"Curing" Autism???

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When people talk about a cure to autism and related "disorders", I want to know are they primarily talking about a kind of "magic bullet" that will turn you into an NT overnight? Or are they simply wanting to only alleviate that major handicaps that autism presents while leaving other non-harmful quirks untouched?

I personally see autism and related "disorders" not as a disease that needs to be cured, but simply an alternative neurological framework that, while innocuous in and of itself and even beneficial in some circumstances, unfortunately bears many incompatiblities with the society that we live in.

So would merely wanting to address the handicaps that autism presents by modifying the behavior of the autist, or modifying the environment to be more compatible to his frame of reference still make me a "curebie"?, or not?

I don't want to be cured as well. But I'm not comfortable calling people curebies or NTs. Heck I don't even use the term Aspie. A lot of my friends are a mix of non-autistics, Asperger's, and LFAs, and they accepted me and each other. And because I was accepted I was able to be among others and get over my own problems.
But I do admit that there are some people that aren't able to follow the same path as I do. Yet the mistake that these cure organizations are making is that they are becoming way too general and one-sided about autistics. They see everyone on the spectrum as sufferers, and I don't think they like any view different from theirs and try to shut us up, even though the irony is that they want others to listen. I don't trust them. And I don't want to sacrifice my identity for their agenda.

I'd rather be human than normal.

try MDMA it's like being cured, see if u like the experiance

I think what people mean by a cure varies quite a lot.

^^ Well everyone knows that E lowers your inhibitions, but you gotta show some proof that it objectively increases your social skills. Not all inhibitions are caused by false beliefs, but then again socializing could be a numbers game so it can actually help you regardless of it's disadvantages.

Still though, it's hard to get solid results cuz of E being illegal. It's gonna be hard to find pure, uncut E on the streets.

It does work better than alcohol though, that's for sure. I guess it's a matter of weighing the loss of inhibitions, to your success with socializing while rolling overall.

PS: Sorry if this post is too confusing, but I just had to bring up all the possibilities I could think of.

I believe that many with ASD do not actually have a "disorder." I think it is archaic anymore to call ASD a disorder. They are just not your average joe.

There may be comorbid symptoms that might be called a disorder (like persistent anxiety). I think many of those symptoms can be dealt with and are a result of our feeling that we are at odd with the world; I'm not a neurologist however.

I don't recommend MDMA or other powerful drugs without professional supervision. There are side effects.

Let's just paint with a broad brush, shall we?

Anybody that utters the word "CURE" is a CUREBIE ! !! !! !! !! !! !!

Got it? Lovely ....................

Well he put quotation marks over disorder, so he probably means disorder from the average person's point of view. But yeah, not a good idea to pop E unless you know your dealer, trust your dealer, and knows where he gets his s**t from. I dunno if there is such thing as professional supervision. s**t's illegal, so it doesn't really make any sense to me. That would be like giving any legal uncut heroin to prevent overdose or to guarantee it's not laced lol.

Last edited by AceOfSpades on 14 Jan 2009, 8:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

lowering inhibitions has nothing to do with autism. zillions of 'normal' people are way more uptight than people on the spectrum with respect to social situations and social interactions.
Not being an 'outgoing social person' is not an exclusive Aspie trait.

Yeah but AS complicates it. A lot of the problems people with AS have aren't only the ones on the list of symptoms for AS, but also problems that make it harder.

No it doesn't. Asperger's syndrome is a combination of 'traits' and 'characteristics' and is not 'who you are' as much as some people would like it to be. I'm a 100% geek, nerd, dork but I don't think I'm that way because of autisim. I'm that way because that's just me. Thankfully I'm autistic so I do have a real life outside of what society thinks about me.

If I had a 'symptom' that my right leg was longer than my left leg I would walk lopsided but both of my legs as individual components of my body would be perfectly 'normal'. I don't know how to explain it any better.

I didn't say it's who you are. AS is the brain structure you're born with. All the one problems, which are learned, can be complicated by AS. Who you are is a lot more complex than just your brain structure and your learned reactions. It's that, plus a bunch of other things...

But anyways, back to my point. Let's say someone with AS has social anxiety. Social anxiety can affect anyone since it's learned, but it can be more complicated for someone with AS. Your typical socially inept person can read facial expressions since that's instinct, but a person with AS lacks these instincts.

They do?

Isn't the whole "cure autism" thing kind of an Americanism at this point? Haven't the EU embraced the notion of a model of neurodiversity?

That's a general consensus amongst the researchers.