A Question For Anyone With Autism/AS.

Post Reply New Topic

No, I wouldn't press the button. There's loads of reasons why I wouldn't.

First of all, I wouldn't know what the consequences of pushing that button would be. I mean, how much of ourselves has to do with genetics and how much has to do with the environment and our experiences? Suppose that every autistic feature is taken away fro me if I pressed the button: sensory overload, all my emotional issues, anxiety, my discomfort around people, etc....

Yeah, it would be nice to get rid of the most disabling aspects, but what if it also takes away the talents I have (which I think are directly related to AS), my obsessiveness (which I don't think is always a bad thing), my perfectionism (which is somewhat related to AS), the fact that I work extremely well individually and am usually super-focussed on everything and can notice details that some people don't notice and my visual intelligence, etc..... I would never go near that button.

I'm not one of those people that believe they can "have their cake and eat it". I don't that I could keep all of the positive aspects and not have any negative aspects. Also, so many people have done so much to make my life easier and I feel like a quick fix is a big middle finger in their faces. I couldn't do that to them.

So despite my anger problems, executive dysfunction, anxiety, my fluxuating self esteem, my black and white attitude to everything, social stupidity and general neuroticsm, I would never press the button. My character will dramatically change if I didn't have these issues and I simply wouldn't be the same.

No. Not for all the money in the world.

It took me years to come to terms with my problems and learn to accept who I am. I got there in the end and soon learned it's not so bad after all. I have a talent for writing, an exceptionally retentive memory and an ability to get worked up over things. After years of struggle, my life is finally beginning to make sense.

Good call.

Just coming to terms with why I am like I am.......so I think my life may change a little for the better through being more aware of my situation,limitations and possibilities.


To press the button now...... Definately not.... I would still be clueless and feel odd as at 62 such a huge change into an unknown me seems too drastic.


If I could have pressed a button to make me "normal' as I young child I think I would have pushed the button to a whole life time in front of me with fewer handicaps.

Let's not limit ourselves to only one button. We should have many buttons and many choices. And we do. We just have to find them. I think it is not an either/or scenario.

But to follow the spirit of this thread - No - I would not push that "take this (ASD) thing away from me" button.

Right now I would like to push a button that would take the ringing from my ears. I know it's somewhere under all the clutter. Now, if I could just find it.

I never know how to answer this question. Sometimes I say no, sometimes I think "maybe". It's too hard to distinguish between what parts are just my personality, and what parts are due to the AS. How much would it really tone down things I do anyway?

I might would do it just to understand why people do things the way they do, and be able to get along better with others, but oddly... I would want to keep my quirks and such. I like my quirky self.

Then I start questioning... if I did know how to get along better with others, would I really want to do so? lol.

It's a really hard question to answer. What exactly would this button remove, or do for us? Since all of us are so different, I think it's impossible to really answer it fully.

Honestly....

If I was 5 years old. Yes, I'd press it. I'm young and have time to have a normal life.

Today, I'm 40. No, I'd keep it the same. I've learned to adapt to life with AS, and as much as I wish I could have had a normal life, at this stage of the game, the magic of going NT offers little to nothing. The damage is done, I've learned to compensate for much of it, and suddenly being NT isn't going to really offer any improvement to justify what I might be giving up.

I have been thinking about that, and I am taking the "maybe" out of my own answer and hanging in with "No!" In the final analysis, I believe what is really needed is a button for fixing social brokenness overall, and not merely this, that or any other single group of people.

No. I wouldn't want to lose my aspie abilities.

Though I would press a button to gain NT abilities.

I would find some way to disable the button first then proceed to press the button for about 4 hours or until something else distracts me. Big red buttons must be pushed and cannot be ignored!

On a serious note; no I wouldn't press the button, I'd probaby blow it up with some type of explosive so that I would never see it again. Sure life was frustrating and increasingly difficult, but that was before I knew about AS. AS gives me a feeling of "I'm going to be okay" when something bad comes my way, a feeling that I didn't have before. I know I can strive in places and situations that normal people can't because of my AS traits (I've been told numerous times that I always do well in high stress situations).

Also, I wouldn't do it because the end result would no longer be me. Maybe I could be the popular high school that everyone loved and went on to be a doctor with a husband and three kids. Or I could end up being a high school dropout who spends her time stripping in a bar and filling her veins with drugs. It's like the chaos theory, if you change one small thing it can vastly change the future. If Aspies never had AS (or if the the magic button existed in the past and was used) the world as we know it would not exist. I am happy with who I am todayand wouldn't want to see a different version of me cuz it could possibly scare me to death.

AW HELL NAWL

I wouldn't press that button at all.... If anyone wants to volunteer, go ahead but for me, I think i'm just happy as i'am... I've realized being normal sucks more... YAY Autism

What a way to jump right in eh?
My answer is YES- because in my mind all things are relative. I am what I am now and I would be something/someone different if I were somehow miraculously "cured" (for lack of a better term). But the point for me is that I would still BE.
Aside from that, what-ifs really hold very little interest for me- they represent a time/place the doesn't exist and therefore require no energy on my part to worry about or think on.

It seems like your the only one who wants to press that button I used to feel like that back in the days, but I just eventually started to get to know myself abit more better by researching and hearing about other peoples experience about it. Eventually I just came across this forum site where i've started to share my experience to everyone on the internet and to the members of this site which did eventually got to me to understanding more about myself.

Maybe later on in your life, you probably feel you might change your mind

No way. In spite of the difficulties that come with being an Aspie, I consider it a gift, rather than a problem.

ruveyn

Thats a tough call. Several items to think about.

1. I am in my 40's. Its probably too late to push the button at this point. I would still be lacking social skills. Its not like all the sudden I am the life of the party. I am probably socially programmed at this point to a large extent.

2. I'm not sure life is any better on the other side of the fence. Let me go through my wife's friends. Ones depressed, ones anorexic, one just had a breakdown..I got enough problems. I'm not sure I want that stuff lumped on.

3. What are the side effects. Does it 'cure' my autism but then leave me a bumbling idiot. You know those commercials on TV for drugs; Side effects may include....................

How about, I let others push the button, wait several years, observe their 'cure' and then make my decision.