For those who DO want a cure...

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Hmm. What's wrong with changing who you are? Isn't wanting change a part of who you are? The want to better yourself? Perhaps most people restrict this betterment to eating healthier, losing weight, getting a relationship, making friends. A cure is no different to being taught techniques to make friends, taught techniques to overcome physical overstimulation etc. Its not murder, and it shouldn't be portrayed as such. Having a cure does not change who a person is, because that would require changing the sum of their experiences.
To quote my favorite author, "You must remember that an oak tree is not a crime against the acorn." It is no crime against your past, your experiences or your very self, to desire change. To grow, to expand, to be all you can be. Indeed, you owe it to yourself not to lock yourself up in the very comfortable prison of sameness, but to experience the sheer terror of all the possibilities of the future.
Anyone beg to differ, I'd like to hear it.

Try a lobotomy. Let's see how you like the change, Mighty Oak.

I can understand both sides of this issue, but I want to say that this is very well stated. I'm not on the spectrum so I don't know how much I really can say about this, but you made your point nicely. Personally, I don't think it would change innately who you are, but I know that there are people who feel that way, and I can understand and respect that. Autism does come with gifts, but at what cost? and if you lose your Autism, at what cost? I think that's an individual decision as to how much a cure would cost them to lose or gain and if, to them, it would be worth it.

I think the painful part of this issue is the belief that there is something "wrong" with Autism and Austistic people, not necessarily the desire to help people live a more fullfilling life if that's what they want.

Last edited by MommyJones on 12 Apr 2010, 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've no problem with the notion of a harmless cure (though I doubt if there is one). I'm just wary of cures because they always seem to involve a wacky pill or an esoteric dietary fad. I don't fancy being used as a guinea pig for the pharmaceutical industry, and I'd hate to see the day come when authorities could say "you refused the pills, so you're inflicting your ailment on yourself, so we won't help you any more." Not that they give me a lot of help anyway, but it would compromise the pressure we put on them to help us by accepting us as we are.

In my own way I'm constantly working on a "cure" for myself, but it's all about coping strategies and field-testing my traits to see if I can disprove some of them. The evidence suggests to me that they're not quite so hard-wired as I once thought they were.

As long as my employer has to adjust his demands on me to allow for my autism and as long as my social skills are enough to win me a few friends, I don't really have any great need for a cure. I prefer to just pick a few non-judgemental friends who seem to accept me as I am, rather than waste my time trying to fit in with the mainstream....I don't want to be the life and soul of a big, noisy party, or to hold my own in a conversation about sport, cars, hot celebrities, soap operas, or any of the other things that seem to separate me from the neurotypical world. I don't want to stop expecting women to think. I don't want to learn to lie every other sentence. I can accept that NT activities are valid and meaningful to NTs, and wouldn't want to mess it up for them, but I don't envy them any more than they envy me. I'm just different, and I wouldn't want to be anything else.

Then there wouldn't be as many "nuts" in the world. How boring would that be?

Because they don't like the struggles it gives them and the treatment by society. You have to remember, they probably have it very bad vs the mild ones or it could also be the environment they are living in and where they are, everyone is ignorant and intolerant but in my area they might have better luck because of our motto to keep Portland weird. People are more accepted for their differences. I was bullied as a kid and treated bad so of course I wanted to be normal. But once I wasn't picked on anymore, I felt normal so there was no need for a cure.

Some aspies might want a cure over one reason. Let's say one couldn't hold down a job, he might want a cure to his condition so he can work successfully.

I would like a cure if it were reverseable. It is not that I think there is anything wrong with me, but I would like to live in a society that accepts me.

I doubt interesting is a good argument for liking diversity.

Aside from the fact I was making a tree joke I don't know if that is necessarily true. What would the world be like if everyone were the same? I can learn a lot from people who are different (because of Autism or anything else) because they see things in a different way and that is what I find interesting. My way is not always the best way, or the right way and how much would I grow asking myself questions? What would we really accomplish if everyone had the same perspective?

I am a better person because of the people on here, and my husband says the same thing.

Self improvement is not the same thing as developing a cure. I will get to where I want in life with hard work, not with some metaphorical cure. That way, I can truly have pride in my achievements.

I would only want a cure for certain things, but I doubt that will happen in my lifetime...

~Kate

As Temple Grandin says, you will learn more about living with NTs as you grow older - not a cure, but an adaptation.

Losing weight and eating better are almost exclusively physical, and have little effect on brain chemistry relative to AS. Friends and relationships are external. But Autism? It's in your head. Or your genes. So I think what you mean to say is this: Is the Sugar Maple a crime against the Oak seed from which it somehow sprung?

Sorry Apera, but I think your metaphor's wrong. It implies a difference of kind between autistics and NT's, not just a difference of character (or neurology.) We want inclusion amongst the community of oak trees don't we?

Anyway, I'm not anti-cure but I don't want one for myself, mainly because I doubt it's possible. Autism's developmental - it affects the way the brain grows. So once you're an adult and the brain's done most of its growing you can't reverse it (probably). Would I take a cure if it existed? Well, I'd want to speak to people who'd taken it already. I'm not unhappy with who I am (bit worried about the future tho) and I'd be deeply suspicious of any pills that people threw my way.

you pretty much share my viewpoint on it. I would be perfectly alright if the option for a cure was available, as long as the rest of society doesnt try to shove it down our throats. In the ideal worlds, people shouldnt try to prevent other people from curing themselves if the cure existed, and those who want the cure shouldnt shove it down the throats of those who dont want it. it should stay a viable option that can be FREELY CHOSEN, if it is developed.

Personally, if i still cant have a good life by then, id go for the cure myself.

I have not been officially Dx-ed with an autistic spectrum disorder. According to every neuropsych eval i've ever had. I do fit the general characteristics of Nonverbal learning disability though.

That said.....there are many professionals (and non-professionals including alot of people on WP) who believe NVLD and Asperger's are the same disorder.

Thus....if this is true and since Asperger's is definitely considered a form of Autism...then I have a form of Autism.

So assuming I have Autism....it has come with NO gifts in my case. None, zero, nada, zilch....only curse after unspeakable curse.

And one of the most irritating things people still tell me is...."Oh EVERYONE has gifts!! !....EVERYONE is good at SOMETHING....you just haven't found what you're good at yet"! !!

O'rly????...................So after 40 years of seeking, IQ testing, psychotherapy, college, exhaustive research on my own part, vocational assessements, meds, etc......ad infinitum... i'm FINALLY going to find something i'm remotely skilled at???


I'm certainly not upset with you personally MommyJones nor am I just whining and complaining about my miserable existence just for the sake of doing so.

I'm just trying to prove a point. And my point is.....If i'm autistic and have no "gifts" then that must mean autism doesn't ALWAYS come with gifts. And I would guess that i'm not the only "giftless" autistic person in the world.

My further point is.....this sentimentalized, Oprah-fied culture of ours has everyone believing that EVERY human being is good at SOMETHING. Call me whatever you will....but I just don't see how reality bears that out.

We just live in a society which is further distancing itself from reality everyday...that's all. This ostrich-ignoring self-denial and self-deceit along with an unrestrained hedonistic nihilism is our latter-day Nero-esque fiddling while night inexorably descends upon humankind and many other lifeforms on this planet.


The inevitable and welcome end to "civilization" as we know it aside, i'm frankly beginning to resent others on the autistic spectrum who act like we're ALL just one big happy family. One with magickal little neurological differences that give us special powers the wicked and dull NT's don't understand.

Why shouldn't I resent people like this? They are the ones getting all the attention and services and as usual, people like me who are THE MINORITY WITHIN A MINORITY get left to rot in the gutters of "civilization".

Gee....how soon the INITIAL minority forgets eh??? Not so very long ago, there was once a time when they were doing quite a bit of "rotting" too eh? Ya know....back when everyone thought autistics were just hopeless vegetables to be warehoused in hellish institutions. Oh well...it wouldn't be the first time such a convenient memory hole has happened opened up in history. And people wonder why my misanthropy knows no bounds

Nobody's interested in my brain and it's problems....i'm not rich, i'm not a child anymore and I don't have all these kewl and trendy skilz that has made Aspie chic the biggest thing this side of Lady f***kin' Gaga.

And last but not least.....nobody can make $$$ off me.

Oh that reminds me!! !.....Isn't it about time for some festering canker sore to start a "Is Lady Gaga an Aspie?" thread.


Bottom line.....i'd be sorely tempted to sell my soul to change everything about myself.




And.....I don't give a fart about organizations like Autism Speaks one way or another.





That's a fight for the rest of you ASD folks....I frankly don't care if you win it or lose it.

Why should I?

Like Treebeard of LOTR fame said to Pippin (in the Two Towers movie anyway) after the latter asked him whose "side" he was on......"Side?... I am on nobody's side...because nobody is on MY side".

At what price? Must we pluck our own leaves and graft Oak shoots to our limbs?