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JCJC777
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13 May 2007, 7:12 am

Does anyone have any brand new thinking on what causes Asperger - and how to fix it?

One new idea (to me, anyway) is that many people who believe themselves to be Asperger are in fact being impacted by social mobility psychological problems; they are getting symptoms that result from difficulties in moving up/down between different social strata.

Another is that the increasing use of analysis and system thinking in our Western civilisation (computers, programming, making choices from many options, using TV controllers, more complex personal financial product options....) is causing our brains to be more analytical and systematic, triggering Asperger thinking.


Any more brave new ideas?



Mitch8817
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13 May 2007, 7:49 am

JCJC777 wrote:
One new idea (to me, anyway) is that many people who believe themselves to be Asperger are in fact being impacted by social mobility psychological problems; they are getting symptoms that result from difficulties in moving up/down between different social strata.


Weber? We are studying this at the moment at Uni, care to elaborate?


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Eller
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13 May 2007, 7:49 am

Why would anyone want to FIX Asperger's? That's old-fashioned thinking...



Mitch8817
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13 May 2007, 7:55 am

Eller wrote:
Why would anyone want to FIX Asperger's? That's old-fashioned thinking...


Old-fashioned perhaps, but the ideas and understandings are new and modern. It's a problem for so many people, why not try and solve it? Take a look over these forums over any given week and you'll see at least 10 people wishing there was a cure for it.


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JCJC777
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13 May 2007, 8:12 am

Absolutely - I think AS systemising is a bad thing when used for socialising; it causes difficulty and hurt to us and our loved ones; it makes life harder, more lonely, and more hurting. Can anyone really argue that AS tendency people have better relationships, more empathy, more sharing, more joy, more support, more social fun than NT's?

On the social mobility/Weber, I know nothing; someone just proposed to me it was my situation, having read my site , but I don't know much more. However I don't think it explains my situation; my AS tendency symptons had already started by my teens, my 'system crashes' did not correlate to situations involving social strata moves, and my recent improvement has not co-incided with us stopping being socially mobile.



SteveK
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13 May 2007, 8:15 am

Yeah, **I** have a theory! YOURS is wrong. "social mobility" problems doesn't indicate a cause, but a SYMPTOM!

I didn't become as I did to fit the world, the WORLD changed to fit me! When I was a kid, computers were like a rumor and myth like they had been for over 40 years before! I don't know when my father started working with computers, but it was apparently after I was 2, and by then he was basically out of my life. I didn't see a computer until I was perhaps 10. It wasn't even one of those hobbyist computers. The ONLY stereotypically computer feature it had was tape drives. So how did it affect me? NOT AT ALL!

More complex financial product options? MOST only dealt with stocks, and maybe mutual funds, and it was like buying a car. NO DIFFERENT than it had been for over a hundred years prior(Except you did have cars and phones) As for TV controllers? My FATHER had an expensive console, and IT had a remote control. Again, I got little use of that. WOW, PUSH BUTTONS! Other than that, NO DIFFERENCE! REMEMBER, when I was a kid perhaps every TV channel was switched by a ROTARY control.

So lets see how my "physical" interests developed.....

About 3 or so I was definitely watching TV and asking people about a lot of physical services. I also got interested in electricity.(Level was known for decades)

About 5 or so I worked with wood and electronics.(Wood was very old, electronics probably 10 or so years.)

About 6 or so I worked with metal(metal is very old too.)

BTW I didn't even THINK about getting into computers until I was 8. Radio Electronics(as I recall that was the magazine) featured a computer. Computers basically just came out. WOW, I saw my FIRST computer schematic. NEAT! And did YOU know that it was easier to build a computer than a radio?????

I didn't even really start to study computers until I was about 16. REMEMBER, computers were kind of limited, relatively expensive, and the M/S Windows and the IBMPC didn't exist yet. Microsoft only made their basic.

Steve



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13 May 2007, 8:25 am

I do not wish to have anything about me "fixed".



JCJC777
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13 May 2007, 8:28 am

if you had a stammer would you want to fix it? if you spoke in such a way no-one could understand you would you want to fix it? if you kept trying to see by using your ears would you want to fix it?
'You' are not your AS. You are you.



Eller
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13 May 2007, 8:35 am

AS is a part of my personality, and without it, I'd be a different person in my body. I wouldn't want that. I don't see Asperger's as some sort of illness that could be cured. And I definitely don't want to be cured from being ME.



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13 May 2007, 8:38 am

Exactly.
There's no such thing as a 'cure' for Aspergers. all that would be is something which would change someone from a person with AS to an NT. It would be no more of a cure or a fix than NT > AS. It would simply be changing who you are. It's not Aspergers itself that causes people problems. It's having Aspergers in a predominantly NT society.



Eller
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13 May 2007, 8:43 am

The only thing that makes sense is something that helps Aspies to adapt to NT world. Being Aspie doesn't necessarily mean that a person suffers from it. That's just the old NT predjudice that a person can only be happy if he or she thinks like everybody else. Dangerous to assume that, really.



JCJC777
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13 May 2007, 8:45 am

i know it's entirely contrary to the fashion on this site, but
(a) someone with a stammer might say it was a part of their personality, but people are richer, more complex than just the channels they use to relate to the world - can you imagine yourself having a brain able to do great systemising for the right things, and being able to empathise, talk, understand the social world as NT's do; i,e, without that huge AS software crashing away in your head?
(b) who told you AS was incurable? who proved that? for how long did people think the world was flat?



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13 May 2007, 8:45 am

Eller wrote:
The only thing that makes sense is something that helps Aspies to adapt to NT world. Being Aspie doesn't necessarily mean that a person suffers from it. That's just the old NT predjudice that a person can only be happy if he or she thinks like everybody else. Dangerous to assume that, really.

I agree.
I have found ways of adapting, but I would never want to become NT.



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13 May 2007, 8:47 am

JCJC777 wrote:
i know it's entirely contrary to the fashion on this site, but
(a) someone with a stammer might say it was a part of their personality, but people are richer, more complex than just the channels they use to relate to the world - can you imagine yourself having a brain able to do great systemising for the right things, and being able to empathise, talk, understand the social world as NT's do; i,e, without that huge AS software crashing away in your head?
(b) who told you AS was incurable? who proved that? for how long did people think the world was flat?

AS is incurable because it is not a disease. I'm not suggesting there is no way of completely getting rid of AS. But, by definition, that would not be a 'cure.' That would be changing someone to fit society's view of how they should be.



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13 May 2007, 8:49 am

Dear JCJC, obviously you are NOT an aspie, or else you'd know that aspies ARE able to talk and to empathise. And the "understand the social world" thingie - are you sure NT people understand it completely? Would you bet on that? Miscommunication is not an aspies-only thing.

And Sopho, I wouldn't want to be NT either.



JCJC777
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13 May 2007, 8:50 am

i think it would be someone changing themselves (not society doing it - your choice entirely)
because they found they were trying to use a jackhammer to do an oil painting, and maybe it would be much more fun and effective to do it with a paintbrush