Autism is not something to be cured! AGREE? OR DISAGREE?

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You can't "cure" a mental disorder. That doesn't make sense. It's not a disease. The most we can do is bear with it and attempt to make it as pleasant as possible.

Here's how I actually think it'll go down...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bgEHAKcG9k&feature=more_related[/youtube]

If only because the actual scene is too violent for this discussion.

If it were possible to cure something like autism, the people who want the cure should be able to get the cure while the people who don't want it shouldn't be forced to have it. While some people thrive on autism, others only experience misery as a result of it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWf-eARnf6U[/youtube]

The idea of cure is being strategically interpreted as if it were for the flu. This I think is an innate ego protection because well no one wants to feel defective. When an individual is impaired in speech and language they are provided with speech and language therapy and when social skills and life skills lack reducing quality of life services are introduced to create independence. The cure and the autism concepts are vast generalizations. This debate is ill constructed, commonly played out on the internet and hardly ever ends productively but with the piss spit venom of the inability to think beyond a rigid view of acceptance vs. non-acceptance. It's getting old and people that will allow themselves to think freely without tripping over their super sensitive self-esteems find the truth. It's good to feel good about yourself but try not to alienate yourself and other in the process and destroying hope for those not as fortunate as you because in the end pro-treatment with choice and pro-acceptance will win.

Enough is enough move on.

i was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at age 11 i know the hardships of being teased about my differences but i voted "NO" because my autism is a part of who i am and to deny my autism is to deny myself from me physically and mentally if i were cured i fully believe i WOULDN'T be me anymore

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4cU0NIGZMQ[/youtube]

Treatment does not mean saying goodbye..

Cure simply means treatment and people just wanted to help. Yes autism can be treated if when what is called symptomatology or differences manifest in ways that are able to receive treatments that can but as for intently focusing on something for a long-time I wouldn't want to cure that, thats fun. It's just a word and the polls questions seem to be the same difference. As for culture I am not even sure what that is. I don't see how receiving treatments (cures) would get rid of a culture. That would be like telling old folks they can't talk together in a group home in which many with autism reside.

Also in pathology many things are considered diseases. In some kind of analytics even marketing is a disease like viral marketing. To me it's not that big of a deal and so much social energy is spent on it that well to me its a horrid waste of time. I just don't get upset over these trivial things and don't understand why others do.

Nathan Young

I'm in favour of a cure. NT'S have a higher quality of life and are happier. I think a basic sense of fulfillment and human happiness are the most you can ask for. I am unable to achieve this as an isloated, extremely anxious and depressed aspie.

I also think the "but you wouldnt be you maaan" lines of argument dont really stand up to scrunity. i would be a better and happier me.

well I'm happy to have a cure for my immune defect, GI issues, and anxiety. As for the other stuff well I like the way I think just fine. I've been doing biomed for about a year now and it's massively helped a lot of things. I still have AS though but now I'm able to do things I've never been able to do.................eye contact, no more rashes, not sick in awhile. I've not minded the biomed but I'm not in it for a cure. I just want to improve my life as much as I can. I've done several of the treatments including the controversial chelation(I had lead poisoning from eating paint chips as a kid so yeah I needed that).....I'm not cured though....but happier, less isolated, and more connected then I was a year ago...it's been a fascinating experiment....if I were younger and got major therapy my life would be massively different....maybe/maybe not.

Biomed is an umbrella term, short for biomedical, which refers to any autism therapy, treatment or cure which involves medicine, supplements, diet or any such thing. Biomed runs the gamut from dangerous and ineffective to some of the best ways to improve health and functioning for certain individuals regardless of whether or not they're on the spectrum.

It's important to note that biomed interventions intended to remedy deficiencies or treat illnesses are only successful in those who have the deficiency or illness. So, for instance, the GFCF (gluten free, casein free) diet is only successful in those individuals who actually have leaky gut or some other gluten and/or casein intolerance. (And it's possible to be able to digest one but not the other. So improving on a GFCF diet doesn't mean you need to go without both. Improvement also might be due to getting better nutrition-- eating less processed food and more vegetables.) On the other hand, some biomed things are just good ideas for anyone and fall under the category of stuff that will improve overall health. And some are bad ideas for anyone, or almost anyone. And it's possible to do wrong.

On the other hand, it has a somewhat undeserved bad rap. People tend to associate the term with things that aren't helpful (or aren't helpful for most people-- probably less than half of all autistics would benefit from GFCF, for instance, and will still be autistic afterward, even though it's widely touted as a cure for all autism). Some biomed is just common sense, or at worst harmless. (Megadoses of certain vitamins-- not all vitamins, but ONLY those vitamins which can be taken in any quantity with little or no ill effect-- are can't-hurt-could-help sorts of things. Megadoses of other vitamins could kill you, so do your research.)

Biomed has to be highly personal. Figure out if you have any allergies or intolerances or leaky gut. You can kill three birds with one stone by eliminating foods one at a time to see what that does to you. (If you do have leaky gut, you might go through withdrawal before you see improvement.) Figure out if you have any deficiencies. There was a recent study that suggests that some sort of mitochondrial issue is common in autistics, so you could try a supplement of DHEA and see if you improve. It's important to try these things one at a time. If you try them all at once, how will you know which one caused the improvement?

I take two strong b vitamins tabs a day and have for half a decade. I noticed an immiediate difference in my "resting" anxiety level although i still get anxious when i have to socialise unfortunately. I was born with slight brain damage at birth so i suspect this is the reason for my own autism. Thus i cant undertand how the GF/CF diet could possibly alter my damaged brain and "cure" my autism. Also i love milk and wheat products

i still don't get why you guys don't understand that autism speaks only wants to help kids with low functioning autism? they really don't give a s**t about aspergers. my karate studio is heavily sponsored by autism speaks so i would know

I'm against a cure and I don't wish for autism to be eradicated, while at the same time, I'm interested in what everybody else has to say about this.