Will AS disappear in the future?

Post Reply New Topic

I do kinda think the more people learn about AS the less dismissive they'll be of people who have it.

I think, too, that they will become aware of insights we have into things that they are unaware of and may actual value us.

It could potentially save a lot of relationships if people just looked into what it meant ahead of time.

I think in the past mating was a communal responsibility. Often people were joined by arranged marriages and children were expected of every couple. However, as we move forward, mating becomes an individual activity, one at which people with AS are generally bad (due to deficiencies in courting and understanding behaviour). There are much fewer arranged marriages, and aspies aren’t good at finding mates. So it seems to me that gradually the AS genes will be removed from the gene pool and fewer and fewer occurrences will be encountered. I think the fact that mating was a communal responsibility accounts for why we made it thus far. In the future I expect our numbers to dwindle. Do you think this hypothesis is correct?

If it is correct it makes me very happy. I don’t want others to struggle as I have. I think my father has AS (worse than me actually) and if he had refrained from procreating I would not have had these problems. That does not mean I don’t want to live, but I think procreating when one has hereditary defects is immoral and irresponsible. I would never procreate as I do not want to spread defective genes into the gene pool. It is completely irresponsible. Dwindling numbers of AS sufferers makes me happy. Do you agree?

I know there is an increase in the cases of AS but I thought that was the result of poor diagnostic tools/knowledge until fairly recently.

I think it is true that people on the spectrum are less likely to reproduce once finding a mate becomes entirely up to the individual. As for relatives, it is true that they can carry the genetics but they are less likely to have children with AS than the person who actually has AS (as I understand genetics). And relatives of people with AS have a higher score on the spectrum (on average) than the general average, meaning they have some symptoms. That in itself would presumably make them less likely to procreate. Even if you only removed the people with AS, isn't that fewer afflicted genes than there were before? I am arguing for a gradual decrease not an immediate disappearance.

Well, let's see... I've been kicked out of school, fired from a job, evicted from an apartment, bullied, abused, and generally mistreated because I am different.

My autism did not force people to do those things to me. There is absolutely nothing about my awkward, eccentric appearance, or my deficits in both communication and self-care, that mind-controls NTs into being absolutely bigoted jerks. They make those choices themselves.

Autism is my everyday normal. I'm used to sensory overload, difficulty with socializing, and even shutdowns. I have those problems, and for me they are average everyday problems, like getting stuck in traffic or having a computer crash and erase your nearly-finished term paper. They are annoying, but they are not tragic. Disability is my normal. If I lived in a world where I am considered an equal, that would be all that's left. These everyday annoyances, the loud noises and the social cues flying over my head, the difficulty with living on my own, all of that, would no longer be seen as tragic. In a world where disabled people were accepted as equals, people wouldn't pity us, nor deny us work or education, nor expect us to stay hidden and not show our faces in public, nor think it's "understandable" when we're abused or killed by the people who we should be able to trust.

Ask somebody stuck in traffic whether they're suffering, and they'll probably say no. But it's still a pretty unpleasant experience, isn't it? They're late to their appointment, they're bored, they're annoyed at that guy who just edged into the empty spot they wanted; maybe they have to use the toilet and there's none in sight. It's about as unpleasant as your average sensory overload. So why are autistics "suffering", and people who are stuck in traffic aren't? The only difference is that the annoying, painful, or frustrating parts of living with a disability are things that most people don't experience. But instead of seeing them as annoying, painful, or frustrating parts of everyday life, people see those things as completely different, in a world apart, as though we're not quite human and our lives must be so much worse than theirs could ever be, because they don't know that for us, it's everyday normal. That's where the fear, pity, and even hate come from. They see us and they think our lives are horrible, and they pity us, and they fear becoming disabled, and if they give in to that, they start thinking of us as not quite human, dangerous, inferior, alien beings who are burdening the world by our mere existence.

Hyena, there are too many variables to say for sure - but why is this an issue in the first place? There are numerous parents and grandparents on this forum to say that yes people with Aspergers can find someone and have children with their partners.
Agreed Callista.
And what matters is how you choose to live your life, whether you have Aspergers or not you decide who you want to be. I know of a great many people and types of people without Aspergers whom the world could do without. The biggest trouble with Aspergers is the label itself being stigmatised by other people, instead of being a means to find ways to cope with certain deficiencies it is seen as 'some parts missing' and thus 'broken' and inadequate/useless - which is most certainly not the case. We are not a disability, we are people.

I actually think the opposite will happen.

The three adult Aspie's I know of are all married or have been married and have children. The state of the marriages is another thing entirely, but the point is they were able to have children. And with AS and autism in general having a genetic basis, even the children that are born NT still carry the trait and since they are more likely to marry and have children, there is a good chance that one of their children could have it, and so on.

Personally, it would devastate me if AS ever disappeared. It's a hard thing to deal with, yes, and right now it sucks in a lot of ways, but I like the way I think and I like the way I'm able to view things in ways that I know my peers have never even considered. We have an enormous amount of potential whether it's realized or not. Honestly, I think that eventually (a long, long time from now) people with AS or AS traits will be the majority.

Regarding it being more common, I believe it's just that it's becoming noticed more.