Opinion – Vanessa Ziotti: The hype of the uninformed

Until the 1980s, autism was considered a disorder acquired through the influence of the environment, specifically because of the “refrigerator mother” – a subject now rehashed in a column by Luiz Felipe Pondé in this Sheet (“Autism diagnosis has turned into a hype-style trend,” 8/28). By the way, here’s a tip. Choose the content you consume better – this is an extremely sexist, misogynist and capableist bias, as if the woman had failed in the only mission she has in life: caring.

A study published by the academic journal JAMA Psychiatry in July 2019 confirmed that 97% to 99% of autism cases are genetic in origin, with 81% being hereditary. Two reports from the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) deal with the prevalence of autism. The first, from 2016, pointed to 1 child with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) for every 54 children up to 8 years of age. In the second, carried out in 2018, the CDC suggests that there are 1 in 44 children (2.3% of this population), an increase of more than 22%.

The conclusion of the studies: The increasing numbers of autism cases are due more to greater identification and improved diagnoses than to an actual change in prevalence. In other words, there are no more people with autism: they are just being diagnosed more and better. This “fad” is a constant and collective struggle so that people with disabilities can exist, have access to health, education, the job market.

This fashion is about waking up every day and thinking that it could be our son in that Federal Highway Police van where Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, 38, died of asphyxiation -Genivaldo was neurodivergent, one of our cool crowd- simply because the agents didn’t know how act to approach a person with a disability (and many of them are unaware of law 13.146/2015, the Statute of Persons with Disabilities).

Our biggest crusade is in promoting the awareness of the population with shallow knowledge, like Mr. Pondé, who believes in the “refrigerator mother” theory, of the mother who doesn’t love and pushes her child away. It’s amazing how a theory from 1947, which ties with flat earth in terms of veracity, can be aired in a vehicle of national circulation.

I, a female born in 1989, started talking at six months of age, I was treated as anxious and depressed for 33 years, but really, anxiety and depression were just comorbidities associated with autism and ADHD. Hyperactivity) – never diagnosed and properly cared for, masked by “high skills” for three decades.

TV series like “An Extraordinary Lawyer” (Netflix), as much as they reinforce stereotypes that “autists are geniuses”, are important because they bring representation and, perhaps, disturb part of society that, like Mr. Pondé, do not believe that people with disabilities can occupy certain spaces.

According to Mr. Pondé, being autistic is “in fashion” – what is this fashion where 80% of parents leave home after their children’s diagnosis? Does the columnist know that autistic people who depend on the SUS are waiting six months in a queue to spend with the neurologist? Who do 20 minutes of therapy at Caps and are discharged to make room for other patients, since there is not enough room for everyone? Will mr. Does Pondé know the fashion of the mother who cannot work formally so as not to lose her BPC (Benefício de Prestação Continuada) and thus support an entire house by herself? Imagine if the essayist discovers that in our “wave” there are autistic children without a place in public and private schools because “it’s too much work”.

The new hype, mr. Pondé, is not being autistic, but spreading disinformation, with a sexist and capableist bias, based on the “voices of the head” institute.

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