Autism Insanity: The It's Gotta Be Genetic Model of Autism

"It's crazy that in this debate, we're still debating whether autism numbers are actually going up or not, which is insanity to me. It's people desperately clinging to this belief that autism is genetic, that it's always been with us at this rate, that we're just better at counting it, better at diagnosing it."

David Kirby, 'Evidence of Harm' revisited, Part 2, The Bloomington Alternative, January 10, 2010

Kirby has hit the nail on the head with this remark from his interview with Steven Higgs at the Bloomington Alternative. Teresa Binstock identified the "It's gotta be genetic" mindset of understanding autism and funding autism research over a decade ago and little has changed since then.  The failure to challenge an entrenched almost cult like belief that autism is genetic, it just has to be genetic, has cost another generation years of potentially productive autism research and possible treatments and cures. The same "autism is genetic" cult followers, having held back environmentally focused autism research,  then point to the absence of scientific study results identifying environmental factors in causing autism as proof that autism is genetic. Sounds like insanity to me.

autism