Am I the only person who wants to be cured?

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I don't really see any reason to change who I am and I can't imagine being anyone else. I don't want to be. My friends and my family like me for who I am, and changing that to be more 'socially acceptable' would only gain me false friends. I've had plenty of ups and downs in my life, but overall I'm glad to be me. I like me.

I don't understand a lot of you guys' posts ... maybe your form of AS doesn't cause intense loneliness like it does in me? Because I can't connect with anyone, I become sad that I have no friends ... and then I get depressed. THAT'S painful and I hate it. Plus, it hasn't changed with all the passing years ... I'm 58 now.

Just a "cure" for the downsides.

I definitely want to keep the benefits of AS, i really love those.

No, you're not the only one. If there was an effective cure available I'd take it, as AS has mostly been an impediment to me (albeit one that I'm becoming better at dealing with as I get older).

"cured" ??

I'm kind of new to the whole forum concept as a whole, so I couldn't quite figure out how to do quotes, but earlier you said:
"I still don't believe there is any NTs that accept people with AS. NTs my age that know I have AS treat me like I'm younger than them. The only time I get treated like an equal is when I can pass as normal."

Speaking as an NT, there are definitely NTs that accept people with AS. Are we few? Yes. Are you likely to meet us? Not easily. But we exist. My sister, my friends with AS, I don't think of them as anything less than equal. Well, I view my little sister as having a lot to learn, but that's the big sister in me, and she's got a lot to teach me, too. (And yes, I do mother her, but that has more to do with my parents being divorced and not having two fully present parents in the picture.) And I think that there are also increasingly more and more of us as understanding increases.

I think - but don't quote me on this - that someone earlier said that family members are more accepting of people with AS. I don't know how much I believe that...it probably played a role in me, but that said, plenty of my own family members aren't terribly accepting of my sister. But you don't have to be related with someone with AS to be NT and accepting. My roommate is super accepting of my sister, despite the fact that my sister doesn't act NT and, in fact, one of the first sentences out of her mouth when she meets people is that she has autism (and, before you say my roommate's accepting just because she's my sister, my roommate was also super accepting of another girl with some strong AS traits, albeit no diagnosis). Another friend with AS has been accepted by our class, even though he doesn't act particularly NT.

I think a lot of it has to do with the time in your life. I don't know how old you are, but one of the things I've noticed is that during middle and high school it's all about fitting in. And those years, for those of us who might not fit in, can be absolutely terrible. Note how I said us here - the title neuroTYPICAL might be a bit of a misnomer, because I am anything but typical. Back then, and now that I'm in college, the first word that people consistently use to describe me is weird. So, although I don't have the specific problems you mentioned, no AS doesn't necessarily mean no weirdness/trouble fitting in, as I can attest to. That said, for both my sister and I, college has been amazing. People are way more accepting. My sister and I (again, one NT one Aspie) both got our first close friends in life when we came to college. Not everyone has this experience, but I am saying that things can get better for some people because others in college have been much more accepting of people who stand out rather than blend in, at least where we are.

Also, another thing is the concept of emerging adulthood. This doesn't apply to friends that might treat you like a child (trust me, I know the people you're talking about, and they drive me nuts, too), but if adults treat you like a child, this may have something to do with it. Basically, it used to be really easy to determine who was an adult - they got a job, got married, and had kids, generally right after high school, all really quickly. But now, we're stretching that out, in favor of getting married and having kids later, and getting higher education (university). So, despite the fact that I'm in my 20s and my sister's not far behind, since neither of us has done any of those things listed, when we're at family gatherings my sister and I both get treated like children and relegated to the kiddie table.

Just my thoughts. You're welcome to want a cure, naturally - but I didn't want you to think that no one NT would like you if you acted AS. We may be few, but we do exist, and we'll like you whether you act AS or NT. If NTs are treating you like a kid, that's their fault, not yours, and they're missing out.

Good luck with everything!

DevilKisses, thinking back to the AS/music thread, when I was your age I attended like 3-4 3 day folk fests(meny with camping) and about 8-10 concerts a year, all cheap local indie events, I met meny people that I kept in relitive contact with for awhile in that group and a few of the artists got to know me by name. That was the odd eccentric group I fit into and the experence really helped me fight off the depression I got from daily life. perhaps you can do something simular. Maybe learn an insterment if you haven't yet so you can join in the song circles at night. You have interests, although maybe rare you can't be the only one with them.

Well regardless there is no cure. However I have improved myself significantly buy using my overly analytic mind to be aware of my social interactions. I have personally "taught" myself how to adapt to social situations. I still don't care for them but I can tolerate and even thrive in them now, unlike when I was wallowing in my own AS-ness. This the only way to "get better" and you can only get as better as you want to be and perceive. It might suck getting out of your comfort zone but you could surprise yourself.

You can shut yourself off from other people and make absolutely no effort to meet the world half way and that's fine. However if you want friends, a lover, etc then you're going to have to do some growing on your part. It is grossly unfair to think that just because you are different that everyone else should cater to you completely. That is no way to try to form any kind of relationship with another person.

Also, there really isn't anything to "cure". You are you. They are them. If you want to interact with them you need to speak their "language". It is no different for NT-NT relationships.

I don't want to be cured. I find the idea offensive -I feel like I and my friends on the spectrum have worked so hard to meet the NT world halfway and have been met with ignorance, bullying and abuse. To have that same world turn around and offer me a cure -like 'oh, we can love and accept you now because you're just like us' -and I'm supposed to be honored? Grateful? Happy that they didn't bother to try, just shove some pills at you so you can be pretty and perfect and just like them? If that's the world they've advertised -a world that excludes people that just don't 'fit' -then I don't want a part of it. A world like that has nothing of value to teach me.

I won't give up who I am for a world that never gave a damn about me in the first place.

That being said, if someone else wants a cure for their own reasons then that's their choice and none of my business to criticize. My only hope is that they'd be doing it not to make anyone else happy but for themselves. People who can't accept you for all the things you can and can't do aren't worth it.

Only if it increased my brain's capabilities without them decreasing in any other area. I wouldn't want to give up my Aspie abilities, but pure upgrades are good. If the cure didn't damage my Aspie abilities at all then it technically wouldn't make me NT, it would make me something greater than that. That being said, I doubt there will be a cure in the near future. Neurological conditions are very difficult to cure. It would probably be a lot easier to cure types of cancer that are unrelated to the brain, and that hasn't been accomplished yet. Curing severe autism probably won't be practical until the 22nd century, but curing mild autism might be practical before then, if we're lucky.