Want info on possible cures for autism/AS?

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Yeah, I'm beginning to see there's a real kind of a status quo on here... "Aspie and proud so don't mention a cure because there is nothing period."

Nevermind that some people might find it interesting, that there is no proven cause as yet, and that some of the worse symptoms can probably be alleviated or helped in some way so people can deal with them better...

I for one find it interesting and have no problem with the way in which these posts have been, err, posted. They aren't inflammatory or disrespectful.

I've lost a lot of respect for some posters, going by the responses to some of these threads...

Actually, it's 4am. I need to get up at 8am for work.

I'm knackered, but I can't sleep.

And I can't find my Bach's rescue remedy, which is what usually works.

I'm not drinking any whisky or whatever either, as I was so drunk last night I need to give my liver a chance to recover.

Not even listening to Sigur Rós is helping!!



So if there was something to cure my Asperger's-related life-long sporadic insomnia I'd happily take it. Thank you.

I'm sure if you were gay or Black you would be offended if somebody offered to "cure" you for your homosexuality of sub-Saharanafrican physical appearance.

I won't disagree that I'm an a**hole. I'm also opinionated, educated, and don't suffer fools gladly, or at all. I can understand a parent with a "classic autistic" child who is desperate for a cure, but most of the time they seem to be more desperate to blame ANYTHING other than their own genetic heritage. I don't care how many webpages you've found about vaccines or mercury or the space rats. Autism is a spectrum of conditions caused by your GENE'S. You cannot change that. Science cannot change it. Religion cannot change it and for the record, neither can Santa Clause so don't write him a letter. Now.... would I be offended if some NT comes up and offers to cure me? Hellz yeah. I'd probably offer to cure him of the ability to pass on HIS genes.... I'm not defective. My kids are not defective. We think and process information DIFFERENTLY than an NT. Often we think BETTER than they do. We are usually more creative than they are. And Asperger's has been around for tens of thousands of years. Those beads that they dug up from 70,000 years ago? Bet money and Aspie carved 'em. Without us, they'd live in mud huts and cower away from the lightning. Arrogant? Fine, I'm arrogant. I've got history, and current amount of progress being made. How many developments can be tracked back to spectrum individuals. Anybody heard of Galileo, Newton, Einstein?

If you're unhappy the way you are get therapy. I mean that, seriously. Here's a secret, NT's are unhappy the way they are too. It's called being "human". There are people who can help you if you're unhappy. See them.

I am interested in any and all info. I disagree on ticks being even close to the problem though.

Personally though, I think there is no cure. But for instance if there was something causing autism--we should all know. What we then chose to do with the info is personal choice.

I voted yes, but only because I might want to cure some problems, like black holes (or rather, black objects in my head), if that's related. I don't want to cure myself, no. I used to be very offended by the cure thing and would probably have voted "I hate you if you do" if this was about 2 years ago.

I think cures should be found so that we have a CHOICE. But no pushing it on us!

And I'm interested in seeing what new tortures they came up with, so please post it!

I don't understand the question.

YES - I'm happy for the material to be posted HERE in this Thread. It would be nice to have it in a central spot anyway for easy reference.

I'm not happy to have it posted/argued in my face in other threads though.

I hate it when I'm discussing my kids and mention Ritalin then suddenly get jumped on by the naturapathic troll gang.

zend this is for you:-

Word Retrieval“

Often have trouble finding the word they want when they are speaking out loud. Our brains use many different areas for speaking, reading, & writing; therefore, information needs to flow freely between the separate areas. Word retrieval may be a problem because the information moves slowly. One cause of this is that we use long-term memory, so it takes longer & requires the right association (something that reminds us of the word) to reach back into our long-term memory to locate the exact word we want. If we are anxious, it may be even more difficult to find & articulate a word. Written words use different pathways in the brain, which seems to flow fluently .
“

The Keys to Unlocking Your Long-Term Memory

Human memory is complex & uses many different areas of the brain. The brain stores memories in numerous locations & creates links between them called associations. Often we think nothing relevant is in our head because we haven’t triggered the association to our long-term memory. Our mind seems blank. This is why i can even forget what we like to do or what we are good at. We need to locate a connecting handle to yank an experience out of our memory. Here’s the neat thing most pieces of information in long-term memory were stored with several handles or keys (associations) for unlocking them. If we find just one key, we can retrieve the whole memory.

So let’s say you like to paint or fish or walk around a park with flowers in bloom, but that information is locked in long-term memory. You have some free time, but you can’t remember what you like to do. This may sound nuts to an extrovert, but it is a common problem. Remember, it takes only one key like a thought, emotion, or sensory association to open the whole memory.

Sit down, relax, & let your mind wander & associate to possible sensory keys, like smells, visual pictures, sounds, the feel of your body, or the taste of something pleasant. Or think of an emotional key, like how you felt that last time that you did something fun. Let your mind go anywhere it wants; jumping from association to association is okay.

Maybe the peaceful feeling of sitting in a park on a sunny day returns to you & with it the thought: I like Oak Park; I enjoyed going there. Now you could go to the park or relax & look for another memory. Write down the memories you find to use another day when you can’t remember what you enjoy. Use these keys to unlock your memory to search for what you are good at, too.

I like hearing new ideas, especially when presented in a non-confrontational, humble manner.

I don't think that it is fair to compare people who want to cure autism to bigots. Autism takes many forms and not all people impacted by autism love everything about it. I like my reflective nature but I don't like feeling panic at the thought of leaving my apartment. I've found that avoiding foods with a high glycemic load helps reduce mental fogginess and keeps me from getting so overwhelmed by sensory input. That doesn't mean I hate myself or all of my AS traits or any of you. I don't think it "cures" me, either, but it does make the rest of my life easier to handle. Because AS is a set of traits, any one of those traits might be caused by any number of things that could potentially be tinkered with and improved.

Pirsig's Postulate: The number of hypotheses available to explain any given phenomenon is infinite.

Has it occurred to you aspiedave that maybe Zendall wants himself curred from his autism so he is asking all this stuff to see if anyone else feels the same about themselves. After all he did a poll asking if anyone is interested in seeing it. You could have Voted no because you find it offensive or No and you hate him for it if he does.

I have known others aspies who want to be cured but it's their body so it shouldn't bother anyone else. It's just like NTs wanting to be cured to from their own condition such as being parolized or having a medical condition. I'm sure my mother would love to be cured from having a bad back and arthritis. My boyfriend would love to be cured from his dyslexia and brain damage but he doesn't see himself as broken or not working right.

Not if being black or gay had the potential to also mean dealing with depression, anxiety, co-morbid GI tract problems, allergies, strange posture, etc etc and all the other things that often go with autism that can make like crap.

It's not bigoted to want to offer people who suffer other physical symptoms of autism or AS the possibiity of getting rid of them and making life that little bit easier to cope with.

I think this argument/these conflicts keep reoccurring because of using the words Aspergers and Autism.
If people would stick to words describing specifically and clearly what things they like about themselves and the things that they have difficulty with then discussion might be less beset with constant football-team-supporter style reactions.
The trouble is that the words Aspergers and Autism have been given so much life that people now believe in them, identify with them. And support them, like religions, or football teams.
It's weird. And discouraging.

If people talked about sensory integration difficulties for instance, could have a calm discussion about best ways to manage, reduce, or eliminate them without people behaving as if they were under attack.

Same for exploring social skill impairments, so called. ( personally think is mostly learned behaviour in highly artificial environment of schools, and with parents who child hardly ever sees relating to equals, and otherwise is discrimination and stigmatising of perfectly ok behaviour styles, aswell as hypocrisy about how much most people actually understand and empathise with others in general...)
etc etc

Talk about fluid intelligence, and how would be really pissed off if that was "cured"! But noone is going to suggest otherwise. Though it might turn out that you have a choice between that and a well developed proprioceptive system. But again maybe not. May be entirely genetic, but in which case why have scores on tests of "fluid intelligence" ( pattern recognition, finding meaning in confusion, drawing creative and useful inferences etc etc ) increased massively in the 50 years since first started measuring it?

But as soon as use the terms Aspergers or Autism it's like talking about god. Group identities.
Equally likely to create conflict. Taking sides.

So, Zendell, I'm not voting in your poll because it would be like voting about whether god is mainly omnipresent, or omniscient, or omnipotent, or all three at once , or none of the above.
But I am interested in information bearing on any way in which i might improve my proprioceptive system functioning, because i would like to feel more in my body, for instance.
PS:I gather exercise helps, it has done in the past, but unfortunately because of my poorly developod proprioceptive system i tend to not feel like moving much!!

Last edited by ouinon on 02 Jan 2008, 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post it,those who don't want to read it can avoid it,then those who want to read it can do.
It's like Kbabz said anyway,it'll be coping ideas and not actual cures.


Also,Zendell actually asked if people wanted him to post it or not,he did not post it with no warning,that is polite,not bad.

gwenevyn,
what is high glycemic load,and what type of food/drink? is it in?

I take Paxil and Ritalin and avoid certain foods to keep the symptoms of my co-morbid conditions (OCD, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder) in check (and I'm trying to shed a few pounds, anyway); but my AS is caused by differences in neuroanatomy caused by genetics, autism spectrum disorders runs very strongly in my mom's side of my family (though my mom herself is an NT), that is an undeniable fact, I have several relatives on my mom's side that have Kanner's Austism, Asperger's, or who me and my mom (we both have become the Autism experts in the family) suspect have Asperger's. As of now you can't "cure" things caused by differences in neuroanatomy.

I think this problem, in the US at least (I don't know how the schools are in France), is that schools end up with mediocre, uncaring teachers because of the low salaries for teachers cause the people who would be the best and most caring teachers to find other professions that pay more money. Another reason is that I think teachers simply need to be more educated about abnormal psychology in general.



There has been an increase in people diagnosed but I doubt there has been an actual increase in the actual number of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

IIRC it refers to foods and drinks with lots of easily metabolized carbohydrates that cause large swings in the blood sugar regulatory proteins insulin and glucagon in the bloodstream, potatoes and high fructose corn syrup are examples.