Since the interview

I've done nothing but ponder on the words of that doctor the other day, who though the number of autistic people was 'crazy'. His facial expression and sniggering made it clear that he also found it amusing.
My thoughts are as follows. I don't believe that there has been a sudden outbreak of autism. Nor do I believe there is an epidemic. I have come to the conclusion that ASD is nothing more than a way of being human. It stands to reason that there must always have been a substantial number of individuals with autistic brains.
The ASD stuff in itself is not a handicap to start with. It can have certain advantages over non-autistic thought, for example the higher than average intelligence which is necessarily part of the diagnosis. I do not see it as a medical condition, in the sense of it being an illness or disorder. The difficulties we experience are social ones. Society at large requires us to conform to its own standards. We are expected to fit in with it. My experience is that any mental health issues arise out of the struggle to conform.
Numerous images flash through my mind; the autistic caveman sitting apart from the group, thinking and pondering, trying to understand his world. The recusant who refused to attend church, as society's laws compelled him to do. The heretic who set himself apart from society by saying that he did not believe in that which he was required to believe. The wise woman on the edge of a village, living on her own and tending her plants. Jean-Philippe Rameau, highly intelligent and well-read, who preferred to avoid the company of others, and composed into his eighties. (I do not know whether Rameau was autistic. It doesn't matter one way or the other. It is just the image of him that came to mind). The comedian, who makes everyone laugh but is himself sad and isolated, and quite ill-at-ease in company. All the 'eccentrics' who have contributed so much to the world, and who have never quite fitted in with it.
Anyone who thinks that autism is a new thing, an epidemic or an illness must be either ignorant, blind to the facts, or a complete idiot. Or incapable of accepting difference.