A Question For Anyone With Autism/AS.

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If there was a big, red button you could press that would remove your Autism/Asperger's, would you press it?

Personally, I don't think of AS as a disease. I think of it as more of a personality thing. It doesn't inhibit my social skills, in my opinion, but it does limit the amount of "empathy" I can show towards others. So, I wouldn't press it. Because it doesn't define me or limit me - it just makes up a part of who I am.

Would you press it? And why?

this has been asked a thousand times on this forum; some of us would because they're still very young and want social acceptance. The rest of us say "no".

If it were temporary, then yes.

I would make someone else press it in order to verify its functionality.
But beyond scientific interest, I would have no interest in such a button.

I like this question.

I would press a button that would take me back to age 4 in the 60's, but to a parallel universe where gifted children could ALSO be 'on the spectrum'/disturbed/asocial AND AS was already very well established and understood.

I would be referred to someone who wasn't a drinking buddy of Maslov and who didn't dismiss highly abnormal behaviour as a natural response to gifted children being bored.

I would have probably enjoyed school and would have pursued an undergraduate course more in keeping with my natural aptitude.

I would almost certainly have been a better husband and father but it isnt too late to still be a great one, some day

I would NOT want a cure as I love my ability to 'spot' things and my natural curiosity, which remains almost child like to this day.

I think being a bit unconventional might have contributed to me working as an independent consultant (and I love the freedom that gives me).


In summary and in my case, I think the benefits of my impairment outweight the disadvantages.

With earlier diagnosis and guidance, those disadvantages would probably now be even less of an impairment.

Never, the pro are too much for me.

No.
Now that i've been diagnosed with AS i can look at all the autistic traits i have, and i can clearly see how many problems it's caused me throughout my life. Constantly feeling disconnected from everyone else, not knowing why social things don't just magically fall into place for me like they seem to for everyone else, being blind to authority and social "order," not being able to have normal interests because one or two things completely consume my thoughts, the sensitivity i have always had to things(which was especially problematic as a kid) and the way my parents always said that i must feel things differently from other people, how repetitive i get with certain things, being unable to organize any aspect of my life without assistance, and even some of the OCD-like traits i had when i was younger. ALL of that i can see is, in some respect, due to being on the spectrum. This has made me feel alone and like i, to put it plainly, don't fit into the world.
But, this is how i am. If i were different, i would be a different person... and, even though these things have caused me great difficulty, i like who i am. In fact, i think more people should be like me. I might not pick up when someone is feeling bad or what to do in response to how they are feeling, and i might go on too much about myself and things that i like in conversations... but i try my best to help others and show that i care to other people whenever i can, in whatever ways i can. In my own ways, i think i'm often even more considerate than most NTs i know(maybe it's because i actually have to put thought into it?). I think i have a good sense of humor, even if it is sometimes offbeat. And i think i usually have a more realistic and logical way of thinking of things than most around me, even if i can't always get those ideas across really well. The whole idea of pressing a button and being different doesn't really make that much sense to me, this is the only way i know how to be. I'm just me and that's that.
I do wish i had more actual friends, though, and that people would just be more accepting of eccentricities and easier to get along with. I also wish that there were more spectrum-y people living near me, because i find that other socially inept people are much easier for me to go up to and initiate social conversation and stuff with. You can that there aren't a bunch of complicated social expectations there, and it's just much less confusing overall. There are a few NTs out there who don't always have complex expectations, like or at least tolerate oddness, and can be easier than most to talk to also, though, and i'm glad for that, or else i wouldn't even have the friends i do have.

If pressing the button took away the physical pain in my mind (which are caused by my difficulties in life and so largely autism) then yes.