Don't cure autism now

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I found this one document while looking for the "cure autism now" site to see her reaction. (she opposed it and my respect for her increased a little) I'd like to get other peoples opinions on this one person document. I believe it is fairly accurate in what it says.

I'd just like to say before you read this, as a disclaimer, I did not write this, and I take no credit for it. I just thought you'd all like to see this.

http://home.att.net/~ascaris1/dontcure.html

That document there hits dead centre on my veiwpoint. And I'm talking about 'not-an-inch-out-of-kink-from-the-centre-of-the-dot-in-the-centre-of-the-bullseye'.

I generally agree with the article, although I skimmed through it.

To be honest, Cure groups to me are basically using propaganda as hate group use, but in a more docile way. I mean think about it, they make Autism sound like a absolute hellish terror that must be stopped and cured immediately. I mean for example look at this hypothetical statement,

"Oh those poor Autistic people have a awful mental disease, it makes their lives harder because they are different, we must cure them immediately."

Notice below, if you change a few words around, you could use the same method to basically say any group of people is wrong and needs to be fixed, hence for example, giving white supremacists a fancy way to say being black is a skin disease. To provide another hypothetical example here,

"Oh those poor Blacks have a awful skin disease, it makes their lives harder because they are different, we must cure them immediately."

You can see exactly what I mean. So with that conclusion, I have to say that cure groups are nearly as bad as hate groups in the way they promote their cause; even though their intentions are somewhat different and might not be purely hateful.

Sorry if that's extremely offensive, but I call it as I see it in reality.

I think you are all missing the point. These cure groups are going after proper autism. They consider Aspergers Syndrome debatable, and it is not AS that is their cure target. Proper autism (HFA, LFA) are more drastic conditions that require life-long attention. The people with proper autism will never be able to lead independent lives. LFA in particular is comparable to mental retardation. To proclaim that proper autism should not be cured is an ignorant statement. These conditions are financially devastating for families, not to mention the emotional toll.

Ah, you got me there, mate. Fair fight.

I'm actually High Functioning Autistic, so I have every right to be against these cure groups and their cure idea. My original diagnosis was typical Autism and was upgraded to HFA, once they noticed my exceptionally fast development. I was behaviorally controlled and disciplined heavily by my parents (one of the methods was being locked in my bedroom without toys for 30 minutes or unless I confessed or admit guilt, if I did something bad.) I was encouraged to socialize and not to misbehave by firm blunt style voice as well as on rare occasion, dump off to a carer to care for me once a month. I was basically raised as much like a normal child and intentionally placed in daycare and social groups before I was 6. I did have psychiatric help but very rarely, and my mom knew exactly what to do, because she's Autistic as well.

Now I function at a near-NT capacity but retain my Autistic behavior privately. I'm living proof that behavioral control, discipline, forced into social situations and told bluntly why things I did were bad at a extremely young age is needed, not a cure. Now I enjoy the advantages of both worlds with a social ability combined with Autistic given talents and skills. A cure would destroy the potential genius of us individuals and I find that very counter-productive.

If a cure existed back then, and I would have been cured, I would have lost all my exceptional mental abilities and just only be a social person, instead of being both right now.

Last edited by Nexus on 17 Nov 2006, 12:13 pm, edited 8 times in total.

Two words to the article! *******************WELL SAID*******************

lowfreq50,

You are wrong! I saw myself as fitting the list of autistic symptoms several times until it occured to me, or I saw lower on the list, that mental etardation was one of the symptoms.

The "disease" was named for LACK OF SOCIAL SKILLS! That should tell you something!

It is considered seperate from "other" mental retardation! THAT should tell you something!

Most other things sites and articles point out are NORMAL in many kids! The stimming, certain behaviour, good memory, unusual focus, etc...

In short, it is almost like one part of the mind doesn't develop a rule set, and the rest continues much as a child would. Meanwhlle, most others take another path. Frankly, I never saw any point where I saw things more abstractly, etc... I think the whole theory is ludicrous as even learning a language requires skills they attribute only to older people.

BTW wouldn't it be funny if mental retardation was improper communication, or damage caused by uncontrolled growth, etc...? It is certainly possible, and not improbable.

Just yesterday, I read a story of how a restaurant(They actually BRAGGED about this on their website!) started with water from a 250 foot hose from a nearby house. That is MORONIC! These days, that could contain gray water(Unclean water for watering plants, and cleaning sidewalks, but NOT fit for human consumption), and carcinigens. WHO KNOWS what else!?!? Maybe if they stopped things like that, and stupid doctors/parents, they could greatly reduce mental retardation in all. And it is SO SIMPLE! They have known some o this stuff for hundreds of years! Most of it I knew before I was 5!

Steve

The original source of the word is irrelevant. Let's focus on substance not words.

The point is, the main focus of organisations like Cure Autism Now is low functioning autistics with severe mental retardation. Although sometimes the line is blurred, in virtually all cases it's simply ridiculous to put someone with AS in the same boat as them.

You don't have an IQ of 60. You don't speak for the people who do. You don't speak for the parents who must dedicate their lives to careing for these people.

ooh_choc,

PLEASE read that article, THEN come back and talk. If you want to stop mental retardation, FINE! I'm all for it! Lets find a cure for those having an IQ below say 120!
YEP, even some having an IQ over 100 seem rpetty ret*d. Let's help them ALL!

I had a problem with my aortic valve. am I angry about VALVES? NO! Do I think theer should be research? NO! I just wish people followed advice given hundreds and even THOUSANDS of years ago, so I didn't get the infection that hurt my valve.

Likewise, rather than trying to cure the specific autism, why not cure the retardation! ? It is probably easier, and has a broader reach. I am SICK of STUPID specialization just to get more money anyway.

Steve

The point of these groups is NOT to find a cure. If a cure was found, POOF, there goes their cushy job!! !! ! How many of these 'find a cure' groups are there anymore?? I told my daughter when she was in High School to NOT participate in the annual marathon for the Cancer Society. Are they REALLY interested in curing cancer?? Hell no. They are funding research that goes absolutely nowhere. The same for Autism groups. Are they building and staffing care homes for people who can't function?? Hell no. They're holding their hand out for 'guilt money' so they can keep their job. Most charities are a black hole for funds.

My official diagnosis is autism, and the only official functioning level I've been given is low (although I find functioning levels debatable -- not differences between people debatable, but that functioning levels tend to focus on one or two of the differences and miss the bigger picture). In a test of daily living skills meant mostly to assess the skills of people diagnosed with mental retardation, I score just barely above the lowest possible tier.

While I get sick of people who've never lived lives like mine trying to claim that I'm identical to them, I'm equally sick of people who've never lived lives like mine condemning my life as especially an awful version that does need to be cured. And I have met a lot of people (such as through AutCom) who like me have been judged as low-functioning, some of whom were said to have IQs under 40, let alone 60, who oppose the idea of curing autism. Larry Bissonnette, one of said people, has typed, "People who want a cure for my disability need a cure for their attitudes," or something very like that. Sure, non-speaking autistic people can disagree with each other on cure, but so can speaking autistic people. So talk to a bunch of us before you assume that we're these poor pitiful nothing-heads who harm our families by our very existence and are in need of curing on that basis. Sure there's a lot we need that so-called high-functioning people might not need, but a cure isn't, IMO, among those things.

Here again is my reply to GRASP and Autism Speaks on the issue of cure:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXnb-jXl7uw[/youtube]

So, yeah, you may not know many people like me, but there are a ton of us out there, and if you ask us, you'll get the same amount of variation of response as among any other group of autistic people. It might be best, instead of assuming that all the stereotypes about us are true, to adopt an agnostic stance until you've actually heard from us. Of course we're not monolithic, but then no group of people is, any group of people claiming to be monolithic are lying.

Morpheous ! ! The red and blue pills, please ~! !! !

I'm gonna start my own group: Cure Neurotypicals Now.

Here, here, Amanda.

That's why groups like Autism Speaks provide money for scientific research into the molecular biological causes of autism. If people want to figure out how to just fix the retardation and negative aspects of autism on a biological scale, then it'd be important to understand what neurological differences result in certain behavioral traits. But a lot of people who've posted here on WP, complaining about cure groups, also oppose the money these groups pump into research. Without said research, there's no way that anybody can just "cure the retardation," because scientists don't currently understand how autism becomes manifested in the first place.

Admittedly, though, I think one of the major problems about the autism cure groups is that they tend to focus on the children with autism, and they don't spend much time at all considering the many adults out there on the spectrum, and how they could possibly be very very productive members of society. Just read a bunch of scientific papers on autism, and one will notice that almost none discuss the spectrum in adults. Here at Yale, they even have the Child Study Center where several labs study autism in children, but they do not do anything for adults. The common reasoning is that in the absence of biological intervention (which is impossible at the moment due to the lack of molecular biological understanding of autism), teaching children coping skills is more important than fixing adults' self-esteem issues. In a way, they kind of think of it as disease prevention, instead of disease management. But what the study groups don't realize is that adults have the potential to be more productive in society than children, and focusing on children does nothing to help the many adults around the world already dealing with autism. Little medical care is devoted to management of autism in adults, and social support (government and private) for autism in adults is horribly lacking.

Things would be very different if we were viewed as productive members of society, rather than liabilities. I think that's the bottom line, ultimately. But it's not our fault that we are often unable to realize our full potential. While cure groups are not the cause of these problems either, they perpetuate the stereotypes by the way they draw attention to themselves and to their cause. I don't think that the cure groups are necessarily evildoers trying to inflict harm, that's not their intention, but they need education, just as everybody else does.

Are you protesting the actions of the group that hasn't been advocating for autism?