It is great that more people, particularly women, are able to get an autism diagnosis these days. It was far too stigmatized for far too long. It's still not exactly easy as an adult though #r4today, and it can be incredibly intrusive and distressing when you are diagnosed. 1/
Personally I'm pleased I did get diagnosed and have found it has helped me understand who I am better. For years after being diagnosed though I hid it from myself as much as anyone else. Until then I had always thought if I tried just a little harder to fit in it would happen. 2/
Should be highly interesting to look at the study by University if Exeter, but I am concerned that some reporting on it, such as the negative framing here, is going to fuel claims that "you can't be autistic" if you can communicate or maintain a relationship etc. 3/ 
It's also a risk that you will see even more people claim "we're all a little autistic aren't we". Just for the record, no, no we aren't. Not sure the way #r4today was talking about changing diagnosis criteria will have helped with that. 4/
A better understanding of autism, which leads to more people being diagnosed, is not the same as making out that we're just shifting the goalposts. It means that traits which have always been related to autism are being recognised as such. 5/
Really??? This is exactly what I was worried about. No, more people being diagnosed does not make it meaningless. It means we can access better support, but more importantly, I would argue, we can understand ourselves better and make necessary adjustments to protect ourselves. 6/
Autistic individuals are at more risk in multiple ways, even as adults. Having a diagnosis, for me, was hard at first, but it has helped me to start to put strategies in place to reduce some of that risk. Increases in diagnosis definitely aren't meaningless to those diagnosed. 7/
The people, in my opinion, who make the claims that more people being diagnosed makes diagnosis meaningless are exactly the type of people who think it acceptable to "talk over" autistic individuals and are put out that some of us call out their misleading stereotypes. 8/
Hopefully, this study will help more people to understand and accept autism and how different autistic individuals may have a variety of different traits. Unfortunately, as we are already seeing, its more likely to be used to just dismiss us yet again, and tell us to be quiet. 9/
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