Will there ever be a CURE?

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@Dannyboy271: I never said a group is smarter than the other. Better cognition doesn't meant more intelligence.

There is not medication to treat autism directly, and present medication needs to be improved a lot. Existing psychiatric treatment is uneffective.
About environment, we can't adapt it to our wishes in the present. I hope some day there will be a quieter, more tolerable and more explicit society (well-defined social and behavorial rules), prepared for introvert people rather than extrovert ones (like now).

Neural re-wiring technology would be unethical, it'd create a dystopian world where will be real "brainwash" from the media and blah blah.

Very unethical, yes. And impossible with current technology; possibly forever.

The point I have been trying to make, though, is that because of the nature of autism and other neurological disorders, changing the brain any faster than natural learning does would amount to neural re-wiring, with all the nasty implications thereof.

We might learn how to prevent a genetically autistic baby from developing into an autistic adult. We will probably learn how to prevent autistic babies from being born in the first place. But changing autism that is already established, in someone older than about three or four years old... no.

Natural learning is powerful, though. Quite a few mild Aspies and auties lose their diagnosis as they grow; at age four, they were autistic, by eight, they're not. They'll have subclinical traits, but no disability, and thus no diagnosis. Even the most modern medicine works best when it supports the body's growth and healing, and in the case of autism therapy, that means supporting a child's learning and growth. And adults learn, too--slowly, but they do. You may not lose your diagnosis, but you'll become more independent and more capable. The learning that you do every day is leaps and bounds beyond anything that modern medicine could ever do for you. That's why the basic idea of autism therapy is to make it easier for you to learn--because you're already doing much more for yourself than anybody else could do for you.

Had the thought ever occur to anyone. What if the tables where flipped? What if everyone was borne with AS and 1 in 100 was borne NT. What do you think all those NT people would want? A cure?. I can imagine all those (Now minority) NT people saying. "I wish there was a cure for NT. All I want to do is party, talk to other people. I mean. It like I need to be in a noisy room with lots of people around. How can those AS people stand to be in those quiet rooms working on there project for hours on end abd talk to each other like robots( if they ever talk.) I mean being NT. I just lack the intellectual discipline those AS people have.". Just thought I'd put it in a different perspective.

The moral of this story is. You only want a cure because you are a minority and you want to "fit in". There is nothing wrong with you. You're not broken, You're not defective, You're not sick, You're just different. Wanting a cure is nothing more then a women wanting to wear make-up.

Makes sense, but we don't know if "changing autism that is already established" will be possible within a few decades or centuries.

My closing argument: Natural learning is powerful, but it can't improve some issues, and it can't solve others completely. That's when medicine comes in, and helps you to learn.
However, [metaphor] you won't have magically big muscles if you get anabolics: you have to strive [/metaphor].
Society needs a change. It needs to adapt to all groups, but no one would be fully satisfied.

anxiety ? sensory issues ? discrimination ?

sadly I learned the hard way meds can only go so far , their are no magic bullets, still thank good for Paxil (aropax in oZ where would I be with out it now with out it , jail ? institution ? hanging from a tree god knows

Sorry that you are having a hard time, turtleoverhare.

I can see how some people would want a cure. I don't. A cure would make mean making me someone else, and I am quite happy being me.
But I suppose it depends on what you call cure.

I used to be very miserable and lonely when I was younger. I thought nobody liked me and I hated myself.

But I changed. Over the years my social skills have improved a lot, but what helped me most was a different sort of cure.
What I changed/cured has not been Asperger's, but my expectations. And my tendency to try to live up to other people's expectations.
I now allow myself to be different.

My life is not perfect at all, but it's pretty good!

"Bang!"

So the autism is gone, but you are still the same person who does not fit in and makes no attempt at understanding the world you live in - "Make me better!"

Well make yourself better.

Lots of us who coped with growing up in the 50s and 60s have had to.

I served in the army for 12 years, owned my own businesses, worked for others, and worked in the voluntary sector.

First girlfriend at 30, first divorce at 50 and just lost my wife to terminal illness in January 2013 and now have another girlfriend.

Precisely. I'd rather find a cure for AIDS and cancer (something that is fatal) than autism (something that is not fatal). Here's something: let's find effective treatment for the worst autism symptoms.