How would you feel about... A cure?

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Hey all. I'm a neurodiverse blog writer. It's a new blog and I'm looking for a second post. I am writing about how some small businesses and parents are making fake businesses with promises of curing the child.

I am debunking the science, and discussing the neurodiverse perspective. So I wanted to opinions from people who are affected.

1. Are you for or against a cure. (hypothetically, let assume it's possible for this question).
2. Would you want to be cured?
3. Do you feel autism is part of your identity?
4. Would you be the same person without autism?
5. How would you feel if your parents tried to cure you? (as a child)
6. What is a positive side of you being autistic?
7. What is the negative side to being autistic?

Thanks!

1. Are you for or against a cure. (hypothetically, let assume it's possible for this question).
Not in and of itself, but i am against a mandatory cure; if an ND person is (legally) able to make decisions himself (akin to getting married, buying a house, that sort of legal authority), it should be that persons' own decision.

2. Would you want to be cured?
Me myself? No, there is nothing that needs a cure in me.

3. Do you feel autism is part of your identity?
Yes. Autism shapes how i think, how i react to stimuly, how i see the world... basically everything that shapes an identity is also affected by autism.

4. Would you be the same person without autism?
Isn't this the same question as #3? no, i won't be, since autism is part of my identity; if you take it away, you change me.

5. How would you feel if your parents tried to cure you? (as a child)
No idea actually, my hypothetical thinking doesn't go that far without running into the realisation that it is, indeed, hypothetical

6. What is a positive side of you being autistic?
I see the world differently, i notice a lot more so i can take in beauty a lot better than the next person.
Also, i'm nearly immune to fads, fashion and ads, so that's a plus as well (they are aimed at NT minds, so they don't really work on me. "Everyone is doing X", "yeah? so what?")

7. What is the negative side to being autistic?
The world doesn't understand me, it is build around the majority (understandable), so yeah, there are always strange and uninituative parts there.

1. Are you for or against a cure. (hypothetically, let assume it's possible for this question).
For only if it were risk free. Which I doubt it would be. If it wasn't then I think the person needs to decide whether or not to take the risk. If it was completely risk free and didn't change anything but the negative aspects of autism I'd be completely for it.

2. Would you want to be cured?
Depends how risky. I'd be very skeptical of it. If it was risk free and only touched negative areas, yes. If I could be convinced it was. I wouldn't take anyone's word for it apart from medical professionals because of all the other "cures" which aren't actual cures but dangerous.

3. Do you feel autism is part of your identity?
Sort of. Having it your whole life does shape you as a person. But at the same time it's not your personality, it's just a deficit of social communication with restricted behavior. I think there's more to a person than being autistic.

4. Would you be the same person without autism?
Unsure. It depends on what a cure would do. If it rewires your whole brain then would you really be the same person? I mean you'd have the same body and go under the same name with the same backstory. I don't know. I suppose technically you are the same person.

5. How would you feel if your parents tried to cure you? (as a child)
I don't really feel strongly about anything or ever have done so I have no idea.

6. What is a positive side of you being autistic?
I have really great long term memory. I can also remember a lot on things that interest me. The detail I'll go to may be of use someday to somebody and I can't wait until it is. I don't get bored doing repetitive things and like being told what to do so I think that'd probably help with jobs. Not sure how much of these is to do with being autistic or just being me though.

7. What is the negative side to being autistic?
Asides from issues with socialization, communication, are restricted and repetitive behaviors? Very bad "working" memory. The things that interest me tend to be very specific and it's pretty pointless to know the things I do (I don't choose them and they tend to be on useless things), though that comes into restricted and repetitive behaviors. Sensory issues - noise is a daily problem for me.

1. I am against a cure in that people are so desperete for one these days there is going to be a lot of rushing it into the market before it is properly tested lead to horrible unintended effects.


2. Even as an NT altering a lot of who I am at age 58 would be to much to overcome. I do not want to set an example validating for other autistics and others that autism is only bad.

3. As my user name states most definitely a big part of who I am. It partially or totally explains why the things in my life happened the way they did.

4. Highly doubt it.

5. They and everybody kind of did. But I am at peace with it because nobody knew what they were trying to cure back then as the knowledge of the Autism spectrum was decades in the future.

6. The positive side is the joy in following my special interests. Seeing some things others can't

7. The negative sides are the impairments of executive funtioning disorder and the many disadvantages that come with thinking differently then 98 percent of everybody else.

1. Are you for or against a cure. (hypothetically, let assume it's possible for this question).
-I haven't formed an opinion on this yet. I mean, it's easy for someone who's quite high functioning (Sorry for the use of labels) as myself to say no. But also, as a DSP, I get to see the really low functioning people with ASD, and well, honestly, I don't have enough information to be able to form an opinion on this. On an other note, considering that it's mostly widely accepted as a neurological disorder, meaning a different brain configuration, would it even be possible for a "cure" to be made?

2. Would you want to be cured?
-I have no desire, personally, I don't feel like my ASD is some disease, and by now, I've gotten so use to doing things a certain way, that if some how I could have my brain "re-configured" to be more like a "normal" brain, that it would just cause more mental turmoil.

3. Do you feel autism is part of your identity?
-I guess in a way, but I don't let it define me.

4. Would you be the same person without autism?
-I believe that are personalities and who we are is a result of billions of micro interactions with our environment, it's why no two people are a 100% the same, if I had a clone born that same time as me, we both grew up together, same DNA, we both have ADHD and ASD, share all our meals, eat the same thing, literally do everything together, we would still be different people. So no, I would not be the same person.

5. How would you feel if your parents tried to cure you? (as a child)
-By now, as someone who's worked with intellectually disabled adults for about a year and a half, (which may not seem like a lot, but considering most people quit with 3 months, I guess it's considered a good amount of time) I have a decent idea the frustration a parent must feel when they have this child they don't understand. I mean, it's not really anymore their fault as is it is the child's. Not everyone is trained to deal with someone who's different. I mean, I would be against the idea, but I wouldn't have held it against them.

6. What is a positive side of you being autistic?
-What I discovered from getting assessed recently, is that I've developed some very interesting coping mechanisms that seem to allow me to look at situations from some very abnormal angles that will give me different outside of the box solutions. Although generally my solutions will seem very un-orthodox, and take quite a bit to explain to other people. Then there's a reveres effect where I'll have a very hard time understand simple solutions that come as a result of a "NT thinking pattern"

7. What is the negative side to being autistic?
-Crippling social anxiety. Getting overly upset when something doesn't going to plan. My control over my emotions are not where I would like them. I still get teary eyed when even something remotely sad happens on a TVshow/movie/game/sad song, it's quite annoying.

1. Are you for or against a cure. (hypothetically, let assume it's possible for this question).

I personally believe finding a cure for autism is one step away from eugenics, if not straight up eugenics. I believe that autism is necessary to maintain neurodiversity, but I also believe in the freedom for people to make their own decisions. With this in mind, I believe people should be allowed to seek out a cure, but should be discouraged from doing so.

2. Would you want to be cured?

Definitely not. I would not be the same person without my autism, and I am quite happy with how I am.

3. Do you feel autism is part of your identity?

Yes, see the above answer.

4. Would you be the same person without autism?

No, see the answer to #2

5. How would you feel if your parents tried to cure you? (as a child)

I would be pissed to be honest. Being cured should be a decision made by an independent adult, not by parents. It's like circumcision: What makes it bad is not the operation itself, but the fact that it is does unconsensually.
(Even though as I said above, I think a cure is a terrible idea.)

6. What is a positive side of you being autistic?

Not sure how much of it I should credit to my autism, and pardon me for tooting my own horn, but I've been told that I'm quite intelligent, and skilled in a few fields.

7. What is the negative side to being autistic?

I feel it's harder for me to talk to people, and make emotional connections with them.

To put it simply, I don't want a cure. I'm fine as who I am. I'd rather people learn to understand my quirks and accommodate my needs.

Asperger's isn't a disease or a disability! It just makes you different! [At least, this is what I believe, and whether you believe that you are worthy of your differentness makes all the difference in the world!] So a big Luke Skywalker NEVER! to the idea of a 'cure'! [Sorry if I've offended anyone for whatever reason.]

1. For
2. Yes
3. No way!
4. I would be a better person without it.
5. Difficult to say. Being the brat I was back then (due to the autism), I probably would have resisted the idea.
6. That's like asking, 'What is a positive side of you being blind?' It's a handicap.
7. The anxiety, the sensory and emotional sensitivities, societal rejection, the loneliness, the impact it has upon one's job prospects, the inability to comprehend many aspects of interpersonal communication (ex. body language, tone of voice), being clumsy, slow, uncoordinated, unpopular, being constantly misunderstood, patronised, marginalised and treated like the next potential mass-shooter.

If it isn't a disability, then why is there even a need for a site like Wrong Planet? Why do so many here feel as though they just don't belong (hence the name of the site)?

If your response is something like, 'We need extra attention/services in order to compensate for the way society is structured', then it needs to be asked why the vast majority of us find it so difficult to cope with the way things are now, when approximately 96% of the world's population (the N.T.'s) don't seem to have the same issues we do when it comes to the things that make life so difficult for us.

What about schizophrenics? Are they also a part of this 'neurodiversity' that you speak of? What about sociopaths and psychopaths? Why is 'maintaining neurodiversity' so important anyway?

Plenty of people are having problems including communication problems.see USA politics. Our combination of problems are unique but others have specific problems we have.

I don't see how something diagnosed for having clinical impairments could possibly be claimed as not being a disability.

Answers to these and related questions here:

viewtopic.php?t=294881

Or if you want to go straight to the sources:
http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2015 ... se-of.html
http://neurocosmopolitanism.com/neurodi ... finitions/

Answers to these and related questions here:

viewtopic.php?t=294881

Or if you want to go straight to the sources:
http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2015 ... se-of.html
http://neurocosmopolitanism.com/neurodi ... finitions/