self-serving) ‘What’s in it for me as a taxpayer?’
Why is there no alarm over always more special needs kids?
Look at what’s happening in Scotland:
In 2025, Scotland now finds 40 percent of schoolchildren have special needs.
In 2023, the Glasgow Herald revealed that 36.7 percent of Scottish students have special needs. https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/23988132.children-special-needs-number-one-priority/
That was up from 34.2 percent in 2022. https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/snp-ministers-accused-shamefully-neglecting-28722232
And in 2024 research showed one in 23 Scottish children had a diagnosis of autism.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24231397.scottish-schools-learned-accept-autistic-pupils/
In 2024 the Wales Mirage announced 47.9 percent of Welsh children have special needs.
https://www.miragenews.com/research-nearly-half-of-welsh-kids-have-1281927/
There are endless stories like this. I post them regularly on Loss of Brain Trust. https://www.lossofbraintrust.com
Councils across England are desperate to find resources to pay for all the special ed students, many with complex needs.
There is no real explanation for why there is always “greater demand” and “more complex needs” beyond claiming it’s due to “greater awareness.”
This is a societal and economic crisis that is only getting worse.
When the truth comes out about the Autism epidemic and what`s causing it, this may be remembered for centuries to come.
We could have nearly 2 million young people harmed just in the UK alone over the last 30 years, the problem is it’s difficult to know how deep in mental health terms to the individual the cut is.
There's probably hundreds of thousands to a million young people with profound / severe autism ASD 2 and 3.
I regard anyone with IQ below 70 ( approx 40% of autism diag from CDC stats ) to have severe disabling autism regardless of the new profound term so that’s normally ASD 2&3.
However ASD 1 or Asperger's is no walk in the park with many crushing mental health problems of its own, many have even more hidden symptoms like the shy intelligent neurotic teenage girl with an eating disorder who is being assessed for ASD.
The 25 year old man with serious depression & poor social skills.
Where does high functioning Asperger's end?
When the dam bursts and the truth is known it will be like a social nuclear explosion, so much so that authorities will probably try to control or restrict the flow of information to the public or quietly make changes
Its personal for millions of people , not on the tv but someone’s child, brother , cousin etc.. , its difficult to judge how things will go from there.
Even those with mild autism & mental health problems will be very angry & want to have their day in court.
The scale of the damage is very wide as you say - and lots of people don't connect their milder immunological problems to vaccines (eczema, asthma etc as I had as a child) let alone the obvious neurological damage that has been done. People are often remarkably accepting of what has happened to them and their family. The experts tell them that this is normal and they accept it and make the best of it. I understand this - it makes for a much quieter life - but it is impossible for me and many others - like you - to do. Once you realise what is happening you see it everywhere and the full impact starts to sink in.
It also becomes imperative to try and stop it happening before it further cripples our society and even our species. We can already see the costs escalating beyond what is sustainable in the UK. Government need to wake up and do something different before they drown with the rest of us.
'Government' is too busy bailing out the boat to seek and plug the leak. Sadly, the leak will cause the boat to sink soon and then we will all be floundering. (My analogy for the day)
Unless people like you continue to shout out, nothing will be done until we are completely overwhelmed. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Greg. The leaks are already underway as you say. I fear there is no end in sight.
absolutely!
our sons are the same age, Jane. (mine just had his 'golden birthday' on the 21st of June!) our sons both got Dx in 2008. I've been saying, to myself and to anyone who will listen, that something has to give, ever since. are we finally seeing signs of a new dawn, or just hearing the sounds of more desperate sweeping under the rug?
Happy birthday to your son! And congratulations to you for keeping going and fighting so long. It's a struggle. I continue to pray for some sanity to arrive - what else can we do?
Realistically, while low-functioning ASD seems to be more recognized and treated, higher (as opposed to high) functioning ASD students are more likely to be left to fend for themselves, except for parents who can finance costly specialized help.
Nevertheless, if it’s feasible, parents should avoid enrolling their high-er functioning (as opposed to high functioning) ASD child in regular, ‘neurotypical’ grade school. Why? Because sound mental health as well as physical security needs to be EVERY child’s right, especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter; a world in which Child Abuse Prevention Month (every April) clearly needs to run 365 days of the year. And not being mentally, let alone physically, abused within or by the educational system is definitely a moral right.
Therefore, the health of all children needs to be of real importance to everyone — and not just concern over what other parents’ children might or will cost us as future criminals or costly cases of government care, etcetera — regardless of how well our own developing children are doing.
Many people still hold a misplaced yet strong sense of entitlement when it comes to misperceiving children largely as obedient property to misuse or abuse. ... If survived, early-life abuse and/or chronic neglect left unhindered typically causes the brain to improperly develop. It can readily be the starting point of a life in which the brain uncontrollably releases potentially damaging levels of inflammatory stress hormones and chemicals, even in otherwise non-stressful daily routines.
It amounts to non-physical-impact brain damage in the form of PTSD. Among other dysfunctions, it has been described as an emotionally tumultuous daily existence, indeed a continuous discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’. For some of us it includes being simultaneously scared of how badly they will deal with the upsetting event, which usually never transpires.
The lasting emotional/psychological pain throughout one's life from such trauma is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside one's head. It is solitarily suffered, unlike an openly visible physical disability or condition, which tends to elicit sympathy/empathy from others. It can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is prescription and/or illicitly medicated.
… As a boy (still) with an undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder, my public-school Grade 2 teacher was the first and most formidably abusive authority figure with whom I was terrifyingly trapped. I cannot recall her abuse in its entirety, but I’ll nevertheless always remember how she had the immoral audacity — and especially the unethical confidence in avoiding any professional repercussions — to blatantly readily aim and fire her knee towards my groin, as I was backed up against the school hall wall. Luckily, she missed her mark, instead hitting the top of my left leg.
Though there were other terrible teachers, for me she was uniquely traumatizing, especially when she wore her dark sunglasses when dealing with me. (For some other very young boys back then and there, there was her sole counterpart — a similarly abusive teacher but with the additional bizarre, scary attribute of her eyes rapidly shifting side to side.)
But rather than tell anyone about my ordeal with her and consciously feel victimized, I instead felt some misplaced shame: I was a ‘difficult’ boy, therefore she likely perceived me as somehow ‘deserving it’. I was much too young to perceive how a regular-school environment can become the traumatizer of susceptible children like me; the trusted educator indeed the abuser.
Perhaps not surprising, I feel that schoolteachers should receive mandatory ASD training, especially as the rate of diagnoses increases. There could also be an inclusion in standard high school curriculum of child-development science that would also teach students about the often-debilitating condition (without being overly complicated).
… Mindlessly ‘minding our own business’ often proves humanly devastating. Yet, largely owing to the Only If It’s In My Own Back Yard mindset, however, the prevailing collective attitude (implicit or subconscious) basically follows: ‘Why should I care — my kids are alright?’ or (the even more lamely self-serving) ‘What’s in it for me as a taxpayer?’
Another celebrity moron trying to hijack a serious disorder for attention or sympathy.
"Gregg Wallace's friends claim autism 'stopped him wearing underwear'
https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/gregg-wallaces-friends-claim-autism-10335254