The notion of overcoming autism

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I have interesting questions that comes to mind about the idea of overcoming autism.

1. Is is that autism is part of who someone is deeply wired?

2. Is autism a bad thing to you or could certain parts of what is known as autism and you be improved?

3. Do you believe it is possible that autism can be removed from you?

4. Are there certain aspects of autism that are things you like and that you wouldn't want changed?

5. Would you simply like to be left alone about it and are in content on being yourself and being happy with what you do and how you are despite a perception that others disapprove of because of autism.

Well as you folks are text on the screen and likely do exist I've found it entertaining. However I am distracted from work. I liked the positive replies and will talk again in the future but cannot spend this amount of time on this site anymore. The last few days it's been thought provoking and there is lots of work to do. I'd like to know of and like to see more advocacy by others and hope they have the willingness to go offline. Consider witting books together to make a collective statement about A.S \ Autism and advocacy issues. I think that there is a vast array of opinion and differing realities in the autism spectrum. Who really can figure it out but I'm very interested.

Nathan Young

I'm somewhere between the two extremes (assuming I have AS - I'm not diagnosed yet but it looks very likely that I have it).

On the one hand, I want to be accepted for who I am, complete with my dislike of family duties, parties and noisy people, my preference for analysing things logically and in depth, my need to get away from people sometimes, my need to have things explained to me clearly, etc. etc.

On the other hand, over the years I have learned to compensate (to some extent) for a lot of my AS traits, even before I knew they existed, and I'm happy to continue doing that, to a certain extent. Not all the dismissive behaviour of NTs towards Aspies is caused by sheer cruelty on their part, often it's just that the NT is judging us by NT standards - how can we expect them to help us if they don't understand about our differences?

Generally, if I feel the rest of the world is letting me be who I am, I want to try to fit in better. If they're putting pressure on me to fit in, I just feel resistant:
The sunshine of a kind and gentle manner will sooner lay open a poor man's heart than all the threatenings and force of blustering authority
http://www.litscape.com/author/Aesop/Th ... e_Sun.html

My opinions...

1. Yes, autism is an ingrained component of a person affected by it. While symptoms can be adapted and skills learned, there is an inherent difference in how one sees the world.

2. Do I get frustrated with aspects of who I am - the challenges with people, overstimulation, peculiar behaviors? Yes. Do I think I am a bad person, or it is a bad thing to be who I am? No, not hardly. What doesn't work, I strive to adapt.

3. No, I do not believe it can be removed.

4. I like myself, despite my shortcomings. I like the facility in music and math that I might not otherwise, but there is no guarantee that these are the result of my AS either.

5. Yes - by and large, I do just that.


M.

I'm perfect just the way I am.

Yes. I am assuming that when you say "wired" you mean the brain. Well it goes beyond. It's your whole body that is autistic. Your stomach, your muscles, your skin, everything has to change before a cured state becomes selfsustainable. That's why people who get cured for short periods of time (fever effect) quickly drop back into autism, their bodies + habits were still autistic. I'm also assuming that when you say wired you mean the current state of things, as opposed to "genetic". Autism is not genetic, is just the way your body/mind is currently "wired".


Yes, its bad. None of the supposed benefits of autism that anticurebies throw around withstands deep analysis.


Yes. At what price, remains the big question.


Oh i'm writting a book... i'm just not on your side...

According to research it is "hard wired" in the brain. In a more metaphorical context: My autistic trail a part of the way I act each day, I analyse the world surrounding my and myself. It effects my whole existence and my understanding of my existence as whole. Prior my understanding of being Austic I was aware that I am different, since my very early memories, but the knowledge of being an Aspie and knowing what me different from the majority of people put this into place.



It is a double sided coin: Some the trails helped a lot in my life, perhaps helped to survive existential crises; but the same trails brought into this crises. It starts with job and goes via relation ships. My strengths, based on the fact being an Aspie, also my weak sides.



I wouldn't be myself.



I am running around with my character since more than 40 years - I don't know how it would with an other set. Therefore I can't answer.



I amde my adjustments regarding the "rest of mankind"; I maintain my contacts, but mostly I am happy of being for myself.

You are in a very deep state of denial, friend. With a huge emotional hangover waiting for you at the end. Good luck with your 'cure' fantasy.

Autism is not a disease bacterium - it's a genetic condition. If you were born with only one leg, you could will yourself to grow a second leg as hard as you wanted for as long as you wanted - you'd still need some sort of artificial assistance to walk, until the day you died.

1. Yes, autism is inborn.

2. It's not really "bad" to me, but it's "bad" to many other people. It's easier for me to simply control the more overt behaviours than it is for me to have no inhabitions, and be ridiculed and ignored. That, and if I hope to graduate, maintain a job, and live independantly, I need to get over my tendancy towards inertia and learn to be more active.

3. No, autism can't be "cured" through current medical means. It would require dangerous, experimental brain surgery that might be more risk than it's worth.

4. I wouldn't want my personality to be mutilated, so I'm fine with certain aspects of autism. Even the less socially acceptable aspects, just as long as I keep it in private.

5. In a perfect world, I would be happy as a clam to just do what I felt like at the time. But this is the real world. In the real world, people like me are expected to work for a living. If you aren't obviously physically or mentally incapable, you are considered "capable". And you know what? I believe that I'm capable!

My parents and grandparents have invested too much into me and my education for me to sit around, doing nothing and collecting welfare.

Well, yeah, it's how our brain works. Yes we can learn social skills and some of us are very well adapted, but our brains will still be wired in the same way.


To me it isn't bad nor good, it just is. Although it can be a nuisance at times.


I don't think you can, well as long as brain transplants aren't invented anyway. If there was a way, like a magic pill, I wouldn't take it.


Thinking alot, also the amazing like-minded friends I've made. don't know what else because I don't like or dislike any of it, it also depends on the situation, there are times where my traits can be a good thing but others it could do with not being there.



Yes, I don't see why I should hide it all the time I am me. But sadly the world doesn't work like that and people will always prefer the social butterflies.

For me, it depends on how one defines autism. Does autism mean meeting the diagnostic criteria for autism, or for a PDD? Or is autism the innate deep traits that those who meet the diagnostic criteria have?

From my own experience of who I am, and my life, I am very aware both of of the innate nature of autism, and how life experiences can affect how autistic one is. Some of it is deeply wired. Some of it is an interaction of that deep wiring and our experience. I used to have no friends. Now I have lots of friends of varying degrees. That deep wiring (I like that wording) didn't change. But some experience related wiring did. I learned I am good. I learned there are people who like me as I am. I learned to appreciate the social skills I have. And I found a social situation that allows me to be me and be accepted and liked.



Depends what we look at and call autism. The lack of friends, lack of social life, for me, was a bad thing. And, yes, that was an autism thing. But, I'm not bad, or defective, or anything. The autistic things that are innately, deeply a part of me, those aren't bad things at all. Good and beautiful in their own way. And, if I'm following what is meant there... the lack of friends before is something that has changed for me, where life has improved. So, yes, some of those autistic things that aren't so good can improve, at least for some of us, some of the time.



If autism means meeting the diagnostic criteria, then, in some cases, yes. But, I see autism as having autistic traits. Not a have it or don't. Someone may become less autistic, but they won't get rid of autism all together.



Number one for me on that, that it's helped me to live my life being who I am, rather than trying to be who others want me to be.



I've only once had someone else observe and comment to me that I was acting, showing myself to be, autistic or aspie, and that was here on this forum. So, when others have disapproved of me because of who I am, what I'm like, it's not like there was a label to go with it. I think, I want to be treated as an individual. And I am happy being me. Not sure if that answers the question or not.

Now, to go back and see what others wrote.

It seems to be that way, yes.

I can only speak for myself, personally, when I say that there are certain traits I see in myself that I associate with autism, that at the same time I feel would be better off suppressed. For example, the tendency to lecture, or jerk violently when touched in the back. I believe I am much better at suppressing these traits than I was ten, or even five years ago.

No, but I also do not believe it is impossible. Either way I don't think it would make much of a positive difference to me to have autism suddenly "removed", if only because I'm doing OK at the moment and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I can't say for certain if there's any one personality trait I'm proud of which I can specifically credit to autism.

I'm quite happy to be left alone about it. But not only that, I don't think most people especially disapprove of the way I behave, especially since most of my less socially acceptable traits from when I was younger have been largely suppressed, so I don't really think much about that aspect.

Autism is an integral part of who I am. It is literally how my brain is wired. You cannot separate me from my autism.



Autism is neither good nor bad--it all balances out. There are some parts I wouldn't miss--the trouble communicating, the messed-up social interactions, the lonliness...etc. But other parts I wouldn't trade for the world. And you can't have one without the other.



Nope.



I like being hyper-connected. I like being able to process so much. I like my obsessions, and the way I view the world, and how much fun I can have with my brain. I like seeing the inconsistencies of humanity.



I don't understand this question. I like people, and I want them to like me. But I manage well on my own. And I would never stop acting autistic just to please someone.

What right do you have to tell us that Autism isn't beneficial to us? Can you get into our minds and see how we experience the world? You have no way to know, and no right to talk about things you don't know.

Autism is a part of who you are, but since autistic people are so diverse, autism really can't define anyone, any more than being male or female could. Autism to me is neutral; sure, there are drawbacks, but there's nothing wrong with being bad at something or having problems coping with some situation or sensory input. And since it's part of how I think, I've learned, over the years, to do a lot of things very well--and the methods I use to do them are very much intertwined with autism. I use it to my advantage. It's very much like how a neurotypical person grows up; only they don't have to think about it so much--they use the way their brain works to learn information and develop skills. The only difference is that the world is made for neurotypical people, since they're in the majority. It isn't made for me; and that means I've had to spend some time sorting out the strategies that actually work for me, instead of being presumed to work because they work for the majority.

Asking to "improve" or "remove" autism would be like asking to improve or remove a basic part of how my brain works. All that time spent learning to do things would be wasted. I'd be back to square one, having to re-learn them. If you think of how I think and how I learn as a building, then autism would be some ingredient of the concrete that forms the foundation. You can't remove a particular kind of sand from the foundation without removing a lot of other things, too; and you can't remove the foundation without damaging or destroying the building.

I've spent a lot of time building that house, and it suits me, even if it may not be the kind of house that a neurotypical might build. Maybe the kitchen's cramped or the living room needs more windows; but it's my house, I've built it, I live in it, and you really can't change the foundation without tumbling the whole thing down.

Learning new skills and improving on old ones makes sense to me; but I've got to learn them the way I'm meant to learn them, and use them the way that's easiest for me. I want to improve myself--to become a better, more skilled autistic person--not to become neurotypical. Splash some paint on; cut some more windows; install nicer bathroom fixtures... it's still the same house; the foundation's still there. If you try to build off the foundation, you'll just end up having things tumble down. You've got to use what you have; otherwise what you build just won't work.

That's not true: I can't speak for those with those with severe trails, but my Autism enables my to analyse and memorize vast amounts of data in a very short time. It also lead to my ability to see issues from an other viewpoint than other, going into much deeper analysis of the underlying problems. It forces me to work extremely accurate.

but you don't know if you would still be that way without autism. people here tend to demonize NTs, but i've been out of here for a while now... and they are not the evil monsters i was told they were. you are suggesting NTs can't analyze and memorize vast amounts of data in a very short time and i disagree. they can see things from other points of view and work accurately too. I have somewhat changed my views in the last two months, i would admit a few benefits to autism, mainly when it comes to playing chess, but overall, wrongplanet's lists of benefits always come from underestimating/demonizing the abilities of NTs.



oh i know what i'm talking about
you on the other hand... can you get into an NT mind and see for sure if life would be worse without autism? you have no way to know do you? but i won't question your right to talk about things you don't know, we all have that right.