No desire for cure

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I know that there are posts here quite often lamenting AS and confessing a desire to be cured. I have no such desire. I know that I am different than other people, and I accept it. I don't want treatment, and I don't want a cure. What's your stance on the cure debate?

I don't want a "cure". I used to think that there was something wrong with me because I was told I have AS but nobody bothered to tell me exactly what it is, and then I found out about all the negative stereotypes. Thanks to everything I read on Wrong Planet from all kinds of different people on the spectrum I don't feel alone anymore and I don't want to be "cured". It would take away my quirky personality and I would be pretty boring. I don't even care about what I am or could potentially be diagnosed with anymore. At this point another diagnosis would do me more harm than good and infuriate me again. I'm not a label, I'm just a human being and we all have our issues.

I don't think a "cure" would necessarily mean losing intelligenct or becoming less interesting and quirky. I don't think all NTs are binge drinking shallow folk with no interests other than gossiping and watchin TV.

I would like to be cured of my inability to relate to other people, I am always trying to work out how to fit into social groups, second guessing myself, wondering if I'm saying the right thing or whether I am coming across weird. I have made a new friend at the grand age of 36 and it's thrown me a bit. I am slightly bewildered that she wants to be friends and I'm not sure how to deal with her. I think an NT wouldn't overthink this situation and would just get on with it and understand what to do naturallly.

I've only in the past week realised that I don't come across looking good in photos because I can't appropriately control the muscles in my face. My brain thinks that a smile is showing my teeth, turning up the corners of my mouth and for some reason screwing up my eyes. I'm not sure how to train myself not to screw up my eyes. I always look drunk in photos. I guess I can only practice by taking photos of myself. I think an NT wouldn't have this problem.

All I want is just ease of movement around other people and not to be so un-natural looking and awkward. I have to think about how I'm standing and what to do with my hands. I want my brain to do this automatically.

But I certainly don't want to be less quirky and artistic.

I've found that most people on here don't want to be "cured", and then there are another noticeable amount of people who want to just insist that there is no such thing as a cure for a genetic condition. And those who say that its only a difference, not a disability or a disorder so it can't really have a cure...

Personally. My AS is a disability, and its a disability I would never give up. I'm sure that some of the positive parts are associated with things that are disabling for me, and I don't want to give up the positive parts. On top of that, I'd never want to be someone other than myself, and my AS is a part of me. I don't just have Asperger's Syndrome, I am autistic, its part of me, its part of who I am.

I'd prefer not having such major sensory issues, but in order to do that I am pretty sure that I'd have to give up that I have hypersensitive senses in positive ways too - 20/10 vision is unusual (and where my eye doctor is pretty sure that I fall, he can't test it, but I was drastically better than 20/15 with how I was ready the tiny font on the posters without thinking about it because it was text to read.)

I'd prefer finding it easier to make friends, but the friends I would make would likely not be nearly as good of friends on average.

I can't imagine having a normal emotional intellegence so I can't wish for that.


To me, my identity is drastically more important than the idea of removing my disability. This is me, this is who I am. I am disabled, and I would rather work around that issue than get rid of it.

It's better to accept yourself for who you are than to fantasize about being different.

I'd take a cure in a heartbeat, unless someone needed it more than me. Cause then I'd feel bad for dooming said person when I wasn't as bad as him or her.

Although I am definitely anti-cure, I am a strong supporter of therapies and treatments that can allow a person on the spectrum to cope through live a little easier. I am also a supporter of people who take steps to control or eliminate symptoms that are causing interfererence in their lifes. You can still have AS and not feel like it's burdening you, all you can do is try and take control of it.

Cure? What cure?

Seriously, I can't imagine not having Asperger's. It's a part of who I am.

I don't find my Aspergers to be a disability, so I have negative interest in a cure. I can relate to people, hold a conversation, even hold eye contact (I don't particularly like doing it, though; that's why it's so great when I'm talking to more than one person, because I have to flip between the two). The only potential thing that could bother me is not being able to start conversations if I don't know the person very well, at least not in person.

Even if they tried to make a 'cure' I doubt they could make one, at least not for a very long time.

The wiring of multiple regions of the brain is implicated in the etiology of AS. There is no drug or treatment known, or of which we can currently envisage, that could change all these regions so they resemble the NT brain. Even gene therapy offers no hope as AS is a complex polygenic trait which needs unknown environmental factors to be in place too. And ultimately, not many AS people want to be NT -- I certainly don't.

As far as I understand it, Asperger's is the result of a significant difference in brain structure compared with those of NTs.

If by 'cure' we mean a treatment that will change the brain structure of an aspie to that of an NT in a non-destructive way, I don't think there will be such a cure.

To the extent that AS is the result of a genetic propensity that might be activated by environmental conditions, one could perhaps hope to examine a recently fertilized egg for genetic markers, apply genetic engineering to the small collection of cells, and aim at avoiding environmental triggers. This is the only direction that I could see a 'cure' taking - something that would have to be applied shortly after conception, that only has a chance of working, and that could not be applied much later.

There will be no magic pill.

I am very much in favor of seeking treatments to allieve or reduce the problems that AS can cause many people, but I would not want to reduce its benefits.

For me, AS is very much a mixed bag - some good, some bad. If I had understood when I was young what was going on, why I was different, how I could cope, and that I wasn't alone, so much would have been different, better.

I would not want a 'cure' for myself - so much of my creativity arises from AS, if I am not mistaken.

So - yes on research for treatment, no on research for a cure, yes on education and acceptance, no on the 'pursue a cure or you are a traitor' nuts.

I'm everything that I am because I'm AS/HFA. I do not wish to take the cure.

A cure could be beneficial, that is, if done properly.

Yes, I'd like a cure for the negative symptoms of AS. But I'd also like a cure for not being able to breathe underwater, a cure for being susceptible to free radicals, an AI implant in my brain for better logical calculations, and a mechanical suit so that I can easily lift heavy things while barely moving a muscle.

Who wouldn't want that?

Have you guys ever considered that maybe yourselves will be better? Just throwing that out there.