Why so much opposition to curing Aspergers?

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Well what makes you think a cure would give you a better life? Not having aspergers does not automatically improve your life. One of my main reasons is its just not very practical/viable, I feel like there would be more chance of being made into a vegetable than a fully functional neurotypical since they would likely have to attempt t surgically rewire the neurology or try to genetically alter us or weird things like that. Also I know in my case a lot of what has cause me misery is how I have been treated by others...if it wasn't for that I could be a more functional autistic maybe wouldn't have developed the depression and anxiety. I imagine it is possible people with autism could have better lives if they where treated with a bit more understanding and had access to support/resources rather than all the stigma for being different and treatments meant to just mold us into what we aren't.

Also though neurotypicals can have mental illnesses, they can fall into bad situations....be akward, not have any friends end up homeless. Its not like we could be turned neurotypical and everything would just fall into place...in my case I'd still have depression, PTSD, and anxiety and just be neurotypical...and since I am used to having autism trying to figure out how my new neurotypical mind works could be stressful on top of those.

I'm not opposed.

I've been on these forums for 2-3 years now.

In January 2014 I shared my story of what I learned and have done to treat my ASD & comorbid symptoms, naturally, with great success. I've reduced my symptoms by ~95% and am living a second life for it - happier, healthier, wealthier etc. Many here didn't/don't believe me, others are simply opposed because they fear change & fear losing their "identity" should their autistic symptoms be reduced or eliminated.

The pros are things like engineering abilities. We all know the obvious cons. In my case, I still get the benefits of the pros and have shed the cons for the most part for a win-win.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like to read what I shared about my treatment protocol (Diet, intestinal cleanses, probiotics etc.) that's changed my life significantly for the better.

^ it is more a lot of people do not believe changing your diet and consuming pro-biotics to solve gut issues changes autistic neurology into neurotypical neurology and thus will rid us all of our autism. I personally do not doubt the changes you've made have reduced your more difficult symptoms or comorbids....but I would doubt their your neurology is now 95% neurotypical because of it as it doesn't work that way. Just to clarify not all of us who disagree with that notion do so because we fear change or losing identities.

If articles I've read are true, then our brains are physically wired/connected differently than the NT brain-map. That can likely never be changed as the connections were made either during fetal development or childhood growth. I have never said, ever, that I believe I now have NT neurology nor that I've cured myself of ASD - only that what I've done is an effective treatment with miraculous results that are allowing me to live a second, much better, life.

However, it's been my experience that we can greatly enhance the functioning of our brains. Just like pharmaceuticals can alter brain chemistry via changing neurotransmitter levels, changing probiotics in the digestive system changes the functioning of the enteric nervous system & in turn treats ASD symptoms. The best I can figure is that probiotics behave like neurotransmitters in the gut. Without them, signals don't fire properly and aren't sent to the brain to get it to do it's thing properly & boom, ASD symptoms. After all, there are more signals sent from the gut to the brain than from the brain to the gut... which is why the gut is now being called the second brain. Medical science is only beginning to understand the importance of all of this.

There's also the fact that we're made up of roughly 110 Trillion cells, only ~10 Trillion of which are human. The other ~90% of us are mostly bacteria, and most of those reside in the digestive tract. Medicine has focused mostly on the human cells forever, not realizing the importance of the other 90% of our makeup.. the symbiotic beings that we are, comprised mainly of bacteria. If those bacteria are far out of balance, then we as a human being are far out of balance. Sort them out and we function much better. I'm living proof whether you believe me or not.

I did you haven't replied.

Why do you care so much for playing a rigged game? Why attempt to win a rigged game? Is your own self so worth sacrificing in order to compete? That's Faustian, you would undo yourself for material/social gain. Is playing a rigged game even moral? Certainly cheating a rigged game isn't necessarily immoral - it is the game itself that is ultimately at fault. Would you accept the fault that belongs to the game for the game (and thus perpetuate the game further and help the victimization of other players*) and at such a cost?

If you accept the cure, you accept the leveling nature of society and the state. You have already given away your life on a silver platter. The destruction of your own being for the mere chance of being replaced for the sake of that which isn't right...

I don't know about you - but I am, I require nothing more to justify my own existence. Kierkegaard would view you as an inferior being, even subhuman, for seriously considering such a cure. You would accept such a leveling.

(*A fundamental right of the human is the right to their own mind, a cure would inevitably cause many people to have this right violated. Not to mention the incredibly likely prenatal elimination programs that will occur prior to an actual cure for adults. )



What misery? The misery that Aspergers gives or the misery you give yourself? You have already accepted yourself as a waste of oxygen and so you are one. You have already been leveled - a state worse than death itself. You have not accepted yourself, you have accepted the will of others against your own.

Just a note: this thread is 8 years old.

I'm really getting tired of these necroposts. I forget look at the timestamp.

It would be nice if the difficult aspects could be cured while leaving the positives, but I'm not sure that would ever happen. Personally I'm leary of anyone messing around in my brain. Being turned into a vegetable would not be my idea of fun. I do wish I was able to turn off the Asperger's when I need to interact with NT's. I have a hard time passing. I can do it for a little while, but then as soon as I get relaxed then my symptoms are obvious.

You're the second person in a week who's posted and said they've pm'd me, but I haven't received a PM from you. 0 new messages. Must be a glitch in the forum software.

As I've posted about for more than a year now, the treatment protocol I follow (diet, intestinal cleanses, probiotics etc.) has resulted in minimizing the negative aspects yet retaining a bunch of positive ones. I can't think of any positive ones that are gone as there isn't anything I miss and wish would return stronger.

I think it's important in these discussions to be more deliberate with what we're talking about when we say "cure". Depending on the person or context, cure could mean any of the following:

1) A pill taken daily that would mitigate or reduce symptoms, but would not have lingering effects if stopped taking.
2) A medical procedure that would permanently transform you into NT
3) Genetic manipulation prior to, or shortly after conception
4) Testing to identify and euthanize fetuses that would be identified as ASD positive

Clearly, there are very different ethical and practical considerations for each one, even though they could all be considered "cures" on some level or another.

Certainly each one has different nuanced implications.

#3 and #4 should not be allowed, not for autism and probably not for most things. I do not think that humans are capable of successfully harnessing the evolutionary processes - by state or by individual. We'd likely manipulate ourselves to death as a species. The euthanization of fetuses with ASD related genes would also eliminate many genes responsible and associated with the alleged higher tiers of intelligence.
#2 should be a personal choice for an adult, and I'd highly discourage and look down upon those who do that and those that will inevitably attempt to force that choice - which will happen.
#1 is something I have no qualms with, but I think that is unlikely especially in concern to research spending budgets.

Because it's insulting, they say I need to be cured, why? Because it takes me longer to learn? Because I obsess over one thing? Because I shut down if I'm In a bright or loud place for too long? I guess that's understandable...it must seem like a tough life for me from the outside looking in, but personally I don't want to be cured, I would much rather be understood, helped when I need it and showed some compassion and tolerance for a change. I don't feel like I should be "cured" because there's nothing wrong with me, I have struggles like everyone else with or without autism.

I think I generally agree with your thoughts on those. My only point was that when people say they want to talk about "a cure for autism" without saying what specific kind of cure they're talking about, you run the risk of different members of the conversation interpreting that in different ways, and you get people talking past each other.

In general I think most people are probably thinking #2 or #3 when they're discussing a cure. However, I also think they're the least likely to actually be scientifically realized. #1 and #4 seem much for feasible to achieve given the current state of medicine and research. And out of the four, IMO, #1 least fits the term cure. "Treatment" would be much more accurate.

So to me, the only one that fits the term "cure" that I think is likely to be realized any time in the near future is #4. I think if you got a group of people together and ask them if they support euthanasia, they would mostly oppose it by a wide margin. But if you ask them if they support a cure, they all say yes. So my biggest fear is that we end up researching and discovering #4 because everyone wanted a "cure". So they pumped a bunch of donations into the research thinking they would end up with #2 or #3 without ever giving much critical thought to how unlikely those actually were or that their donations could easily be put towards other "cures" like #4.

So the language we use here matters, and "cure" is not really a useful word for most of the conversations that need to be had about how to treat negative symptoms of ASD.