If a cure was proposed, would you try it?

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Assuming money wasn't an issue (all treatments were free):
If someone claimed a psychological treatment could cure autism, would you be willing to try it?
What about psychological treatments for social anxiety, sensitivity to criticism, and other problems common among autistic people? Do you think those problems are genetic or psychological?

Does the following information change your opinion?
Autism was originally considered to be psychological. Then, it was considered genetic. Now, it's considered about 50% genetic and 50% caused by unknown environmental factors. Since depression is also considered to be 50% genetic and some people who were depressed are no longer depressed, do you think it's possible to cure autism?

Depends what you mean by "cure". Some of my autism-related traits give me an advantage, some can add to my struggles.

Not everybody on the spectrum has social anxiety, sensitivity to criticism or even depression.

I'm not taking pride in my neurology, but I'm not ashamed of it either, maybe lower functioning people might feel differently, but I found my niche and I'm doing quite well as I am, thank you

At the moment I would say no for one reason. I have not been assessed yet and I really want to try to understand myself and work out that has been going on. I have had all my life as not knowing and also having partial and full shutdowns etc which would be lovely if they could go as in be cured BUT, I have to say that the learning what has been going on for all this time... To make sense of things... This is actually a greater priority as it has been too long. I mean.. I HAVE to know if I am on the spectrum or not. It would feel too cruel to dangle answers and yet have some sort of instant cure without me being able to grasp my lifes history in a way that I understand.

This does not mean that I would say no to avoiding the chance to be healed from the shutdowns the stress and the effects of burnout which have been the hardest hitting events I have experienced. (Burnout was not an instant event as in snap... That was burnout. No. It was a slow event which happened over a few weeks where I was struggling more and more and more).
And yes. I do want to be healed from the effects so I can get my life back...

But to get my life back without understanding my past would be far harder hitting in a mental way as I really, really, really want to know.

I sound a bit idiotic in saying this. Why would someone... Anyone... Refuse to be healed unless they were first diagnosed with whatever it is they have had?
It is because I have had it for so long. All my life! It is because I need to understand. To make sense of things. To make sense of my life!

I know God knows me. He made me. He makes sense of me... Only God really knows me...

There IS another important aspect. I believe that God created me to be who I am. As autism (If that is how God made me? I may not be) is ones character as autism can not be seperated from ones character if that makes sense? (I can't seperate traits from my character as if I removed the traits that I know I have, there would be none of the real "Me" left!! !)

So though I want to be in a position where I can freely do things again. I want the effects of the successive burnouts... I want to recover from them so I can work again and challenge life again if that makes sense?
So though I want all that, without understanding who I am and what it is that I have gone through... Without knowing and having this understanding... Without this, my whole life up until now has been pointless. (I am not saying that the things I have done in my past have been pointless. I am saying that everything from my past is pointing towards this point in time when I will be assessed, and then when things make sense I will feel I can draw a line and get my life back if that makes sense? As the not knowing has been erroding me for so many years now that I need to know so I can have that platfoem to stand on which makes sense....

I hope I have described how I feel in a way that those of you who read can understand, as for me, this not understanding has been gnawing away at me for years!

Something I would like to say to add to what I have said. Assuming I am autistic (Likely to be on the aspergers side of things if I am), then I don't want to become allistic (NT) because I have no concept of what this is. Whatever I am, I have no concept of being anyone other then being who I am, so I would not cope with being someone else. I am far too set in my ways for not being me if that makes sense..?

Ooh....re-reading my last post and it made me think of pink wafer biscuits! How strange! Hahaha!

Good discussion, good posts.

I like my autistic brain.

I'd fix my eyes though.

I'd fix my anxiety. I hate having anxiety. I remember when I didn't have it. It developed in me as an adult and isn't me.

If you took away my autism, I'd be a different person. If you took away my anxiety, I'd still be me but I'd be healthier. If you took away my light sensitivity (from my autism), I'd still be me but with good eyes & be able to go on holiday again to hot countries & watch fireworks.

I'd choose stress related.

Which in my case, may or may not even be related to autism at all.


The closest possible autism relevant issue I may have would be consequently a form of sleep disorder or a form of sensitivity/vulnerability...
Both derived from neurology, yet on this chicken or egg question which caused which or if it's both.

Except I also already had plenty of odds over that without ever factoring autism or neurology for that matter.

It could've been related to women's health for all I know. Just untreated and undetected.

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I would be far more likely to try anything that might at least help mitigate some of the issues I have because of my autism than to not try it. For me, my autism is absolutely a disability, at least in NT society, and I would love to be rid of it or have it eased. I'm not sure I would believe that just one thing would completely cure it, but I'd believe it might at least help me, so unless there were risks that outweighed that possibility or anything I greatly object to involved, I'd give it a go. Yes, it would change who I am if my autism was "cured," but the thing is, I don't actually like who I am now, so that's not such a put-off for me.

For what it's worth, my depression has proven to be highly resistant to treatment of any kind, including a big bowl of alphabet soup (CBT, DBT, ECT, TMS...) and a good number of medications, so if I was using depression as a baseline, in my case I would deem it unchangeable. Not saying that other people can't be "cured" of depression, or autism, just that in my case it seems highly unlikely that my depression will ever go away.