How do you accept yourself and recieve treatment?

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Hi!

If there was a pill to treat the autistic disorder would you recommend it or take it? I wonder if my identity would disappear with the autism. Would it be suicide or would I become more myself? The autistic disorder blends with my identity -and I'm on this planet to stay for the mean time.

On one hand the autistic disorder causes problems and I seek "treatment". Treatment not acceptance. I guess treatment is by definintion the contradiction of self acceptance. Not accepting myself brings shame for the things I say and do. These are the things that need 'treated' or removed from this world.

Do you struggle with acceptance and wanting cure?

Cascade

I accept that there is no more a cure for autism than there is a cure for having freckles or being tall. I can look at how the individual parts affect my life and try to compensate for the ones that I can. When it comes down to it, I am who I am.

It seems to me that most forms of self improvement could be seen in (at least) two ways: "treating" a problem, or maximizing one's potential. In some cases, the person in question is doing one, in others, the other, and in some, both. Join a gym - are you fixing a problem or fine tuning your physical status? Plastic surgery - same question. Quitting smoking? Same. Either way, though, you have to consider whether the benefits outweigh the price.

First off, I am not formally diagnosed, so I'd have to address that before I could possibly be considered for such a hypothetical treatment. Assuming that hurdle was overcome - which I think would not be insurmountable, assuming a competent diagnostician were available and I chose to consult them - I would need to know a great deal about what, exactly, the effects of the treatment would be.

Would I lose my ability to enjoy solitary activities, instead requiring constant companionship and external stimulii? Would I lose the ability to focus on something intensely, or to be fascinated by the detailed veins of a leaf? What about my, admittedly odd, sense of humor? Or the way I can interpret things in a non-standard way? Friends are precious rarities to me, and when I make one I cherish them. Would I - could I - feel the same way if I had dozens?

A lot of questions I'd need answered before I could answer yours. I certainly wouldn't be first in line, I know that.

I don't know. If there was a pill, and I took it, and it worked, then I would still be me, and I would still have the lack of social skills I came in with, but from that point on, I would learn "social" much faster and enjoy doing it. How can I be sure that hasn't happened already?
I suppose by my tiredness after a few hours with other people.

Yeah, I struggle.

I do not seek treatment for all parts of my autism and that is to me what allows me to accept myself. I do not spend my life trying to be an extoverted party animal or telling myself there is something wrong with myself if I do not . I do however try to minimise the effects my condition has on my ability to live the life I choose to live. I do need assistance with many things and that is fine. I do see a pscyhologist and an occupational therapist and they are helping me with things I think are issues for me. I do not want to be "cured", but nor do I want to have all the problems I do have, and that is the way I look at it. For young children there is nothing wrong with parents doing what is needed to support the child to be comfortable living in the family, etc. When you go to the extreme of trying to force them to do things they are not comfortable with, and not allowing them to do things a bit by bit, I have a problem with it. Helping with issues surrounding the condition to make it more tolerable to live with, is not seeking a cure.

There are people who are paralysed and spend the rest of their lives trying to learn how to walk again to the detriment of everything else. Others simply get on with life and make the most of what they have left. Sure many of them would willingly walk again if possible, but they are not going to put their lives on hold waiting for it, while they can be out there living as a disabled person.

I wouldn't take the pill or want to be cured. I do have my own therapy that comes in the form of WrongPlanet. This site is the only therapy that I feel I need.

Welkome to WrongPlanet.

The WP Kink

I am deeply suspicious of anything that would alter my neurology.

I have more than autism rolling around up there, and I don't want to mess with any of it. I wouldn't mind having improved executive function and less sensory sensitivity, but I don't want to rewire my brain to do so.

I could not say that better if I tried!! I would love to have less sensory sensitivity more than anything else and that is what I need help for and do use treatment for, but I have no intention of rewiring my brain to do it, I am me as I am and Autism is me!!

Many of the people I know who are mentally ill feel the same thing. I know people with scrizophrenia who are quite comfortable with the voices they hear, and while they are more than willing to admit that not all people with the condition feel that way, they do not see when they are not hurting anyoone and not hurting themselves why they are not allowed to have them??

Why not both? I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive. I accept who I am, yet I'm also in therapy. A chance to change the things that make life difficult seems to me like a chance worth taking. I want to continue to grow and learn throughout my life, and therapy is one way to do that.

Admitting I sometimes need help, and being willing to accept help (like, recently, deciding to take my therapist up on the offer of having a case manager accompany me through some medical hassles instead of going it alone as per my usual) didn't change my "wiring" at all; I'm still Aspie! But it definitely made the whole process a little easier!

And really, when it comes down to it, life itself changes all of us; it's inevitable. But it needn't be chaotic, un-reflective change. When done with help from a good therapist, it can be conscious, intentional change; using insights I've gained from therapy helps me see ways I can handle day-to-day issues better on my own, and it does not mean I lose my soul, or my self.

At this point, my experience with therapy tells me it's made me more myself -- & more accepting of myself; Asperger's and all -- not less!

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