U.S. Autism Rate about 1 in 150

Three different people sent me links to this story, so obviously, it’s blog material. The CDC announced yesterday that there are more people with autism than they originally believed. In fact, one out of every 150 American children have autism, making it a urgent public health concern.

These numbers are based on five-year-old data (2002), and frankly, are no surprise to most families raising autistic children.

"This data today shows we're going to need more early intervention services and more therapists, and we're going to need federal and state legislators to stand up for these families," said Alison Singer, spokeswoman for Autism Speaks, the nation's largest organization advocating more services for autistic children.

This is no surprise to families with autistic children either, especially those families trying to get therapies through early intervention and school systems. Hopefully, though, reports like this will spur legislators to allocate additional funding for research and services.


Self-Injury By Teens Becoming More Common

A national study found that 17% of students surveyed at Cornell and Princeton (not sure how that constitutes “national”, but that’s what it says) cut themselves.

The problem has become so commonplace that school districts around the country are increasing staff training for dealing with this hard-to-understand phenomenon.

“It’s a sick way of coping,” said Gary Blount, a psychiatrist at Allina Behavioral Health Servcies in St. Paul, MN. “There’s an addictiveness to it. It makes them feel better, but then it bites them in the butt. They shamed by it.”

Studies show that a large number of teens who harm themselves have suffered trauma, such as physical or sexual abuse. But there’s an emerging group of self-injurers who are high achievers. Doctors believe the key is not having the right coping skills for the amount of stress.