"Cures for Aspergers"

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I was asked by a writer for "successful cures" for Aspergers. To me this is a classic oxymoron. It's like being asked if there were cures for blue eyes. So I asked the Aspergers son. He just laughed. Then he thought about this for a few minutes and said that even if there were, he wouldn't be interested. He explained that he would love to be able to grasp what other people are thinking but he wouldn't choose to lose his ability to solve allegedly unsolvable engineering problems to do it. I heard a man on NPR saying much the same thing. I wonder how many aspies feel this way.

I'm perfect, just the way, I am.

interesting....will check this out
when got more time later

Well,i'm a software engineer and considered quite original and creative by my peers but i'm still very aware of what other people think and why,the difference is that i don't react to other people thoughts and feelings they way i'm expected to so i'm generally assumed to not understand ,but i do,and very well,actually,many times i ignore people because i do understand them and not because i don't.
solving engineering problems and understanding people doesn't feel mutually exclusive to me but i can get why people think of me as a mentally ret*d or sick person
unlike too many NT i can see how and why different people sense reality differently and i'm OK with that,meaning, i don't feel that people who doesn't share me exact sense of reality are sick and to me this altitude is a sign of good healthy mind perhaps some NT would consider to adopt similar tolerance toward the wonderful diversity which is life .

My son is 11 and the other day he was going on and on about his video game,his friend had heard enough and told him " I wish there was a cure for aspergers". My son was in tears. We have always told him that his AS makes him special, he’s a wonderful kid and we don’t want to change him. I ask my son if someone knocked on the door with a pill that would cure AS would he take it ? He said no. I had a talk with his friend and to him he has to accept my son for who he is or don’t be his friend. This is hard thing to say my son only has 2 friends but he doesn’t need a friend who can’t accept his AS it’s all part of the package.

I sincerely doubt that there are any "cures" to Aspergers/Autism. However I don't believe children/adults should live with the comorbids. Anxiety/depression/horrible GI issues can be addressed and should be. My son was pooping 12 times a day and you better believe I got that addressed. He now goes only 1-2 times a day. He was also anxious and I got that taken care of too. I also had him thoroughly tested for allergies because I was sick and tired of him having rashes. He is a happier child now and thus is more social. He still has Autism though but his quality of life matters and so does mine. I also addressed me having intestinal bleeding and endless painful rashes due to food allergies I'm a happier aspie and thus more social. I'm still an aspie though and we are not cured but our quality of life is much better now.

I gather mulling over the pros and cons of Aspergers is a common pastime with Aspies. I often find myself watching my son and seeing characteristics of his forebears. Some were or are supposedly NTs. Then I wonder, are his characteristics just inherited traits that have nothing to do with AS or did some of his forebears also have Aspergers?

Kate and her son could both be aspies but also have Ciliac disease or Colitis. She was wise to deal with these as medical problems. We're all package deals--some parts of us easy to live with--some not. A sociologist friend says, "Even with the largest allegedly random study, always question who are chosen for each study and who is running it. Random is rarely truly random."

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The closest thing I've come across which relates to the concept of a cure/temporary relief of a neurological challenge is finding two books about several FDA approved medicines which temporarily reduce (not a cure) some neurological symptoms for some users (not everyone):

A book by Jack Dreyfus about the epilepsy medicine - Dilantin - (not a cure) - Topic: Epilepsy

A book by C. Thomas Wild about the old medicine - coffee - caffeine compounds (Tirend, NoDoz - alertness aids) (not a cure) - Topic: ADHD Inattentive - Attention Deficit Disorder

With something like Asperger's, it is possible over a very long period of time (decades) for a person to adapt a little to it and to feel that they fit into everything slightly better it seems to me (not a cure but a very slight change due primarily to some kind of learning/insights over the decades).

Interesting. It's scary to think anyone would take Dilantin to help cope with Aspergers. It isn't a benign substance. The only reason I can even imagine that anyone would consider it a help is if they are still dealing with the drowsiness side effects (which don't last when their system acclimates to it.) Ritalin is sometimes prescribed for it's mind damping effect, but like the items mentioned, it doesn't cure Aspergers.

My son has come to grips with the fact that he has a point of view that isn't shared by everyone around him. I would have expected this to make him more tolerant but if anything, it has made him less and less tolerant. I assume this has something to do with his difficulty understanding other people's thinking. I can see that could be scary. It's disconcerting to do and act in a way that seems reasonable to you and have off the wall responses.

I think I would reply "My son would like to know if there's a cure for stupidity"

I once read a book, the name of which has since left me, about a man who found himself traveling to strange lands.

Upon falling down a mountain into a valley he could not escape from, he found a curious village, where the streets were all numbered and the houses had no windows. The occupants of the village, it turns out, were all blind, and had been blind for so many generation, that when they discovered the man's eyes were not sunken in as theirs were, they considered them to be defective and attempted to convince him to have surgery to "fix" the "problem"

Further more, as they were unable to escape their village, or even see it was in a valley and did not comprise the entire universe, they thought the man was "new" in the world and took pity on him for his "ignorance"

Of course it was the man who knew far more of the world than they ever would.

True. Great analogy. There's been so much written about Aspergers, I'm always surprised to find out how many people are still looking for a cure. I suspect even people who can see the benefits of Asperger thinking to themselves or to their child, might love to be able to find some way to turn it off when they have to deal with hard to understand NTs.

I used to be very angry because of that,
especially because the NT's themselves told me again and again that i'm the craziest dude they ever saw but somehow it always turnout that in the long run my far fetched ideas and behaviors turns to magically make the most sense
used to cry because of the injustice of it all because i didn't want to be complimented retroactively
i felt i want to live here and now which is something i was always deprived of
it took me many years to come to accept it
it just the way it is
perhaps some day we understand why

Last edited by nara44 on 15 Aug 2010, 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My son, now 13, decided long ago that he probably cannot separate the gifts from the burdens, and he is very proud of his gifts. Hence, no interest in a "cure." I think that is true for most Aspies, and the reason you see such a strong anti-cure mentality in this community.

But, perhaps, there are individuals for whom the loss of gifts would seem to be a worthwhile cost to the removal of burdens.

Still, we need to separate the burdens that are intricately linked to the gifts, from those that are co-morbid and, thus, could be treated without significantly changing the gifts. Dietary co-morbids, depression, and anxiety seem to fall into that category, and the increased awareness in these areas has improved life quite a bit for many on the spectrum.

I think the correct answer to anyone looking for information on treatment is to be clear there is no treatment for AS, but that there are treatments for co-morbids. In addition, there are therapies to help those with the condition learn to compensate for certain issues or limitations, and to enhance learning in areas that can be significantly more difficult for someone with AS (pragmatic speech, for example).

As for that friend mentioned in another post ... just because a child's AS increases his tendency to over-talk, doesn't mean the AS is a fair scapegoat. The child over-simplified, as kids will. I wonder if a good response is, "if I'm doing something that annoys you, we can work out a signal so I'll know to stop. I have AS, but my eyes and ears work quite normally."

It isn't something I had ever thought about, to prepare our kids for responses like that, but looking back at things that have happened in my son's life the past year, I think it probably is a good idea. Our kids need to understand that their friends are too young to fully understand what the condition means, because just like our kids can't transfer into their shoes, the other kids can't transfer into the shoes of our kids. They are going to get inappropriate comments and responses, and probably should accept that educating others about it is going to be a part of their lives.

I think the only part of a cure I would like, is to not being so socially awkward, I seem to put all people off, but I would
be worried that if this was cured, I would lose some of my gifts which some may be attributed to my social isolation

So you're saying he has to listen to your son talk about his video game over and over just because it's part of him and he has to accept it?

Sorry dude, I wouldn't want to keep hearing the same thing over and over about something and I also have AS so therefore I make sure to not do the same thing to others. My mom used to shut me up about my obsessions because she got tired of hearing them and told me if that is all I talk about, no one would want me around because they wouldn't want to hear it.

Yesterday while my husband was trying to get his medicine, I was looking through a magazine and I come across an add for treatment for people with learning disabilities and it included ADHD and Aspergers and it said it can change your way and help you overcome your learning style. I thought "what is that supposed to mean? A cure and bam you don't have it anymore?"

I think getting rid of my learning problems would be nice so that way I won't struggle and I be able to go to college and won't have lot of difficulty and I be able to be more successful with money and my husband can get a house like he always wanted and I be making a lot more we be able to pay more bills.