Why there is no cure for Aspergers/ASD

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statsattack
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12 Sep 2017, 2:55 pm

I believe that the reason asd/ aspergers has found no cure is because it has historically been treated. It is treated as a social disease. While it may be a social disease it needs to be looked at like cancer in that it will always be in your body, but with the right treatment it won't affect you compared to being untreated.

ASD needs to be treated and looked at as a physical disorder.



ErwinNL
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12 Sep 2017, 3:11 pm

ASD has no cure because it is no illness...

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a difference in development of the brain, not a defect but a variation.

Disorder is in my opinion even the wrong term used, personally I prefer ASC (Condition).

This still means that it can be very difficult for someone to be on the spectrum because this world is build for neurotypical people who generally like socialicing, visually busy places and chit chat (to name some problem area's for most non-NTers).

[edit]
After re-reading your post, are you saying that they should not be looking for a "cure" but help with the "symptoms", like teaching people how to read and act in social situations and deal with sensory problems? Because that is my opinion as well...


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Chichikov
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12 Sep 2017, 3:48 pm

There's no cure because noone knows the cause. Hard to cure something if you don't know the cause.

As for treating it physically, people are doing this now far more than they were in the past. Now we have the tools and techniques to study the brain and dna we're finding new things out about autism and every discovery takes us closer to a cure, if there is one, but failing that a better understanding to the causes.



kitesandtrainsandcats
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12 Sep 2017, 4:08 pm

statsattack wrote:
While it may be a social disease...
WTF???? If you think autism is a venereal disease you seriously need to go get your head examined.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/social_disease
Quote:
Definition of social disease in English:
social disease
noun
informal
A venereal disease.


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12 Sep 2017, 4:36 pm

statsattack wrote:
I believe that the reason asd/ aspergers has found no cure is because it has historically been treated. It is treated as a social disease. While it may be a social disease it needs to be looked at like cancer in that it will always be in your body, but with the right treatment it won't affect you compared to being untreated.

ASD needs to be treated and looked at as a physical disorder.


One reason is as mentioned before is that the causes are not known. There are a multitude of causes and what they are is how they interact is at most partially understood. It was not even known until relatively recently that Autism even existed so there was nobody was trying to find causes for something they did not know existed.

Autism can not be treated as a physical illness because it is not one, it is a developmental condition. Any cure will likely involve genetics or brain rewiring via therapies. It will not be like fixing a broken arm. It will involve changing the core of who you are as a person.

The emphasis on the only the social aspects of autism has been very bad.


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12 Sep 2017, 4:47 pm

kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
statsattack wrote:
While it may be a social disease...
WTF???? If you think autism is a venereal disease you seriously need to go get your head examined.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/social_disease
Quote:
Definition of social disease in English:
social disease
noun
informal
A venereal disease.

It's pretty obvious by the full context of his/her statement what he/she meant-- you just outsmarted yourself.



statsattack
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12 Sep 2017, 5:37 pm

There is no exact cause for how humans get cancer, but we have found a way to treat it.

I could care less about being right. I just want to figure out how to treat ASC/ASD properly. One of the advantages of treating physical symptoms is that it causes less damage to those who are misdiagnosed. How can the " we are different" mentality be erased? I believe making ASC/ASD a physical issue would erase sterotypes that come with the diagnosis.

EX: I have bad eye contact because I have a vision and a sensory problem. Should I be seeing a social worker to help with eye contact or work with my vision and sensory issues?



kraftiekortie
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12 Sep 2017, 5:47 pm

At this point, like the common cold, one could treat the symptoms of ASD, but not cure ASD.



Chichikov
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12 Sep 2017, 6:37 pm

statsattack wrote:
There is no exact cause for how humans get cancer, but we have found a way to treat it.

We know what causes cancer.



billegge
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12 Sep 2017, 6:59 pm

If there is a cure, it would have to be pre-birth I think. Like a person with downs syndrome cannot be cured after the fact, but might be prevented during pregnancy.

I am not so sure Asperger's is a bad thing anyways. I bet most human advances are made by people with Asperger, ADD, or Autism. An NT should re-consider "healing" them and instead use it to their advantage by helping them to achieve what they are capable of achieving.



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12 Sep 2017, 7:21 pm

statsattack wrote:
There is no exact cause for how humans get cancer, but we have found a way to treat it.

I could care less about being right. I just want to figure out how to treat ASC/ASD properly. One of the advantages of treating physical symptoms is that it causes less damage to those who are misdiagnosed. How can the " we are different" mentality be erased? I believe making ASC/ASD a physical issue would erase sterotypes that come with the diagnosis.

EX: I have bad eye contact because I have a vision and a sensory problem. Should I be seeing a social worker to help with eye contact or work with my vision and sensory issues?


Unlike visions problems ASD is not a physical issue. Wishing it were so can not make it that way.

As for yourself you are in the greater Chicago area, a major metropolitan region which puts you at an advantage over many WP members. I would look for support groups and autism clinicians that specialize in treating adults. This will be difficult. In the meantime I would use your strengths as much as possible and mitigate the damage from things that you do not do well as much as possible. For specific problems WP is a resource.


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EyeDash
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12 Sep 2017, 8:03 pm

statsattack wrote:
I believe that the reason asd/ aspergers has found no cure is because it has historically been treated. It is treated as a social disease. While it may be a social disease it needs to be looked at like cancer in that it will always be in your body, but with the right treatment it won't affect you compared to being untreated.

ASD needs to be treated and looked at as a physical disorder.


That's good insight - ASD is a physical disorder, specifically a neurodevelopmental disorder. Possibly before birth and through early childhood, the brain develops differently in those with autism. That different development can't be undone. It is known to involve abnormal pruning of axons as well as minicolumnopathy (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.10 ... ccess=true). So autism affects neural microstructure as well as connectivity of brain nuclei. Having autism, I've wondered what it's like to be neurologically normal, and I can sort of imagine it - slower, calmer, more focused on people and social interaction, not sensorially overwhelmed, being comfortable with physical sensations. But my autism is central to me - it's not like a disease I caught after I developed - it's intimately related to who I am - I'm autistic to the core. That's hard for non-autistic people to understand. A non-autistic me wouldn't be me at all. What would be wonderful is the "right treatment" that you mention. Less glaring, flickering lighting would help. Stores that were designed not to be endurance contests for autistic people would be great. Roads that didn't cause sensory overwhelm while driving. A society that taught more tolerance of those with neurological differences, and less needless condemnation of those with differences or who are awkward would be life-changing. People understanding that different styles of eye contact don't imply intentional staring or disrespect would be a good start. We may have a "social disease" that makes socializing and interacting with groups of strangers difficult, but we have a lot of good and valuable insights that are hard to come by in a society of socially-conforming people.



ErwinNL
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13 Sep 2017, 2:36 am

EyeDash wrote:
statsattack wrote:
I believe that the reason asd/ aspergers has found no cure is because it has historically been treated. It is treated as a social disease. While it may be a social disease it needs to be looked at like cancer in that it will always be in your body, but with the right treatment it won't affect you compared to being untreated.

ASD needs to be treated and looked at as a physical disorder.


That's good insight - ASD is a physical disorder, specifically a neurodevelopmental disorder. Possibly before birth and through early childhood, the brain develops differently in those with autism. That different development can't be undone. It is known to involve abnormal pruning of axons as well as minicolumnopathy (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.10 ... ccess=true). So autism affects neural microstructure as well as connectivity of brain nuclei. Having autism, I've wondered what it's like to be neurologically normal, and I can sort of imagine it - slower, calmer, more focused on people and social interaction, not sensorially overwhelmed, being comfortable with physical sensations. But my autism is central to me - it's not like a disease I caught after I developed - it's intimately related to who I am - I'm autistic to the core. That's hard for non-autistic people to understand. A non-autistic me wouldn't be me at all. What would be wonderful is the "right treatment" that you mention. Less glaring, flickering lighting would help. Stores that were designed not to be endurance contests for autistic people would be great. Roads that didn't cause sensory overwhelm while driving. A society that taught more tolerance of those with neurological differences, and less needless condemnation of those with differences or who are awkward would be life-changing. People understanding that different styles of eye contact don't imply intentional staring or disrespect would be a good start. We may have a "social disease" that makes socializing and interacting with groups of strangers difficult, but we have a lot of good and valuable insights that are hard to come by in a society of socially-conforming people.

Well said, especially the part of being more tolerant of differences is important, not only towards autistic people but everyone.

I'd like to give this example, I recently moved to a new city and needed to find a new barber. This seemingly common task is very complicated for me. I require a quiet, low noise place to reduce sensory input and anxiety. It took me a month procrastinating, searching and making a list on the internet using Google street view (this is the short version of the story, lol) to finally pick up the phone and make an appointment. When I entered the shop only the owner was there and he greeted me and started chatting about 'nothing' like they usually do, the radio was playing in the background and I hinted that I couldn't follow his questions because of the volume of the radio. He offered to turn it off and asked me more about it, he was curious so I explained that I have a hard time filtering multiple sound sources, we started talking about autism and the complicated process I used to find a barber. Talking about my anxiety with him made me more relaxed, he accommodated me by turning off the radio and not talking about the usual chit-chat but about my special interest.

The next time he already knows about my problems and this makes me more relaxed before hand, making people aware helps, it really does, and I get better in voicing my 'requirements' and it gives me more confidence as well.

I am not ashamed of this, no one should be. Of course this could have gone the other way, he could have ignored my request and not shown any interest in making me feel more convertible but he did not.

In the end I was happy and he has a new customer.

Likely the the best cure is education, raising awareness and (self-)acceptance.


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13 Sep 2017, 12:10 pm

Because autism is not a disease or illness.


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13 Sep 2017, 12:13 pm

I also feel that nobody should be prevented during pregnancy.


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ErwinNL
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13 Sep 2017, 12:56 pm

Hmm, I can't edit my post anymore but I know a convertible car is comfortable and I was feeling more comfortable in the mentioned situation... my englrish is bad!


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