Thought experiment: would you mind stepping up in severity?

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Simple question, but one that has a lot of implications of the nature of diversity, disability, disorder, the inherent worth people place on abilities, so on and so forth.

Just say you have AS [or thereabouts], would you mind if you moved to [traditional] HFA (Rain Man level), or if you have HFA would you mind moving to LFA?

I, personally, don't care if I were born LFA.

I wouldn't be me if I was any other way, so the question seems irrational. It's the same as when people tell me I'd 'feel differently about a situation if I were born there'. If I were born somewhere else, I'd have grown up with different values, ideas and influences, and be a completely different person as a result.

So, in answer to the question, I doubt I would still be 'me' to be more severe in the first place. I would be a person who is similar to me in many respects, but more severe.

Yay, pedantry! But there is meaning in there somewhere, I promise.

It depends because as of now I don't have many sensory issues and I wouldn't want that. Also, I don't know if I'd have someone to help me if I had severe ASD. I'd probably mind if I had severe sensory issues or lived in a group home.

However, socially, I wouldn't mind. I have very few social interests, virtually none outside of the internet. Even online, I'm much more into reading message boards than posting.

--This all assumes that my intelligence remains the same.

Thought provoking question - I like myself how I am, but even as it is, I get frustrated.

No, I like where I am at.

Oh my effing god, someone else said the same thing when I asked at ASD Relationships to the people off the spectrum if they ever wonder what it's like to have AS. I also asked if they could have it, would they want it for a few days or for a day just to see what it's like living in a different world.

Same answer as if you were asking if I'd like to be NT: no. I wouldn't change myself in either direction along the spectrum. An LFA, HFA, PDDNOS, NT, ADHD, etc. Aietra simply wouldn't be Aietra any more.

To add,

Your personality doesn't change at all, only the severity of your ASD symptoms.

Probably not...

Well I certainly wouldn't want to have more difficulties. The joy of not being able to talk or the job of having more sensory issues and not being able to go out in public and miss all the fun. Or the joy of having to get so tense over change and freak out because I couldn't take it. Or the joy of not being able to take care of myself and the joy of not being able to type or make posts and the joy of it taking me longer to make a post. Or the joy of not understanding simple questions or words like "pull" and "How was school?" or the joy of not being able to get everything out of my mouth, or the joy of being a black and white thinker and never having any gray areas and being a dumb ass by not listening to people and not respecting their beliefs and opinions and the joy of being so inflexible I am known as bossy and not welcome in friends and other kids houses because I couldn't understand their rules and knew on my own how to act there and the fact I had to touch everything, etc.


No I wouldn't want to go back or have more autism.

I see that as an artificial separation, something up there with "your experiences don't change, only your gender".

Two other phrases of relevance:
Nature versus Nurture
The Law of Unintended Consequences

Last edited by southwestforests on 18 Dec 2009, 2:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't want to be NT and I don't want to have a different kind of autism. I want my brain the way it's supposed to be, not squished into some other shape.

What's with all the "do you want to be different?" questions today?

Something with phase of the moon? It is a new moon. Well, 3% coming out of one.

It must be one of those moments we're having again. There was a "Who's really autistic" debate here last month and now we're having this. I have thought about posting "Would you want to have more autism" but the OP beat me to it. I am thinking about starting a "Would you want to have less autism?" thread and I am thinking of starting another one too.

Ah, but as of current clinical standing, personality and the ASD aren't at all related, barring how the person in question responds to the symptoms.

Callista,

Simple: I just wish to see if people would mind being like them in severity (you know them, the other half of the spectrum who're less...cool than the other half). If neurodiversity is something to be taken without bias, then it shouldn't matter how severe your ASD is to you.

only if it somehow came with advantages.....


I really don't know, frankly....

as it is, I feel pretty dysfunctional, my ability to focus on much of anything important has become increasingly stunted over the years...My stress threshold seems only to worsen and my struggle to maintain my ability to do day to day necessary activities only seems to get harder.

it tends to be very frustrating...constantly being overwhelmed to the point of inertia.

If having my symptoms more severe somehow meant that my life would be simpler and I could spend all my time focusing on my obsessions and wouldn't have to constantly be flung into stressful and unpleasant conditions on a day to day basis...like riding in the car, for example...

Then maybe it would not be so bad.

It would depend somewhat on whether or not I had any sort of support network...

If got to live in a group home, where all I did was sew sock creatures and sing and play the ukulele all day...(provided that an increase in severity would not diminish my capacity to do those things)...then maybe it would not be so bad....

as it stands though...I am in such complete burnout from the sock creatures, that yesterday it took me almost 1 hour to sew the eyes on a morbidly overdue custom monkey, and the anticipation of adding each detail fills me with dread, even though I think about it every day...

Would I give up what shoddy communication skills I have to better able to focus on making monkeys?
Maybe
Would I be willing to give up what meager and pathetic social skills I have to be a better and more focused musician?....sure...

But if I had to compromise all of my functional capacities, I don't see the point...unless with the sacrifice of these capacities I would also lose the ability to care.

Things are hard enough as they are

How does more autism automatically mean all the "bad" symptoms of autism automatically grow by a factor of over 9000 again?