Who is against a cure for Aspergers?

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We'll never know but I still think a cure would more likely be exclusive to children.

It would probably be easier to influence someone's development from an early age so the person turns out NT than it would be to undo and redo 50 years of development in an older person.

How do you know that? I mean, someone could be LFA and be totally content in his/her own little world.

They'd have to catch it in the womb then... I hate to imagine what sort of horrors they would inflict on some poor kid to try and "make them normal"...
*Shudders*

They'd have to catch it in the womb then... I hate to imagine what sort of horrors they would inflict on some poor kid to try and "make them normal"...
*Shudders*


Not all brain development happens in the womb. There is a lot of development that takes place from infancy to early adulthood. Autism is a developmental disorder. If you could change the pattern of development while it's happening you would change the disorder.

Maybe it could make the difference between a 25 year old person having a brain that resembles someone with Autism and that same person having a brain that is identical to that of a NT.

If there was a drug, a form of gene therapy, or a physical treatment that could do that it wouldn't be horrific. What's horrific is the way kids are forced to try and be normal right now without being able to.

Nearly all of the building of the brain does occur in the womb. The neurons are are formed in the plate of the brain and than migrate outward along glial fibers into their final position in the layers of the neocortex where they then specialize into the types of neurons needed.

After birth, there is some neuronal development, but it is only known to happen in a couple areas of the brain. Perhaps the much higher numbers of neurons could happen because of some kind of rogue neuronal development in those regions of the brain after birth, but I seriously doubt it.

So it's okay to attack sensitive members on WP, is it? You've gone too far this time. You probably also think my ranking and signature is a big joke.

There are some topics that can escalate out of control very quickly. I know of no topic that is generally quicker to escalate out of control than that of abortion.

While I generally enjoy spirited discussions, even I avoid discussing abortion on the Internet for that reason.

I, personally, don't think I need a "cure", nor do I want one.

That being said, I believe that people should be able to live as they please (so long as they are competent and do not bring non-consensual harm to others). I would support a "cure" being found solely for the reason that I think a competent adult should be able to choose that "cure" if they want to. I would not support it being forced upon children, adolescents and non-competent adults unless their case was severe enough that it hindered their quality of life. I don't like the thought of it being used as a way to screen during pregnancy, but I also support the choice to induce abortion for any reason up to 24 weeks gestation or at any period for medical necessity, so I would ultimately accept it.

I met a lot of people with LFA.
My own brother is LFA (he has childhood disintegrative disorder). He suddenly starts crying without a reason because he can't express himself with words, and my parents often misunderstand his gestures when he's trying to express himself. He self-harms by hitting is head on the walls.
I once saw a kid with LFA that had very violent meltdowns, during which he bit everything that was around him, even glass things, people, and himself.
I met a girl with very low-functioning autism that couldn't go out of her room because if she did, she had very violent meltdown, and she often took televisions and threw them on the floor.
I saw a kid with LFA that passed all his time staring at a wall, without moving, or simply reacting to sound around him. His mother was very depressed, because the child didn't even eat, if someone wasn't there to give him food, and most of the time, even if they gave him food, he refused to simply open his mouth to eat.
And I met many other people with LFA, it would take too long to tell here my experience.
I don't know if people with LFA can be happy, but I don't think that those I met were happy.

Which means we can't know what they'd want - not that we can assume they want a cure.

I'm all for communication intervention, and intervention to improve self-care and practical skills as well. There's a big difference between doing that sort of stuff and trying to actually cure autism.

That's the only thing that can be done at the moment.

The funny part of that "Your side lost last November" bit, is that CockneyRebel lives in the UK.

i read only a few posts in this thread, so if i echo the sentiments of earlier posts, i am unaware of it.

i do not feel dissatisfied with how my life is at the moment, however i would think that people who feel "completed" by their friends would certainly be dissatisfied if they were plonked into my life.

i have a strangely deep (inexplicably so) friend called "sonia" who is the epitome of what i see as neurotypical.
she has "deep and satisfying" relationships with her many friends, and she feels that her mental experience is inadequate without the company of other people to "share it with".

she sometimes (quite regularly actually) is emotionally injured by her interaction with her friends. she experiences euphoria when things are going well socially for her, and she experiences severe distress when she does not receive enough social approval to satisfy her appetite for external adulation.

she seems to be very interested in how my inner being is when she is smarting from a social wound.
she and i embarked upon a thought fest about which of us was essentially luckier. me who never shed a tear about what other's think, or her who's heart drips blood whilst it recovers from a social disappointment.

she wished she was like me, but maybe she would not like the monotony of my life (as i have crafted it to be).

she sometimes seems so happy that i would like to know how she feels in a subjective sense.
it looks like it feels "good", and not just "acceptable" as my life feels.

so here i encounter the question that if i could live the life of an NT, would i choose to do so?

if the "cure" was simply a tablet that counteracted whatever it was that makes me autistic (fuzzy logic), and the effects of that tablet wore off after a day or so, then i would surely take the tablet.

if i liked the new life i felt after taking the tablet, i would continue to take the tablets.

if the "cure" was neurosurgery and was permanent, i would never consider it. i would never risk losing myself (who i am not unhappy with) by trading myself in for a shiny new social me who agonizes about other peoples lives and attitudes.

i think it is easier to be me than to be sonia. she experiences euphoria and despair. i do not think "euphoria" is worth the inevitable "despair" that underpins it.

Yes, that's a good point here.

1) NTs also have many problems and not all are having a happy life
2) Who guaranties me that I don't end up having something else instead?

Are your senses among the things that develop only in the womb?

If you are born without one of your five senses can it be developed outside of the womb or will you live your entire life without the sense?

That's a good point. I should be more careful about the topics that I bring up, if I don't want to be eaten alive.