What exactly is autism? How is it diagnosed? And why is the number of cases increasing?

A science check by the science.lu team of the Luxembourg National Research Fund.

What do Greta Thunberg and Elon Musk have in common?

They both have an autism spectrum diagnosis. Everyone is familiar with characters on TV like Monk, Rain Man, or Sheldon Cooper.

But they represent a very specific form of autism, formerly known as Asperger's, and therefore convey a distorted image of autism.

They could give you the impression that all autistic people are successful and/or exceptionally clever. While this is indeed the case for a minority, most of them face many problems in their daily lives.

In this episode of “Ziel mir keng!”, we'll explain what autism is and why more and more people are being diagnosed with autism these days. For this video, we worked with researcher Dr Andreia Costa from the University of Luxembourg. She studies how autistic people use ‘masking’ methods to adapt to society. But these often have a negative effect on their mental health. She also researches how this masking contributes to the late diagnosis of autistic women.