If It’s Genetic, Where Are the Older Adults with Autism?

Remember when anti-vaccine folks used to ask why there were no autistic adults?

“Where are all the adults with classic autism? Where are the hand flapping, head banging, self-abusive, spinning, screaming, rocking, stimming, non-verbal and violent 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 year olds wearing autism helmets and diapers? Where are the grown-ups at the mall experiencing violent tantrums, seizures and GI tract problems?”

Robert F Kennedy, Jr on Is the Autism Epidemic Real?

And we had to point out that there were?

If It’s Genetic, Where Are the Older Adults with Autism?

Well, not surprisingly, they have moved the goal posts.

What’s the new thing they are talking about?

Where are the older adults with autism?

Where are the autistic senior citizens?

“I am different, not less.”

Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947)

They are around, if you look for them.

Are they rarer than autistic children or autistic young adults?

Almost certainly, but that, tragically is because most of them have already died. Sadly, most don’t make it into their 60s.

It is well known that the mortality rates of autistic adults are much higher than the general population.

At least it is well known to those who aren’t trying to push anti-vaccine propaganda and who want to continue to make you think that vaccines are associated with autism.

More on Older Autistic Adults

• Where are all the old people with autism? Most of them are dead. Can we stop denying their existence and start trying to make a difference?
• Jenny McCarthy’s Autism Charity Has Helped Its Board Members Make Money Off Dangerous, Discredited Ideas
• The quest for autism’s causes, and what it reveals about all of us
• Busting Anti-Vaccine Myths While Supporting Autistic People
• Autistic Adults
• VAXOPEDIA – Expert Statements on Vaccines and Autism
• VAXOPEDIA – Explaining the Correlation of Autism After Vaccines
• VAXOPEDIA – Vaccines and Autism Redux
• VAXOPEDIA – What is Mitochondrial Autism?
• VAXOPEDIA – If It’s Vaccines, Then Why Are There Autistic Kids Who Are Unvaccinated?
• VAXOPEDIA – Vaccines and the Latest Autism Prevalence Report
• VAXOPEDIA – Has the Vaccine Court Compensated over 70 Families for Autism
• VAXOPEDIA – Are Package Inserts Evidence That Vaccines Cause SIDS and Autism?
• VAXOPEDIA – How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Hurts Autistic Families
• The Myth of an Autism Epidemic
• New Report on Autism Rates
• Study – Premature mortality in autism spectrum disorder.
• Lara’s Story: Growing Up Anti-Vaccine
• How My Daughter Taught Me that Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism
• Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses
• Where Are All The Older Autistic People? Scotland, For Example
• Doctor’s diary: Why do people with autism die so young?
• Autistic man dies
• Study: Adults with Autism…
• Hard Truths: Disability and Poverty Go Hand in Hand