If AS was something you can contract…

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Irulan
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26 Aug 2009, 3:19 am

Let’s ponder such an issue… If AS wasn’t inborn but was something you could contract theoretically at every stage of life possible (from babyhood to adulthood) what age would you choose its first symptoms to appear at?

If you didn’t remember anything from before you got AS you wouldn’t know life without it so even if you had really serious problems because of it you wouldn’t know what you lost. Contracting it as a fully grown up person would in turn mean a sudden loss of social skills and the appearance of problems (like for example sensory issues) with which you never had an occasion to deal before but on the other hand then you would have already gathered many experiences a life of a regular ASless person is rich in (like maintaining and keeping friendships).

So if the option presented by me was available, would you prefer to get it so early in life that you couldn’t remember anything (like someone blind, deaf or paralyzed from babyhood doesn’t remember themselves in good health) or as an adult person? If you are one of those types who would choose to get AS later in life, how old would you prefer to be then – teenagers, young adults, mature people, a senile age?



wigglyspider
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26 Aug 2009, 3:29 am

Maybe 12. Because before 13, I was just sort of like WOAH, crazy. I have no idea what it would be like to be a regular kid. At 13 I started to figure stuff out more, but I'd have made more progress as a normal kid instead of being confused for like 10 years. So I think that'd be, like.. the most efficient age to get it, I guess. XD;;


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Callista
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26 Aug 2009, 3:45 am

From square one, the way it is now. It doesn't have to be a problem to have your brain different from everybody else's; but to have your brain change from the way it was before--that's usually pretty hard to adjust to. Acquired disability seems to add difficulty to life that congenital disability doesn't present--probably because an acquired disability forcibly changes your self-concept.


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26 Aug 2009, 5:02 am

I guess that I would agree with Callista, which brings me onto a second point.

If as an AS adult a NT adult wanted you to pass on AS to them, if there was an AS pathogen which you could pass on (or like a vampire making a human into another vampire), would you be willing to grant the NT person's wish.

Also what would you want to ask them about or tell them about before you agreed to do it for them ?

I am not sure why a NT might want to cross the Rubicon and become one of us, perhapes in some professions the visual thinking would be something that a NT might want.


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Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.


fiddlerpianist
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26 Aug 2009, 7:13 am

Since it's a developmental disorder, it's really hard to answer that question. Your brain hardens and reinforces its pathways as you get older. "Contracting" AS would involve wholesale rewiring of the brain, sort of like a time machine that went back to birth and gave you those characteristics.


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Magneto
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26 Aug 2009, 9:06 am

Hmmm... hard to say. If I could be reincarnated though, and go through life having AS and not having it, with full memories from each, I'd take it. Then I have seen the world more than most people. If I have four lives, I'll take AS female, AS male, NT female, NT male. I want a fifth, though, where I can apply this stuff :lol: I'd be able to destroy society! Well, maybe not, but it the knowledge is not something to be granted lightly.

I'd like to know what it's like to see the world throughtwo different perspectives, just for the philosophy of it.



Henriksson
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26 Aug 2009, 9:37 am

Either right from birth or right before my last breath. :wink:


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CerebralDreamer
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26 Aug 2009, 9:49 am

If AS was something I could contract I'd be looking for ways to spread it right now. A couple hundred more Aspies might help everyone understand the benefits and deficits of being this way.



Sora
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26 Aug 2009, 11:45 am

From birth onwards. I don't have a particularly thoughtful explanation for that. It's simply that things that will/have been different in the future/past freak me out, because I cannot stand various changes.


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26 Aug 2009, 12:34 pm

Woodpecker wrote:
I guess that I would agree with Callista, which brings me onto a second point.

If as an AS adult a NT adult wanted you to pass on AS to them, if there was an AS pathogen which you could pass on (or like a vampire making a human into another vampire), would you be willing to grant the NT person's wish.

Also what would you want to ask them about or tell them about before you agreed to do it for them ?


No, I would not grant them their wish. I'd then start explaining the things that start to happen if I were to pass AS over to them. Then I'd ask why they want to live with AS in the first place. Despite the AS reputation, I do have empathy and I really do care for other people. I wouldn't want to pass on something that makes me miserable, even if I would have the chance to be normal.



ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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26 Aug 2009, 7:19 pm

It depends on who's version of AS I am passing on?



mechanicalgirl39
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26 Aug 2009, 7:21 pm

Woodpecker wrote:
I guess that I would agree with Callista, which brings me onto a second point.

If as an AS adult a NT adult wanted you to pass on AS to them, if there was an AS pathogen which you could pass on (or like a vampire making a human into another vampire), would you be willing to grant the NT person's wish.

Also what would you want to ask them about or tell them about before you agreed to do it for them ?

I am not sure why a NT might want to cross the Rubicon and become one of us, perhapes in some professions the visual thinking would be something that a NT might want.


Hmmm...My own AS is mild. There are things I really wouldn't want to pass on though. Would they REALLY want to be not safe to drive because their focus is so narrow they fail to hear someone screaming at them to hit the brakes and almost cause a fatal crash?

No, I do not think I would...


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Callista
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26 Aug 2009, 7:27 pm

If they really knew what they were getting into... if somehow magically you could overcome the problem that their brain has hardened into NT pathways and would probably flip out if suddenly turned AS... if somehow you could be sure they would keep their personality... then yes, their choice. But that's as unlikely as being able to turn an autistic person NT without causing severe brain damage and erasing their personality--i.e., about as likely as being able to design somebody's brain to work any old way you wanted, at will, without damage, which is probably technology we won't have for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.


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26 Aug 2009, 8:03 pm

I question the precept that this thought is based upon. My NT wife has indeed aquired aspie traits from me as a necessity in our communication. I have cautioned her about becoming aspie. She observed today that she has to watch herself now when around other NTs because the habits she has aquired to facilitate our communication are easily mispercieved. Welcome to my world.



SplinterStar
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27 Aug 2009, 2:31 am

I'd infect the whole world with AS if it could be passed by a sneeze or something. Every NT shall feel the wrath of AS meltdown.



wigglyspider
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27 Aug 2009, 2:38 am

SplinterStar wrote:
I'd infect the whole world with AS if it could be passed by a sneeze or something. Every NT shall feel the wrath of AS meltdown.
Oh the controversial political drama there would be. I'm sure they'd make a movie, even. XD;


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