Saw something on CNN on autism that made me want to throw up

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By cure, people mean any magical pill that is intended to turn you into an NT. I think most people support treatment as long as it's done correctly.

Talking is good, but i don't like the idea of taking a pill to make NT's feel more comfortable with us. I also don't like people trying to "cure" us. We need to show the we can have productive and heathlylives just the way we are. We don't need fixing.

But that's the thing, we do need fixing, otherwise there wouldn't be so many aspies in this forum looking for help. Most of us would like one thing or two changed about ourselves, at least. Actually, the only reason I stand against a cure is because I hate all medicines, pills, doctors, etc. but if I have spent most of this year learning how to act more normal, am I not taking the "cure" so to speak??

I feel I don't need fixing. I need to be more aware of body languge and what people are really saying. But I'm very happy with who I am and i don't need fixing. I come here to talk with other people with AS, its really the NT's fault really. if everyone was more straghtforward and honest with everyone, no game playing with dating,ect. Then people with AS would be seen as more normal.
Accept me for who I am, if you don't like me don't try and change me.

Does anyone know when these CNN reports come on?

I just caught part of a segment while flipping channels. They were focusing on how autism causes large large amounts of divorces, and how there is no money available for people who want intervention and want to change their kids. A mother of a autistic child said is hard not to blame her (young) autistic child sometimes. She said she was very astonished and happy when her son came over and gave her a kiss on his own. Apparently this caused her alot of distress in the past. After the segment, a Dr. Gupta (who I have seen before and I don't like very much) said money is a big issue with the parents of autistic children. When queried if their is any hope by the hostess of the program he replied "Autism Advocates" feel there may be some because of something called the "Combat Austism Act." The segment then ended.

That was all I caught.

This is something that most families got through, but unfortunately; in basic psychiatry the parents have to see there child as if they have a pathology rather than point at the positive attributes. That is why it is best to choose a psychologist.

I see this all the time in other parents of ASD kids that I know (my son is diagnosed). And I see your perspective. Acceptance is a very, very rare thing, but it is sorely needed. More and more children are being diagnosed, and there needs to be greater acceptance of neurological difference.

But I do understand the sense of mourning that parents have, as well. You picture the things you will do with your child when they are born, and when those things can't or don't happen, there is a sense of loss that can be hard to deal with.

The secret is to deal with that away from the child, and to be loving and happy around them. It's really the only way to handle it. And then to move on... to do the work necessary to ensure that they are happy and healthy people.

What I saw:

The autism segments are a part of CNN's "American Morning" show this week.

I saw all the segments which have aired so far on CNN's website (go to cnn.com and click the "health" section), and thought the one with the family with four children was the best one out of the series so far. I mean, sure, they said they wanted their kids to be "cured", but they also said that their two kids with ASDs were "a blessing" and taught them new things every day (in a positive way). This I thought, compared to some of the other parents interviewed who were determined to "declare war" on their child's diagnosis, was a perspective a lot more accepting of the uncommon strengths that people with ASDs have.

This series of segments was supposed to have aired 2 weeks ago (was even included in ads for CNN's show "American Morning" to air 2 weeks ago), but events in the Middle East pushed it off of American Morning until now.

What I think:

The segments (they're a series) point out that soon the genes which may be responsible for ASDs will be found are important. What happens to society in the bioethical communities then will be very important. Will society stop at simply developing a prenatal screen for ASDs and abort the fetuses which test positive (as was done with Down's Syndrome)? I sure hope not. Hopefully, research will go beyond that, to find ways to develop the positive strengths of ASDs, while making it so that negative aspects can be taken care of in a way that will allow for the actual person with the ASD gene to be truly happy by their standards, as opposed to their parent's or anyone else's.

I'm glad there is so much awareness about ASDs now, but I also find it disappointing that all the attention in the ASD community nowadays is about kids. I mean yes, there are more and more diagnoses of ASDs now than ever before, but if people were to pay the same kinds of attention to the grown-up community, I'm sure they would find that ASDs, especially AS and the higher-functioning ones, account for a lot of the more socially challenged--and technically gifted--members of society, and could result in a much brighter future for many who have strived to fit in.

What I must disclaim:

Of course, maybe I don't have the right to really speak about this...I am very much a "not sure if I have it," whose childhood fit the AS profile very well, but whose life since then...well...has been a lot more NT. I am on WP because my childhood was too close to AS to ignore it, and I also have people close to me who are on the spectrum. But I saw the segments, saw the posts, and had to comment in.

I haven't seen any of the CNN autism segments. I wanted to watch one, but I didn't get to. Maybe I'll watch them on the net when I get around to it.

What I hate is how people think a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder is a death sentence. I heard this one commercial on the radio that went something like this:
(little kid): Mom, dad, when I grow up, I want to be in the NBA.
(announcer): There is about a 1 in 100,000 chance that your child will play on a professional sports team. But 1 in 140 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.
Then it said something else that I can't remember. It turned out it was an ad for Autism Speaks. That organization upsets me for a number of reasons, but I'm too tired to list them. Oh well. I never want to hear that commercial again, or any more like it, but they're everywhere now, for some reason. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it.

I would see "teaching aspies to read body language" as variable in importance depending on the situation. Are blind people "taught to read body language" or do they learn how to get along in the world without reading it? I would think the second would be far more valuable to someone who truly could not (as opposed to, in medical mythology could not) read body language.

If this were 1950, how many gay people would be here "trying to be fixed"? The existence of prejudice (including internalized prejudice) does not make that prejudice inherently correct.