Yes, something is causing it. Definitions.
Autism isn't Autism anymore, in fact it's not even in the DSM anymore. So there's (officially) no such thing.
First there was Autism, then added to it was Asperger's, which is basically Autism light (2 instead of a minimum of 3 qualifying symptoms), then they got expanded into Autism Spectrum Disorder, and then Autism became defunct as a term.
There are more cases because Autism has been expanded in definition. Diagnoses of it has thus increased. It's also become something of a fad, from social media schools trying to make money off of it. The more Autistic students they have, the more funding they receive in funding for Special Ed.
Nowadays, you got the middle school and high school set doing self-diagnosis on social media, taking tests for the Spectrum and proclaiming themselves Autistic so they can become part of the Kool Kidz club.
When I worked as a volunteer and later two jobs in the field of Autism back in the 1980s, whole different beastie. Back then, you were lucky if somebody who was diagnosised as Autistic could even speak, and those they could were rather limited, to, at most, very noticeably stilted. You could tell just from the way they walked that they were Autistic.
Nowadays, what we used to call "nerds" back then, are called Autistic. Yes, shy, somewhat socially awkward people are being called Autistic. Since kids now come from smaller families and aren't allowed to have friends anymore, well they're basically all socially awkward, therefore Autistic.
Autism isn't rising, with number of people calling themselves Autistic are. The fact that they can call themselves Autistic proves that they ain't.
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