Curebie or not curebie?

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ellenpaint ... isability/

Summary, please?

I do not think that I am disabled.

I know I have a disability. It negatively affects me in so many ways and the negatives outweigh the positives. What's so great about being able to focus on a specific subject for hours and knowing all about a narrow field of interest when everyone hates you and you don't even realize it until they do something so mean to you that you feel stupid for not knowing how they felt about you? I just want to be normal.

If people envy my expertise that is their problem.`

If people pull a prank on me and if I do not realize it that is their problem. They are the ones who are the liars.

On the subconscious level neurotypicals are just as gullible as the autistic. But the neurotypical has effectively seared his subconscious and a neurotypical can only operate at the conscious level.

Summary is that we can look at a disability as an illness to be cured or as a piece of a person to be accepted. I hold this in tension: I want to accept my daughter the way she is. I also wish she was cured and more comfortable in life. I want people to accept me the way I am. But I also wish I was cured and could better follow social interactions and not need my husband to explain everything to me.

am pro choice of the whole weird 'cure concept' because of own experiences of dealing with severe and quality of life limiting autism, and also because believe it is up to each and evey person to make that judgement of their own body/mind or in the case of an autist lacking all or almost all language,a best interest decision made by a panel of specialists,family etc who knew the autist.

however will say this about lower functioning autism and the mistake many pro curists and pro choicers make over this concept.
those of us who are assessed under 'limited mental capacity' and thus lower functioning experience autism the way we do because our mental capacity issues affects our ability to develop points such as awareness of our surroundings,understanding basic concepts,verbal communication and language skills we dont need support with, continence [as opposed to the incontinence many of us have],complete lack of social rules awareness,unable to discriminate and see humans without objectifying them,of those of us who use it;become extremely easy targets for attention seeking scumbags on the internet who prey on autism/LD/disability sites,we tend to be more vulnerable than most with coping due to lacking the communication skills, not being able to know someone is lying and lacking the understanding of what to do or how to even just start that process of going out the room to get help from someone close etc.
the fact we have learning disability [LD is the UK label for what america calls intelectual disability] flavours our autism and no cure of autism woud remove the real isue behind why we function so poor.

what helps us is to move away from home into specialist autism residential facilities which have inhouse specialist support,they have more training than anyone to deal with all the issues we face,at home many severely or profoundly autistic kids [children or adult] have grown up being spoilt because its easier for the parents than getting punched,bit etc; mine [dad] was not a spoiler;he was a vicious beater from toddler age onwards which was a main trigger of lifelong severe reactive attachment disorder, am very different to those am living with who were brought up excessively spoilt.

in the right centre like ours,no one gets away with challenging behavior and it is incredible how well we have all developed and lost behaviors due to being where we are.
parents often unintentionaly hold their kids back,but let them be in the support of the specialists and will see how we can change over a long term basis.

So why is being an autistic genius considered to be a disability?

I don't wish to be cured, because I see autism as one of my differences to be celebrated. I also believe in the sanctity of all human life from conception until natural death.

A cure would be nice. I don't think a cure would take away my intelligence or personality. I think it'll allow me to identify my emotions, be able to read faces, connect with people, and maybe, it'll help me eat my veggies.

I don't think a cure will ever happen though, because Autism is more than one disorder. A cure-all is a nice thought, but it's really unrealistic. Scientists will have to cure one disorder at a time and who knows how many Autistic disorders are there. Some may never be curable, only preventable.

i dont know.i certainly regret my whole life but people with autism have more recources then were available 30 years ago.

why push a cure on people who dont want it

Because aspie and genius do not go hand in hand. The intelligence spread for Aspies is identical to that of NTs... Meaning we have as many borderline impaired, average and below average individuals as they do.

What about something that makes the sensory issues less severe.

good idea

I actually covered this on my blog CLICKABLE LINK

I am disabled. I don't consider being disabled to be a miserable death sentence that means you'll die alone and crying in the gutter.