Attitude towards curing autism / autism research

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Now I'm not exactly an expert on this kind of thing, but I just would like to know how fellow Aspies feel about this topic. Are you for groups like Cure Autism Now or not, because I know a lot of people on the PDD spectrum, especially Aspies, are not for it.

Yes, but I'm fine being myself.

What most of us will say is that we'd LOVE to have CAN be it's meaning, but the fact is that they sensationalize Autism so badly it's almost propaganda. I'm all up for research on how and why it works, but we're all fearful (well, a majority of us) that this research, what with CAN behind it, will be used in the wrong way to exterminate a problem that's only really a problem because people can't be stuffed to adjust and cope.

Can it be cured? I hate to place the seed of doubt, but in my limited understanding, it's partially a deep part of a person's personality. Would that mean that someone's mind would need to be rewritten? Or is my ingnorance and lack of understanding just making me think crazy things?

I somewhat agree and somewhat disagree. I know for a fact that many people and groups, CAN included, exaggerate autism badly. Even on MTV True Life: I have autism, the AS kid went to a special class, when in reality, many people w/ AS have high IQs and can find success in their careers. Heck, Einstein may've had AS, and judging by some of his behaviors, it wouldn't shock me at all. At the same time, though, I'm kind of on the fence about having AS, I love the advantages I gain from it but hate the disadvantages, possibly even more. My mother is also a special ed teacher, and seeing some of her autistic students makes me think that CAN really isn't all that bad.

I'm not sure myself. I know that many people are for more research to find out, including Don Imus. His whole situation (which I think is bs, an apology to the Rutgers girls bball team was all that was needed) made me start thinking of CAN and the like again, given that he was a huge autism research supporter, and tended to favor politicans that thought the same way.

I interpreted "cure" as being able to stop children being born with Autism or Aspergers in the future, maybe through genetic tweaking or something. (I'm NOT talking about terminating pregnancies where there's a risk of AS; that's a whole other debate and let's not hijack this thread by having it here.) I agree with RH that it's probably not possible to 'fix' us who are already born with it. Well, not with our current medical science, anyway.

Not really- I'm not against research, I'd actually like to know what causes autism, but curing it/preventing it is something else, and I am against it.

Trying to cure autism is futile, they're just gonna ruin the poor autistic's mentality and self-confidence... preventing it is even worse because they will just be repeating what the Ku Klux Clan and Nazis did with blacks and Jews- they'll be trying to wipe out a group of HUMANS for being different.

For KKK, clan is spelt with a K. Just a reminder.

Yeah, I don't mind research, but the better cure is teaching us how to cope, not to eradicate us like annoying little vermin.

TOTALLY!

I am against a cure.

I would have a huge opposition to doctors/parents enforcing the treatment on their children before they have developed significantly. I think it would rob people of their god given nature and their true identity. This approach is also highly discriminatory toward aspies. To me, it suggests that society isnt prepared to accept us for who we are.

The diagnostic criteria for Autism spectrum disorders is always being questioned. This shows that NT's don't even have a solid concept of what they would be curing or what they would be taking away from us.

NT's in favour of a cure should spend more time with a variety of people on the spectrum and look for positives in our nature and then re-evaluate their viewpoint accordingly.

I think that forcing a cure, or advertising it as a "must" for parents robs all of us on the spectrum of the right to be proud of who we are and to feel accepted. People are being told all the time that austism is a terrible thing. I truly believe that those on the spectrum have the capacity to feel empowered their condition. All on the spectrum should be led by others to a place where they can feel proud of who they are. People should be careful not to be closed minded and focus only on the negatives.

Perhaps money should be funnelled toward the education of both NT's and Aspies and scientific research that would allow the scientific community to better define the spectrum. Throughout society people have displayed a fear toward the things that they don't understand. I believe fear has driven CAN and similar movements.

Wrong planet itself is an example of a gathering of aspies that educates us all and helps us to better understand ourselves.

Personally, getting diagnosed and developing an understanding of the condition has developed my self esteem and helped me to feel more comfortable in the world.

Education and true acceptance will liberate the autistic community and allow us to assume the societal roles that we are all capable of holding and entitled to.

There is no cure for autism, because it is not a disease.

I don't think that all people here are really realistic about ASD's.

I am the way I am, I am ok with that. My son is the way I am, I am ok with that. It is very hard to adjust, and cope, and I worry about him like crazy, but at the end of the day, I expect he is going to be ok.

At the end of the day, I think that Aspies add a special flavour to the human race. We perfect crafts, invent new things, lurch humanity forward! This is a great thing.

I am extremely concerned at the idea of genetic research that looks for genes to use for screening, so that mothers can terminate their ASD pregnancies! That is horrible, and I am not talking pro life / pro choice, just that the idea of breeding a super race scares the pants off of me.

However, I know a mom who has a son who is LFA, all he can do is sit on a bouncy ball, screeching and spinning a thomas wheel. He is 15. He is almost toilet trained, but frequently walks around with a dirty bum and his pants down at his ankles. He will always need assisted living. He developed perfectly normally until a year old. He walked at 10 months! So he is not low IQ, just extremely lost to this world.

What if the reason he regressed so sevearly, was a simple matter of some enzyme or hormone not being produced, and suplamenting it would have halted or prevented this deterioration? Surely you would not want to prevent such a discovery so that such children could live normal or more normal lives?

My son wants to be a piliot. Because of the Aspergers, chances are he never will be. If I could have given him some supplament to prevent neurological harm to him, why would I not have?

The employment rates for those with any ASD are low. People with ASDs are often depressed, they are often abused by non understanding parents. They often feel the resentment that society and their families have for them, regarding them as cow bird eggs, planted in unsuspecting foster parent nests.

With education, quality of life for those with ASD's should improve. With therapies, life long outcomes should improve. People with ASD's deserve to live, and have value and meaning to their lives. However if you could prevent the regression and neurological damage of ASD's, with some sort of hormone or enzyme supplament, why wouldn't you?

Agree totally, I am different, not sick, sick is the society in which I have to life, and which cant accept my differences, which does want me to be like many others instead of being uniquely me I aint ment to watch TV, and I am not made for having a 9-5 office job, but whenever I wanted something, it was made impossible, who is disabled? And why? I am born different, but society made me suffer and disabled me.
My particular life could have been of great fun and worth, but crappy society never let me be.

I'm not for a cure. I am for helping diminish the other co-morbid conditions that do make some autistics appear 'more disabled' like speech disorders, mentally challenged, sensory issues, etc.

Being Aspie I'm fine with it, but there is a difference between Autism and Aspie- it is a spectrum disorder and when you are on the lower end of that spectrum, as is my son-who is essentially nonverbal, you don't have a future, due to big brother or not. In that regard I'm all for a cure. However it isn't something that you can cure once it is there as it's morphology at that point. You can help the symptoms and in some cases that is vital, in someone like myself it's a leave me the hell alone type of thing. It all depends on where you are on the spectrum. DAN and CAN are looking more into prevention than cure, despite the nomenclature. That, of course, fuels all sorts of paranoia. However, it doesn't appreciably affect those of us who are already surfing the spectrum.

I agree with gimp (welcome to WP by the way!), it all depends on where you are on the Spectrum. For a majority of it, it's perfectly viable to not cure it, but as you go to the other end, it's starts getting harder and harder to justify.

What CAN is (maybe intentionally) forgetting is that it's a SPECTRUM of different severities, not EVERYONE needs to be cured.