Can people get rid of Autism?

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If this forum had a "like" button *cough*Alex, do you roger that?*cough* I'd like your post. Maybe the problem you had was a lack of confidence.

I am wondering if NT's have a desire to change to become Autistic?

What a dumb question.

There can be no symmetry between NTs and autistics in "having a desire to be the other" for a host of obvious reasons.

First off autism is a disability and being NT is not. So only a hypochondriac NT would want to have a disability like autism.

Second autistics are forced by society to be obsessed with neurology, and NTs are not (because NTs have the normal majority neurology and don't have to think about it)unless they are shrinks who specialize in the topic, or happened to parents of autistic children. Autistics think about the topic of comparing NTs to autistics. NTs never even think about autism, and rarely even understand what autism is, rarely give a damn about what it is, and often have never even heard of autism. So its not even on their radar screen to have feelings about it at all (much less to have feelings of envy about it).

Autistics may actually HATE the idea of being "cured" of their autism just as much as NTs would hate to stop being NT, but even the most anti cure autistic nonetheless has to confront the fact that there are advantages to not being autistic. There is nothing equivalent to that in the NT experience. Granted in SOME fields like computers one could claim that "its an advantage to be a nerd". But Nerd does not equal autistic, and autistic does not equal AI wiz (as some folks seem to think).

Even if Autism was something that could be gotten rid of, I'd never do it. Autism did prove to be challenging earlier on in my life and I still struggle with aspects of it every once in a while, but there's also plenty of positive aspects of it that I wouldn't give up for anything like my ability to retain vast amounts of information on a single topic, my creative mind for when I come up with songs and stories, and higher level of sensory appreciation. I'm reminded of the lyrics to a song I came across last year: "We're not flawless. We're works in progress. We've got dents and we've got quirks, but it's our flaws that make us work". There's a sense of being able to accept who you are, warts and all, regardless of the negative connotations others might try to label you with. While you can't change how people view you, you can change how you let it affect you.

There was a point earlier on in my diagnosis as an Aspergian where I tried to use my "disorder" as an excuse and the demonizing of the condition by groups like Autism Speaks definitely weren't helping. Nowadays, I don't think that anyone should use their spectrum diagnosis as an excuse and should embrace it. I might've mentioned this before in a previous post, but I often think of the movie X-Men III: The Last Stand. While many people point out similarities between mutants and homosexuals (and there are some legitimate points to be made there), I feel like the mutant condition in the movie could just as easily be used in comparison to those on the autistic spectrum or any other minority as well as bring up some very ethical questions on whether a "cure" should be made or even taken. As mentioned before, I'd never do it. My diagnosis is a huge part of who I am and to take something like that away would be to take away part of my personality/identity.

Like most things, autism is a thing with both benefits and costs. If I got a cure, I would be given new benefits and costs and stripped of my old ones, but comorbid conditions like anxiety disorders would require a separate treatment. I have a photographic memory that is not savant-level, but is still there. I can remember some of the exact details of incidents in my life, such as the Wii game I was playing when I accidentally threw my remote and broke the TV screen. This is an advantage to being autistic. With a cure, such advantages would be gone.

Now, intentionally? No. Unintentionally or in the future? Possibly. I think it would involve heavy amounts of strong drugs though. Wouldn't you essentially have to make your brain as plastic as an infant's? (Sorry if I'm talking out my ass, I haven't studied neurology, this is just what I've learnt from the internet).

I sometimes wonder whether I managed to stumble across some sort of half-cure without knowing it because I seem to have changed a lot in the past few years as if some sort of shift happened in my brain.

I don't know what the benefits of my autism are because I don't know what NT me would be like. I don't know how many of my strengths are down to autism and how many are down to my natural personality traits. I doubt a cure would completely cure though, I still have had the past I had and didn't learn the things I was supposed to and didn't have the experiences I was supposed to have.

Possibly, it depends on what caused it whether it was heavy metals / vaccines or not.

No, there's no way to get rid of autism once it manifests. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the microstructure and neural connectivity of brain nuclei. The cortical tissue layering is different in autistics - both the cerebrum and cerebellum, the microtubule structure is affected, and the range of axonal connections is different than in neurologically typical brains. There is no way to reverse these sorts of changes - they are literally different pathways of early neurological development. What can change over time is the formation of neuroplastic tissue that occurs by reinforcement of signaling between brain nuclei - such as happens with exercising the speech centers of the brain for example when an autistic begins to speak. Temple Grandin describes some of this in her book The Autistic Brain and she has had fMRI imaging done that shows some amazing neuroplastic growth of new axon bundles linking nuclei in her brain. I've had a couple of sets of MRIs that show some new tissue formation that goes between left and right hemispheres - when I was a small child I had exceptional difficulty coordinating left and right eyes, using my left and right hand together, walking with a balanced gait, and the like - but over time I've largely overcome those problems. I'm about to turn 61 years old and I've developed certain social skills and have broadened by interests beyond my 'special interests'. My cognitive empathy is greatly improved, but along with language processing, reading people's expressions and body language, understanding metaphor, and so on - these capabilities are still rather 'manual' and take intentional and conscious effort to pull off. These things that are natural for NTs are never going to be just automatic and fluid for me, but I get some enjoyment and sense of accomplishment when I exercise those abilities. It can still be extremely frustrating at times, but I also have considerable strengths and aptitudes that are rare in NTs. I still sometimes wonder how NTs experience the world and social interactions. I'm just on a different path - there's no unwinding my neural or mental development and getting rid of my autism.

I don't want my autism to go away. butttt....God is real. He can heal all conditions, even autism.

This.

There isn't really a cure or way to get rid of autism, but there are ways to adapt. Acceptance is a big part. That helps reduce a lot of anxiety. Also understanding not everyone is perfect, and seeing that no one is perfect and sometimes it is our flaws that make us who we are. Going from that angle helps alleviate a lot of stress, both inward and outward.
Life experiences help us learn what works and what doesn't, both for self and for relating to other people.

I agree with you whole heartily. Without 'us' there would be no gadgets.

One thing that seems very characteristic of people on the spectrum is being stuck in fight or flight response. So by getting rid of that, we can keep the positive qualities of being autistic while getting rid of the negative ones.

I'm noticing a definite improvement with a combination of the right diet, I eat gluten free and vegan, and exercise. I teach yoga, and in the last 2 weeks I've made it my mission to zoom in on my psoas muscle. There's one posture, full wheel, that comes naturally to a lot of beginners but I haven't been able to get into despite practicing more than 10 years. Yesterday I was able to push up into full wheel without help for the first time, it still looks awkward, but it's progress.

In any case, if the psoas is tight, it pinches the vagus nerve, which then keeps you stuck in fight or flight, hence the social awkwardness, meltdowns, etc. Also, if you're stuck in fight or flight, your body is not able to process and eliminate toxins as easily as most people. The increased toxic load then snowballs into more psychological symptoms.

Thus, detoxing is an important part of this too. I'm only 1 month into my journey of using natural methods to help me, and they're definitely helping.

One thing that seems very characteristic of people on the spectrum is being stuck in fight or flight response. So by getting rid of that, we can keep the positive qualities of being autistic while getting rid of the negative ones.

I'm noticing a definite improvement with a combination of the right diet, I eat gluten free and vegan, and exercise. I teach yoga, and in the last 2 weeks I've made it my mission to zoom in on my psoas muscle. There's one posture, full wheel, that comes naturally to a lot of beginners but I haven't been able to get into despite practicing more than 10 years. Yesterday I was able to push up into full wheel without help for the first time, it still looks awkward, but it's progress.

In any case, if the psoas is tight, it pinches the vagus nerve, which then keeps you stuck in fight or flight, hence the social awkwardness, meltdowns, etc. Also, if you're stuck in fight or flight, your body is not able to process and eliminate toxins as easily as most people. The increased toxic load then snowballs into more psychological symptoms.

Thus, detoxing is an important part of this too. I'm only 1 month into my journey of using natural methods to help me, and they're definitely helping.

OK, my phone is being weird, this posted twice and I can't figure out how to delete one of them. Oh well, hopefully many of you can benefit from what I've just typed!