The future of Autisim!

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Aspies will always be the minority, but I don't think it'll be wiped out altogether, especially if the perception that Autism is a "very bad thing" is changed by raising awareness in a positive way. Whether the latter will occur is unclear: For every person trying to raise positive awareness there is probably one raising negative awareness or just being plain ignorant. Of course, this doesn't mean that AS/Autism is the best thing in the world and better than being NT, but a lot of people are misinformed. One thing is for sure though - as long as I live, AS will not be extinct.

Autism with functionality is not a disease. It is a genetic variation.

ruveyn

That's also my biggest fear for the future. There will be a scan that will detect autistic fetuses, expectant mothers will squish their unborn autistic children like bugs in every circumstance, and there will be no trace of autism or AS left on what will be this horrible planet. There will be all these perfect children, that have the fierce eyes of a warrior and normal sized bottom lips running around, who will be potty trained by two months after their second Birthday.

People with AS are superior to NTs in many ways. The reason that it is hard for an AS person to function in society isn't the AS itself, it is the NT expectations. These expectations and their resulting psychological and emotional strain cause all sorts of secondary AS characteristics and deficits. If NTs lived in a world which was only filled with As people they would be the ones freaking out and having a host of other problems caused by psychological strain.

The IQ thing is not a "myth". People with AS typically are smarter than NTs on average. People who want to label AS as a disease and want to cure it are the ones who call it a myth.

Temple Grandin was right when she said in a world without autism that NTs would still be in caves talking to each other.

People with As create the world NTs rule it only because they outnumber us. I think NTs are the ones that need to be cured.

I think it was Dick Sobsey (advocate, father of a man with severe intellectual disabilities, and psychologist) who either coined or frequently used the term "eugenocide" for that sort of situation. He has been very active in movements against violence towards disabled people, as well as discrimination, including the idea that it's better for us not to have existed at all, than to exist and be disabled.

(Note for the paranoid: Saying that I don't like eugenic abortions doesn't mean I'd ever try to make abortion illegal, or force a woman to have a baby she didn't want to have. It simply means that I would like a more equitable system that doesn't act to guilt-trip, terrify, and prejudice women to abort if their fetus is disabled. One thing suggested is that any woman getting genetic counseling for Down's syndrome should get to meet people with Down's syndrome and their families in order to find out what their lives are really like, as opposed to what genetic counselors often tell them these days (such as that their lives will be unmitigated hell, which is rarely if ever true, and only being told about what they possibly won't do, without telling them what they possibly will be able to do... etc.).)

There won't be a 'cure' for AS. It's such a wishy-washy definition of a disorder as it stands; you can't 'cure' something without knowing what you're looking for.

Uh.... No it isn't a "myth". Aspies are not smarter on average than NTs and in fact most of them are unemplyed or under employed. THAT is the real fact.

Temple Grandin is full of crap. I work at Intel and have worked in high tech for over 20 years. I can assure you that there are MANY more NTs who are both scientific and creative than there are ASDs. Autism is NOT a pre-requesite to science as she so often infers.

Sorry, but as a "lot" Aspies/HFA/Autism people are in NO WAY more highly productive or better than NTs.

You are wrong. It is as simple as that. Most older AS people are flying under the radar and were never diagnosed as children and went on to live normal, often extraordinary, but strange lives. Those growing up now are being identified where those of us before weren't. I also think most of the people on this site and other AS sites are a bunch of whiners. All of us AS types in 30s and up got by just fine but this new generation are like a load of whiny brats who need to be coddled and it isn't their fault and I hate to say a whiner isn't at fault. Our society has been telling these kids they are broken when they aren't so they are using it as an excuse to not be exceptional.

I know quite a few adults in the Sciences and High Tech fields (I am an Archaeologist) who are most certainly AS but have never been diagnosed. Plus most people I know in these fields are somewhere on the spectrum. Sometimes very low but almost all show signs. They are older and successful and have never been tested and probably never will be. I am only here because my girlfriend recognized my behavioral patterns and told me about AS. Before she told me about AS I had only heard a load of BS about it and the "myths" of how it is debilitating. I even was told that AS makes a person a serial killer because people with AS don't have feelings. That is the real MYTH.

The other real myths are things like people with AS will never have successful relationships, their heightened senses are defects because it makes them sensitive to light and sound. All that is BS. But the intelligence thing is not a myth. I don't think you can even be considered AS with a lower than normal intelligence. That alone makes people with AS on the average more intelligent than NTs.

Last edited by Gideon on 28 Mar 2011, 5:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

Gideon, you have no idea what you're talking about. Quite a few of us made it past our 30s without being diagnosed and did not get by just fine. Even those who did get by did not generally get by just fine. I am glad for you that you got by just fine but do not assume that your life is like everyone else's.

The intelligence thing is a myth. People diagnosed AS at best average a few points higher than the general population because people diagnosed with AS have the same spread as the general population except the criteria excludes anyone with an IQ below 70. That exclusion creates a slight increase.

All of those people you're claiming are on the spectrum likely aren't. Some might be "broad autistic phenotype," some might be gifted, some might be both, and a few might actually meet the criteria for AS.

Also, this post by someone else who went undiagnosed past his 30s, talking about what it was like for him:

http://cometscorner-clay.blogspot.com/2 ... redux.html

More NTs make it into their 30s and are not just fine either. People fail but people did not fail just because they have AS. That is an excuse and a poor one at that.

If you are reading this and young don't listen to these people that tell you that you are wrong and inferior or that you are somehow broken. These people are out to make you a victim and you aren't.

Here is a list of what people are calling a disorder.

1. Higher than normal ability to focus your attention
2. Higher than normal sense of hearing
3. ability to see patterns where others can't
4. Higher than normal sense of touch
5. Heightened ability to taste
6. Often a higher ability to withstand temperature extremes
7. Higher than average intelligence

Those are just to name a few advantages and often the disadvantages are symptoms of being forced to live in a world that is made for NTs rather than AS people. It is like a little person being forced to live in the world of giants. frustration, depression etc.

So don't listen to these people that tell you that you are somehow made wrong.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

(disorder, n: condition in which there is a disturbance of normal functioning)

To the extent that eating/sleeping/bathing is ignored.
Or that other essential things repeatedly don't get done (causing financial difficulties, problems with property, health-related problems etc.)
Or deadlines are missed rather too often because of being stuck in some fiddly detail, resulting in unemployment.
To the extent that many things in everyday life are painful at worst, and confusing at best.
To the extent that I have to specifically avoid certain places, and be careful with what I look at in others. That is, if it's expected or necessary that I won't suddenly 'go away' and drift off.
Or you mean other visual stuff? Oh yes; I've spent many happy an hour arranging things so they're 'set perfectly'. Highly productive.
Or logical patterns/connections? Yes indeed - often so many that I was unable to function usefully with any of them.
To the extent that I feel nauseous when hugged by a loving child, and shrink back from what others would consider normal physical displays of affection.
Oh yes, that really helps me blend in and be sociable.
To the extent that many simply cannot eat some common and good foods.
I wasn't aware I was fireproofed, but I'm not about to fetch a blowtorch and find out.
A myth, as are IQ tests.

Add to this a lifetime of so-called 'depression' and various near-suicidal episodes, self-harm as a youngster, many risky encounters with illegal drugs, a constant struggle to maintain a shell of independence and confidence, ad nauseum.

Hmm well this all seems to be a disorder to me, and as diagnosed, but what would I know?
Yes, there are positive aspects to what you've listed - but you're quite wrong to list them as if they're magic abilities we've been granted and should somehow be grateful for.

And thanks, but I already know I'm neither "wrong" nor a "victim", but I do know that I'm "broken" (if you really want to call it that, and I wouldn't).

You know, being told I was broken over and over again sent me into a depression which eventually trashed the fairly decent life I was making, but it wasn't because I was coddled and told it was not my fault. It was because it was always my fault. If a shrink has said you're the one in the wrong with your relationships, then every one else is a saint for just dealing with you, even when their relationships are woefully inadequate. My childhood ended when I was diagnosed with AS,. So you can F off, frankly, you had it easy.

You have no Idea what you are talking about. You are only interested in Aspergers as a means to live off of welfare and receive disability to you it is a means to an ends.


And none of those problems would exist in a world ran by people with AS. Lights would be at levels most AS tolerate and types of lights like florescent would not even exist except in the lab.

Noises that bother people with AS would be muffled the way that noises that bother NTs are muffled now.

In a As world blending in would be different the expectations of affection would be different. NTs would feel like pariahs for their over arching need to be emotional all the damn time and to read emotional content into every little thing.

As for depression that is a side effect of being forced to fit in. In an AS world Nts would have the same problems these are comorbid problems created by stress and anxiety.

If you read any of the current literature on Apergers you would know that people with Aspergers score uniformly higher in fluid Intelligence and slightly higher in crystallized intelligence. So if you want to argue with the people doing the research go right ahead.

You are wrong. Aspergers is not a disorder it doesn't cause people to fail and it isn't a disability.

You and other here have a vested interest in aspergers being a disability and so you have every reason to shut up people who see it as a strength and you should be ashamed for telling people they are disabled and perpetrating a myth.

So whose fault is it? Huh is it your fault? I was finding fault with the people that told you you have a disability and that your life is s**t. So I am on your side dumbass. You have been victimized not by a disorder but by a society that calls you disabled when you aren't and by people on this forum who feed into the Disabled myth. Those people are the ones that need to f**k off.

I receive neither, and I haven't attempted to receive either.
Now what? According to you I have no other reason to be interested in it, yet I am.

Then you are deluded and in error about aspergers.