How can I spread awareness of neurodiversity?

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I don't know what I should do... I want to help. The media forgets and ignores us. What should I do? I want to help.

Wear a Neurodiversity Button!

Don't waste your time with that, because I and others are going to destroy it.

Use your computer skillz..

Huh? Destroy what?

Anyways jugga, you have to become the face of Aspergers and deprogram people as to what aspergers is and is not. Let people know you aren't a puzzle. Perhaps what you could do is make a series of youtube vids detailing your self exploration in the reality that exists outside the convention of psychiatry. In essence, become who you are, not who you are told to be by the expectations of a system that views you as a disease.

Destroy the anti-cure movement. All of that "neurodiverse" crap.

The best way to spread the word is to do a good job at what ever you do and be the best at it. Show that we are as good as anyone else. I'm an Aspie, a major in the Air Force Reserve, and proud of both.

Longshanks

What about the ones on the spectrum who don't have the talents you have? The ones with many impairments in basic skills.

I'd consider not being able to cook, clean, or hold a job impairments in basic skills. I'd consider rarely being able to leave the apartment alone an impairment in basic skills.

But I still don't want to be cured.

Just because you think that people who don't want to be 'cured' are trying to keep special things to themselves, doesn't mean that's true, and you don't have to go onto every thread where someone is being not ashamed of who they are and turn it into how you feel this is a terrible movement, to let people actually think for themselves.

Let me be me. The fact that I'm disabled doesn't change that I'm me, so stop trying to force me to be ashamed of being myself and to think I need cured. Yes, my life is hard. Yes, I require help. Yes, I am disabled. And yes, I'm not ashamed and would absolutely refuse any cure that was offered to me.

I'm Tuttle. That's what matters. I'll go through the effort to make my life easier on myself and others (and am doing so), but I won't change who I am because some random person on the internet thinks I should.

So, no, people who are "anti-cure" or "pro-neurodiversity" aren't people without impairments. We're just people with different priorities in life, who thinks that people shouldn't all be forced into having the same priorities. My priorities don't include large amounts of money, being overly social, or being not disabled. My priorities include doing the best I can, being happy, and making a difference to individuals. My priorities include being me.

Then don't accept the cure when it becomes available.


Who is discouraging anyone thinking for themselves?


Nobody is stopping you from being you. At least I'm not. Nobody wants to force cure on you. But other individuals want it for themselves. I honestly don't understand what being oneself has to do with disability. I for one, in being me, want to do things. But things are too difficult for me to do, as I'm disabled.


I didn't ask you to change.


Basic abilities are basic needs. Priorities that are chosen by individuals, are very difficult to succeed at without abilities. Lots of individual wants of others could be satisfied if they had the aptitudes to succeed.

The first thing I learned in the military is that a mind is like a parachute: it won't work unless it's open. You might want to work on yours a bit before you become a splat on the ground. To begin with, every aspie is different. I'm not that functional. I just reach out and try to train myself and get help from other professionals. Presidents Lincoln (a counsin of mine), and Theodore Roosevelt, along with Charlemagne and Einstein all were aspies, but they followed their passions. Everyone has their own set of talents and their own passions. That is, for most, a good start.

Aspergers afffects social skills. It does not affect IQ. If a guy like me could rise above it all with very little talent and skill, others can too. They just have to want it and have to want the help.

I am no different than anyone else. My IQ is above average, yes. But so are most aspies. When you are dealt a bad hand - and believe me I was dealt some horrible cards excluding Asperger's, you learn to play that hand as best you can to survive. Part of being successful is realizing that you don't know it all and surrounding yourself with those who know more than you. You then learn from those people and then use that knowledge to better yourself by bettering the environment of those around you despite your circumstances. Keeping that in mind has not only helped rise from Airman Basic to Major, but has allowed me to have a positive impact on others.

There is nothing disgraceful about the profession of arms. I have been a warrior all of my life. In the same token, I appreciate peace more than some because I know the price we warriors pay. I too have paid a horrible price for yours and others' freedom. Nonetheless, there are other avenues that people can explore to make a positive impact on others and society as a whole. People just have to be willing to reach out and explore them. I'm not God. I'm just a guy - and a survivor. But I refuse to believe in pitty parties and refuse to let my Aspergers be an excuse not to move on.

Longshanks

Why destroy the neurodiversity movement?

Please specify.

Longshanks

hey dalurker. if you believe that you can respect autistic people who want to be autistic and have a cure at the same time then why do you hate neurodiversity. hating our philosophy shows your intolerance. i wouldn't protest a cure if i thought that i would have a choice, but cure pushers like you refuse to respect neurodiversity. you refuse to respect autistic people's talents. whenever we speak up you say "i'm gonna take you down" and accuse me of spreading propaganda. so if you want me to respect your position then respect mine.n its a mutual idea.

Because you want to make the decision for OTHERS and prevent them from getting a cure. You never said you would leave it up to choice. Many of you want research into it gutted.

I say no tolerance for suffering.


You can't prove that someone is going to force cure on you. You don't deserve to restrict others decisions out of some paranoid fear something will be forced on you. I don't respect anyone's talents. Humans life is to be respected. Talent/ability exists for humans. Individuals don't exist to serve talent, or to serve the pursuit of such success so only a privileged few can have such ability. High-functioning ones shouldn't be the only ones to get the talent. So would you really stop talking against cure if I stopped complaining of your personal dislike of cure?

Neurodiversity or not, I think that it is safe to say that there will not likely be a cure for autisim or Aspergers in our life times. What we have is neurophysical. Someone would have to be able to do some serious gene manipulation, and I don't think society is really able to stomach something like that.

The question, as I see it, is not so much how we cure it so much as it is "What do we do with it?" I was an air search and rescue officer in the early part of my military career. My squadron was the one that was called out for the people who simply could not be found. Of 29 actual live search and rescue missions which were under fire, I was credited with 8 finds, which is a 28% average. That is a very high average for "looking for a needle in a stack of needles". I was even decorated for it. I just assumed that I had the knack of it better than a lot of people and that part of too was luck. However, once I was diagnosed, I realized that the reason I found those people easier than anyone else was because my Asperger's enabled me to catch details way earlier than anyone else. I learned a very valuable lesson from that light bulb going on: That there were advantages as well as disadvantages to what I had - and if these advantages were harnessed in the right way, I could use them to the betterment of society and those around me.

Yes, there are disadvantages to what we're afflicted with - no doubt. As for me, I don't do well in social situations. And some view me as "a bit odd." But there is nothing wrong with seeking training so that one could do better in those areas one is weak in while excercising one's natural abilities. By excersizing my "gift" of Asperger's, and by the grace of God, I saved some lives. There are some dads who are home with their wives and kids because of that. Is that not worth something?

Asperger's is the curse of kings: Charlemagne had it. His descendant William the Conqueror had it. William's descendant King Edward I (the Longshanks) had it. King Edward III, Longshanks' grandson had it, who passed it to John of Gaunt, through to Joan Beaufort, to Sir Thomas Wyatt, to the Rev. Haute Wyatt, and through the generations to an aspie called Longshanks who became a decorated Air Force Major and is now in consideration for lieutenant colonel.

I am not saying this to brag - but to make a point. What we are given we can't help. But what is to stop us from using it for the betterment of mankind? Marie Curie certainly made life better. Certainly we can too. But to do that we cannot allow our affliction to be the proverbial chains that restrain our potential.

I was born and raised an athiest. I became born-again in 1994. I leave one parting thought, not to evangelize, but to give hope:

“and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
-Revelation 21:4-5

Longshanks, descendant of a long line of aspies.