Am I the only person who wants to be cured?

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Some of my Aspie(??) traits have been driving me bananas lately (though the world drives me bananas more frequently/noticeably than anything internal). I wish I had workarounds. But being cured is unthinkable. If I weren't Myself, I'd have no incentive to stick around on Earth in first place. I wouldn't have anything unique to offer the world anymore. (There's also the religious aspect. While I'm the last person to claim everything happens for a reason, my Deity independently told me, a third party, and finally my Mum (or else she just didn't want to hear it earlier) that He needed me to be this way in order to get certain things done. "Needed". That's not the kind of responsibility one casts off in favor of a less stressful life.)

It's so hard to relate to the OP's description of her experiences. I don't understand the feeling of having an inner neurotypical or of being happier from social accomplishments than special interests. I don't understand not relating to most other Aspies, even though I've never been diagnosed. The symptoms described are pretty unmistakable, but it kind of feels like there's something else going on that I'm not picking up. I don't know, is it physically possible for a sudden disruption in gene expression to create some kind of hybrid of multiple sections of the neurodiversity spectrum? I'd be curious to see comparative brain-scans of the OP and an average sampling of other Aspies. (Heck, I'd be curious to see comparative scans from my own brain, but the ease with which I understand people in Aspie communities makes me suspect there's little qualitative difference there.)

I would think the cure for mild and severe autism would be pretty much the same thing given the shared origin and simularites of the nerotype, given how invacive it would be to cure it would make cureing mild autism much less likely then severe autism from a standard medical effort/risk/reward point of view.

As for me, why bother with a cure?

People sometimes ask me if I could do it all over again, would I change anything? I honestly would say no, since hindsight is always 20/20. I'm the one that screwed my own life, so as the saying goes, you made your bed, now lie in it. That's just the way I was brought up.

If the cure involved invasive brain surgery, then I definitely wouldn't get it. It wouldn't be worth the risk and the benefits wouldn't be that great.

Same! I even failed a class last semester. I was only good at adding formulas quickly, which doesn't get you anywhere in engineering. I'm too weird for the nerds too.

Read this: http://www.lovelyish.com/2011/01/26/ner ... ally-sexy/

This explains why I'm isolated lol

No, I don't want to be cured. I am happy with Asperger's and the talents and special intense interests it has given to me. Sure, there are challenges, but everyone has challenges.

To who ever started this thread....I solute you. I feel THE EXACT SAME WAY. I have been with other individuals with AS and it did not work out as I would have liked. I to feel that if I where cured I would possibly have a life in which I would for once feel....happy about. As for now all I can say is just to keep your head up.

Like I told my next door neighbor, having Aspergers is No panacea. At my last therapy session, the therapist asked if I had to live my life all over again, would I do anything different? I told him quite plainly I don't believe in that concept. He asked me also if I had any regrets. I told him I'd be lying if I said I didn't.

Yes.

This has done more damage to my want of being social and my career than anything else in my life.

If I could turn off my autism forever, I would do it without hesitation. Sorry guys, but it's not part of my identity. It's a stain on it, a mental imbalance that does no justice to who I am or who I want to be. I will fight it for as long as I live.

Can I duck in here?

I'm 28. I've lived my whole life a social outcast by my own choice and I only realized that this wasn't how people were supposed to live upon coming to the internet. I always just thought I was a bit socially dumb or "shy". I was always told by my parents how I rejected friends who came to me, how I refused to want to see them, how little I would socialize.

At the risk of stealing a note from another successful campaign, It Gets Better. We humans are learning machines. We pull in knowledge, sort it, dissect it and then either keep it or disgard it. You WILL learn how to be social. In fact, you have an advantage on people like myself that you are aware of it much earlier than I was. Your motivation is reduced because you don't see the point. What's the point in being successful if the only people who care are those who already love you unconditionally?

God, this lesson took me 20 years to learn, so please listen.

You will never be normal. Ever. You can pretend to be normal. You can try to fit in, but you won't. It's not possible. Teenagers (including yourself, I might add - I was) are stupid, stupid people with short term vision. However, that won't always be so. People grow up, they learn to take care of themselves. All the silly nonsense that bothers them all now, won't in five years. You won't even meet those people again should you go to college. I still keep in touch with three of my old school friends who liked me in spite of my weirdness. They will remain friends for life. None of the others did.

You will meet new people. You will develop new coping strategies. You'll get better and better at the things you're already good at until you reach the point few can match you in them. No, you might never be a lothario nor will you have normal relationships, but the ones you do have exist in spite of what you are and are stronger for it.

People who are mature will see you for what you are, not what society decides you are.

Never live the label.