Do you consider autism a disease ?

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I consider it an impairment/disability.

People who use the term "autism" to describe folks who are just eccentric and quirky, but are in no way impaired/disabled, are full of crap IMHO.

I imagine, there was a time in human history when we classified flowers by color alone. Then somebody noticed that one red flower was somehow different from another red flower. All the people would talk about this for a very long time until it was decided that not all red flowers were the same. But, why? One must be diseased, some thought, but there just was no evidence to prove it. We see differences in the other colors now too. They thought and talked for many more years until one said, "We really should revise this color classification as a means of understanding what a flower is."
It took a very long time to better understand the beautiful flower. The human mind is a much greater challenge to take on. I think it will take many destructions and restructuring of our classification method in order to make progress.

It's not a disease. Anyone who thinks it is, is an idiot (I'm sorry, but you are one if you believe that).

To me, it's a neurological condition and disorder. It does not make any of us a lesser person for having it.

No I only think of it as someone who has different thoughts and tendecies and etc, etc.
Someone who's different than most like how there are different personality types and some are rarer than others. I see it like that.

No, I don't consider autism - my autism or anyone else's autism - to be a disease.

NEXT!

I don't consider it as a disease; hell my allergies bothers me more than being an aspie.

It's called a disease because it's what most who lives in this planet thinks so. Because that's what the doctors says so. Because that's what authority says so. -- No, just no.


But then, it's a spectrum; so some considers it as a disease because it impairs and disables individuals which is true at most LFAs. It varies in culture of course; and how the individual itself and people around the individual deal with it.
Some doesn't because it doesn't disable them or impair them, but rather, misunderstood. I pick this part because it's my own point of view.
But some think it's a disease because it gives anxiety, PSTD, or sort, as those things has nothing to do with autism itself, even they're completely capable of what a functioning human being could do (or do better) -- no, that's just a by product if people treating you like a crap because of your differences, and your parent's wrong way of upbringing -- NTs are not immune to this part if the same thing happens to them. And so they end up concluding the only way for people stop doing what crap they're doing to them is to be 'normal', 'be one of the majority' and 'be like them'. That's my opinion.

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I don't know if I look at it as a disease in the sense that diabetes is a disease (a physical process that is malfunctioning) but we certainly have a different hard-wired road map and we definitely have different brain chemistry than the majority of people. Sometimes having an ASD is an advantage, because my road map allows me to take the freeway to places where most people are consigned to taking the back roads. Sometimes having an ASD is a disadvantage. In my case the social anxiety and physical awkwardness (gross motor deficits) are clearly disadvantages. Being on the spectrum for me is a double edged sword. It brings both gifts and challenges.

Even though my parents had no clue that my laundry lists of peculiarities and weaknesses were all part of one package, they did try to intervene in my not-at-all-normal development the best they could, bit by bit. I was sent to physical therapy to help me balance and try to coordinate my arms and legs better. I think I lived in doctors' offices and psychologists' offices because of all the physical and emotional difficulties I had.

I am hyperlexic, (which believe me is not all bad,) and for the most part they indulged my insatiable desire for the written word. I spent a lot of time in the library, reading pretty much anything and everything I could get my hands on. My mother enforced the rules of etiquette and proper behavior almost to an extreme- there was to be no staring, no rude tones of voice, no ignoring people, etc. and so on. I hated that growing up- being forced to play the "be social" game, but it has served me well in navigating the world-of-normal.

Being on the spectrum gets easier with age and time. When you're young it really sucks because no one wants to deal with you, and you're constantly terrified and confused, but when you're older you have a lot more latitude to be who you really are- and some life experience to draw upon as a reference point.

So if I had to make a comparison- if someone said to me, "Hey, you can be cured of your autism (??) and have normal wiring, or you can be cured of your diabetes- pick one," I would gladly be cured of the diabetes and my wiring can stay exactly the way it is. As far as diseases go, autism- at least to the degree that it affects me- isn't nearly as bad as diabetes (as I can attest from personal experience,) or cancer or heart disease or those sorts of things.