Questions for pro-neurodiversity anti-cure people

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I used to have a friend whose mother would announce to everyone seated around her dinner table "I know your father really loves me because he never had me lobotomized." He worked for the State department and they were married (late 50's) when a popular "cure" for uppity D.C. wives was the trans-orbital lobotomy (the Ice Pick). No kidding.

When I look at the depredations of Big Pharma in the Med-ucation system, I really wonder who is being served. The same indicators that point to nascent criminality in adolescent males can also lead to the development of "genius", and (gulp) leadership. By pursuing an aggressive policy of in-voluntary (adolescents can not themselves give consent) chemical castration of rambunctious young males, in an environment (both school and single parent home) where authentic Masculine authority is largely absent, we run the risk of creating a society devoid of leaders and risk takers.

I've been starting to think the same thing.

Perhaps keeping these traits in the population is like out a biological insurance policy.

We don't know what catastrophes might happen in the future.
Extreme conditions after a catastrophe might require extreme traits that are currently out of equilibrium with civilised western society.

Perhaps good mental health is actually the character traits and brain wiring being in equilibrium with a given environment. Hence the definition of what is "healthy" culturally and environmentally dependent.

What works in one environment may not work in another.

Because, it would mess with who the person was in order to make them "normal".

I'm assuming that LFA equates to Autistic Disorder here, and the probable outcome for those with it (there's not much difference between those who have an IQ above 75 and those with an IQ below such in regards to outcome, except when you get down to an IQ of 25-30 or so, but that's not common).

For me:
I can't drive; I can't talk to people I don't know; I can't make most meals; I can't attend classes with people; I can't work ("normal" employment); I can't "interact" with people I don't know (which is everyone); I need a routine to do basic farmhand stuff that my family gives to me; I actually need a routine for everything; I spend most of my time thinking about and watching Star Trek; the 'net is my only voice outside of my immediate family (my mother and sister); without my mother I'd be in a stupid group home or an institution; I'm probably poverty stricken by most modern standards; {insert a thousand more "can't do what my peers can" here}.

And you know, I'm happy, because no one is forcing me to do things I can't do; I like doing what I do. The only thing that I'd like is for something to calm my hypersensitivity to the environment, as that's what makes me uncomfortable; minor-tranqs are good, but they aren't a chronic medicine to take. Research into non-physically addictive medications that calm the specific sensory areas would be welcome to me.

No cure thanks, as I'll play with the cards I'm dealt (and I like my obsession), but treatment is always welcome.

i like me.
its not a cure as its not a disese
Lets cure people of the wrong color..the wrong body proporations..the wrong language..teh wrong beliefs

What Callista said. And I'm glad other people are saying it, I'm sick of saying it myself. All I would add, is that the myth that pro-cure/anti-cure is split along "functioning" lines (however you define them) is, in fact a total myth, whether that myth is about parents, or about autistic people ourselves. It is mostly spread by people who believe in a cure, and won't get you very far among most people who don't or are ambivalent (because most of us know better by now).

I do base my opinions partially on my own experiences and those of my friends, but my friends don't all happen to include people who are regarded as HFA, nor parents of people who are regarded as HFA. But my opinions also come from views on disability in general that were largely formed by people considered severely disabled, as well as those considered mildly disabled, and... yeah, that just is not the real pattern, this "the cure people must all be LFA/parents of LFA" thing.