The increase in the diagnosis of Autism and other Mental Illnesses

 

Graphic shamelessly stolen from the Feral Irishman. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the content.

Many people observed the increasing rate of autism and noticed the increased number of vaccinations given to children.  At one time, many/most vaccines were stabilized with mercury compounds and mercury is toxic to brain tissues. They put two-and-two together and arrived at a logical conclusion. The theory was that the additional mercury was causing the autism.

I want to offer another possible cause for the 65-fold increase in the rate of diagnosed Autism in the United States between 1980 and today. Not that I totally disagree with the vaccination hypothesis but because there are some issues with the stream-of-logic; for instance, mercury is not used like it was back-in-the-day so it is unlikely to be the causal agent.

The hypothesis that I offer is that the modern educational environment is so toxic, especially to boys who run afoul trying to conform to the Byzantine social norms. It does not help that some teachers and administrators are virulent feminists who see normal boys and their latent masculinity as pathological specimens who need to be "fixed".

A diagnosis of Autism give the boy a get-out-of-jail free and satisfies the virulent feminists. The boy does not get permanently expelled and gets future "accommodations" under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The feminists get their beliefs validated.

Similar themes play out in the work-place. Hostile Workplace Environment claims force workers into a defensive posture. Going to a Mental Health Professional and getting a "diagnosis" might be the only way to save one's job after a tiff with a Woke colleague. It is a bit like the defensive "castle move in chess" where the normal rules of how pieces move do not apply for one move.

I DO believe that there are more mental/emotional health issues out there because the command-and-control structure demands that workers deny reality and offer not viable way to address frictions. But the increase rate of diagnosis is driven more by the need for workers and students to defend themselves in the bath of vitriol and toxins that the Woke movement created.

Progressives will claim that the Woke movement does not create a toxic environment but fixes it. That is undoubtedly true for some people and some classes of people but it is done at the expense of others.

The old open-door, chain-of-command system required that good-faith efforts be made at the lower level before it was escalated. That meant that the two parties in conflict had an obligation to resolve the issue before invoking anybody else. The Woke process seems to involve immediately running to Human Resources and filing a complaint with the "aggressor" being hauled into a kangaroo court where he is whacked with a predetermined ruling.

Shortly before I left the work world, two people were conversing and a third person walked behind them. The third person heard a fragment of the conversation and filed a complaint with HR. The person who was speaking (a supervisor) was removed from her job and assigned to another production plant.

Just. Like. That.

I am thankful that I am no longer in the work environment. It became a nightmare where rules changed daily and the threat of termination hung over my head for even the most arbitrary or capricious of reasons without any regard of my productivity or economic contribution to the enterprise.

I doubt that I am the only person who felt that way.