Autism used to be something that almost no one had ever heard about. ADD and ADHD were also in that category of things that no one had ever heard about.

When I was a kid in the 80’s, people didn’t have ADHD or autism. They were just weird or behaved poorly. The hyperactive kids would get scolded by teachers, who would send comments out to their parents to complain about how poorly behaved they were. Autistic children were called retarded because they couldn’t figure out how to fit in and behave “normal.”

I don’t think they’re becoming more common, they’re just diagnosed more frequently because there has been a lot more research on the topic and people are more aware of them