I want to be cured.

Post Reply New Topic

That is normal feeling. Fustrated with yourself is more of a breaking point for changing your life.

What you can't do is attack yourself, what you can do is find your p-o-w-e-r. By finding your power, you can achieve more and practice on it. Just because you are autistic doesn't mean you get instant access knowledge. Harvesting and studying knowledge take time! If you want to be wealthy, you would need to study knowledge to become wealthy.

In most case, it is financial problem that is hurting how your feel. By repeating learning and studying to become rich and studying hard reflect a repetitive behavior of it nature that a normal person can't do.

Autistic people can more likely be persistance along with repetitiveness, that is a reflection of such power.

Or you can give up and whine a lot.

What if you discovered that you could live a good life with autism? Would you still want a cure? What if you discovered that being ret*d in one or more areas wasn't as bad as you thought it was? What if you discovered that the people who reject you can be educated to understand the differences, or else be shown up as complete jerks for acting the way they do? What if the world could be made to understand that socially ret*d people can be part of society, just like normal people can be?

I think all of that is much more likely to happen than a cure for autism. It has already gotten quite far with racial differences; why not with the differences between disabled and non-disabled people? That's what I'm working towards, anyway. And it doesn't hurt that getting rid of even my deficiencies would make me someone different from who I am today, because even the deficiencies define part of who I am. They're not straight-out deficiencies, you see; they're differences. I see details and get visually overwhelmed--that's different sight; not a lack of sight. It's not so simple as increasing a deficient ability. Autism changes the very nature of how you think and perceive the world.

Don't think that the only alternative to wanting a cure is thinking yourself superior and thinking autism to be the next step in evolution. I am not superior. I am worse at many things than most people. I am not the next step in evolution; if anything, what I have is a concentration of otherwise useful genetics, amplified to the point that they cause disability. What I am is an equal--as worthwhile a person as anyone else; not required to prove my worth by my ability or compete against others, but simply to find my own place in a complicated world--someplace where I'm useful, someplace where I fit. It doesn't have to be something flashy or "successful"; I contribute to society when I make baby blankets for donation, mop floors at a cat shelter, or talk to my little sister about her love for computers and desire to design web sites one day; and that's on disability, having failed at several jobs. I'm only twenty-five. I could do much more with the time I have left. I could learn much more, become capable of more.

It's not like that's so very different than what the average, plain, most boring NT in the world wants. He wants, simply, to find his function; to find his place in the world; to find out who he was meant to be and become that person.

Autism is a normal part of life for me. I know a lot of NTs see it as a tragedy; but they're comparing it to the way they live, and they see something strange and frightening. But for me, having autism is as normal as putting on my clothes or eating my dinner. It's a constant part of my life; just there, neither positive nor negative. I'm glad to be who I am; and thus my attitude probably falls under the heading of "autism pride"; but I might as well be proud of liking science, being introverted, or being a cat-lover. Once you learn that being disabled is nothing to be ashamed of and won't ruin your life--and once you really believe it, getting rid of the instinctive horror that many non-disabled people have at the very idea--then it becomes a lot easier to realize that, in fact, it's not so silly to want to stay autistic after all.

The sad fact is that a cure would most certainly made a ginormous inpact on all of our lives, and not for the better either.

Suppose a cure was invented, and it would allow Aspies to become 'normal'. The autistic community would become divided, and half would take the cure whilst the other half won't. However, what happens to the half that won't take the cure? Wouldn't they become more outcast by soxiety for refusing to take the cure and become 'normal'? Society would start to try and pressure these people into taking the cure, and children born with autism would just be given the cure without any say in the matter.

Having AS is normal for me. I've always had it, I've always lived with it. Personally, I feel that my life would not be as... well, interesting if I was an NT. Living life as a bit of an outcast has given me an insite into things which, if I was NT and accepted, perhaps I would not realise.

Amen to that...I want to be cured to. I feel much the same way you do. I'm tired of going through life feeling so alone and not feeling like I have any true friends. And I hate how people label me as weird because I don't socialize like they do, and can't seem to interact with them normally. I'd trade everything I own for a cure, I hate feeling lonely miserable and pathetic.

Nettiespaghetti, I hope you don't mind me drawing attention to your impressive occupation, as a way of countering the implied argument (among the AS community) that refusing to love and accept one's autism as being one's entire self rules out success - in any area of life.

Callista, I should point out again that I mean no offense by debating your points more than others' on threads that interest me - I simply find that many other posters' material is more entertaining to read than it is to reply to, particularly when it appears to have been written by a teenager {No offense to any1 -There's just an age-gap thing there I guess, as I'm 29, and arguing for the sake of arguing gets old quickly}. I also see no reason to respond to posts I agree with, posts that seem poorly-argued, or posts that I can't even 'feel'.

I'll start by pointing out that NTs themselves don't want to hear 'whining' from any1, even if they're whining out of a desire to be 'normal'. It reassures ppl to hear that such-and-such a person is OK and happy in spite of appearances; after the initial surprise, there's no 'instinctive horror' involved for those with reasonably open minds. We/they want to hear what garyww said earlier about LFA autistics all being satisfied with everything, even though it probably isn't true. We even want to believe we're as fulfilled as can be, ourselves!

But I still suspect that an insistence on being content no matter what is not the only valid approach to life, although I'm sure it is for some temperaments. After all, 'Brave New World' includes the quote, spoken by a leader to a rebel, "In other words, you're demanding the right to suffer"

I don't believe in anything at all, but in days gone by, I would likely have been seen as a kind of 'mystic' , as I've always wanted more than the following:

I'd give up everything to know the fullness of all living beings and the connections between them. Any1 who knew that would be kinda useful IMHO, although every1 has to begin by finding their niche. But every opening that forms in my mind and every insight I gain into reality (which I perceive as psycho-social 1st and physical 2nd) makes my life feel meaningful and builds on my self-image. And I suspect that while others here may rightly feel that that 'their place' involves irritating those around them, I've always been more popular when I've been nearer to that place. And if that means I'm NT, so be it; I'm becoming too old to care {I consistently score around 20 in the AQ test, by the way } But while my focus seems atypical for an autistic, autism-related issues surely led me to approaching life in that way; after all,



So I'm not ungrateful for being alive; it's mainly that I just don't believe in the Self as a fixed object and don't like to sit on any proverbial laurels. Life and being aren't things that can be either ruined or perfected, as they're too vast to have parameters of any kind. I could compare self to the course of a river and mind to the water that flows down it; that analogy can stretch as far as you like . Why sould I either 'want to stay autistic' or 'want to be cured'? The world is more about just making an effort as one sees fit, and to dream while knowing you're just dreaming. {Oh s~*t, this is starting to sound pretentious }

Despite Richard Dawkins' belittling references, I, too, see potential application to asperger's syndrome in E. O. Wilson's argument for the group-selective evolotion of homosexuality. It's clear from disease-resistance studies and so on that nature is indifferent to the human desire for unity rather than diversity, even though that desire must have evolved for a purpose as well. I do feel that diversity only goes so far, however; for example, when I read:



, I hear an incomplete analysis; mystical pretensions where none are due - Autism to me is taking a lift that every1 thought would go straight to the penthouse suite, and ending up on the middle floor - The scenery may be different (perceptions are less filtered and less interpreted; thoughts are less dominated by social intuitions), but the way you got there is fundamentally the same. Also, it's easy to assume you're nowhere near the penthouse when you're actually just 1 floor (out of many) below . In any case, how can you call autistics 'people' or 'human beings' if you assume they have nothing in common with NTs? That shows a disregard for basic logic that auties ought to pick up on - A is now B and not-B at the same time!

P.s. I hope I've included enough concrete analogies for my [fellow-]auties to understand what I've written

Last edited by undefineable on 09 Jan 2009, 1:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Funny, I've never seen anyone here argue or suggest that one should accept autism as being one's entire self.

No1's worded it that way, but I'm used to reading between the lines, what with NTs having written most literature and all

Moving on,



I'm intrigued as to what you meant - Was it that only a coward fights what bugs him?

No the last remark was intended to illustrate that every individual has a personal threshold that will determine the amount of risk they are willing to take in order to facilitate a change in their behavior. Some may be driven to drastic actions.

I still don't follow you. Maybe a context or an example would help

there are ways out - sounds like Kevin has made it, as I did - http://unlearningasperger.blogspot.com/ ... mon-q.html

maybe you can too

very best wishes, JC

That sounds interesting. If anything, it will at least stop me from thinking too hard.

Let's find more snake-oil to talk about.

Or you could ignore it

What do you mean?

Me too. unfortunately it's how you develop so the damage is already done. It had to be stopped before an autistic problem is created.