Why don't most Aspies want a cure?

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This comment made my day Thanks, Fnord!

I'd take the cure and be a bit sad I would lose part of me. But worth it

To call it a "cure" is to refer to autism as something that's bad. Like a poison, or disease. But it isn't like that for every aspie.

For me, it cuts both ways. I have many problems because of my autism, but I also have many benefits. To lose it all would make me a bland individual, and take away as much good as it does bad. I'd rather be intense a little intense on both extremes than neither.

Don't get me wrong, there are parts of it I could do without but it's such a large part of me getting rid of it would leave such a large hole and I wouldn't be me. I really couldn't imagine myself being any other way.

Maybe I did always have it but it's a developmental issue and has gotten progressively worse. I always did a few weird things here and there but never had issues around people, in fact as a young boy I went to a party full of people. My parents would drop me off with strangers and I wouldn't care..

It only got bad when I got into high school.. Also I didn't look as autistic as I do today, my face and eyes were much brighter. Today I don't even bother being on camera because I feel awkward and look weird like I have down syndrome.

...This is totally hypothetical anyway ~ But , if there was a " cure " for at least some things ~ Would it get me a home ? Would it get me any living adult relatives who aren't lying theives who stole from me ?
Would I have properly gone to college ? Or GO , now ???

I don't really want anyone messing with my brain for a 'cure' either.

Instead, I'm trying the hard way to overcome loneliness and everything else.

As for people not wanting cured, I think what it all comes down to is eugenics, which is offensive and sick in my opinion. Every person here is rightfully opposed to it.

so you're saying that in order to have introspection on what you're doing and not be a mindless drone, you have to have autism??

seems legit

My neuroscience knowledge may be a little bit out of date, but autism is a developmental disorder that results in brains that are wired differently. There is no way you are going to change existing fibers and connections in the brain, although you might be able to upregulate or downregulate certain transmitter systems. So "cure" is a totally wrong way to look at what might be done for autistic people, who already have "faulty" (now don't all lynch me at once) brains.

I think what is being done in early childhood interventions may actually be preventing many of the worst problems, and I do think you can talk about prevention of autism. If not preventing the condition entirely, at least preventing some of the worst outcomes. But cure? No. It's as wrong-headed as thinking you can cure an addiction. The addict will always be an addict, even if they are not indulging at present.

It's obtuse language, obviously I could add qualifiers in there to be more inclusive of NT's and less inclusive of neuro-diverse people, but the question itself is obtuse so I choose to answer in kind.

Edit: I need to clarify the last part, I meant the original question topic is obtuse, not your question.

Well, simply put, I don't believe I have a disease. So why would I want a cure? It's true that the path I've walked is harder than that of an NT, but I don't regret that either. For those of you who are interested, let me explain why.

We are different. This is obvious for most of us. For a long time people told me I had "limited intelligence" or a "learning disability." My own mother told me to my face that I "don't have empathy for other people" (....I mean, really? How empathetic is that?). However, the older I get, the more I realize how much better I am at adapting to new situations, thinking rationally in emotional situations, learning new things at the highest academic level, etc. than the people who said those inaccurate and cruel statements to me years ago. I also realize that this is not because I am "gifted" so much as it is that over my life I have learned the value of trying very hard. Despite the steriotype that people on the spectrum fall into one of two boxes, I am neither a genius nor mentally handicapped. I am just a person who is good at finding motivation to put my all into what I do every day... and this is what makes me happy. People who have easy lives don't build these life skills, it's like a muscle they've never exercised before. Often I see that those who walk the easier path falter where people like us (the hard-road walkers) succeed. And remember, that by success, I mean happiness.



Hang in there Brain. I've felt like this too, goodness knows. It gets better, and sometimes in very unexpected and sudden ways. Even NT people feel like you do right now (quite often actually). The truth is that there are more people who will relate to you than you are aware. I mean, heck, I'm one of them!

I like the way I think.

There really isn't a problem with having Asperger's , the main reason a lot of us have issues is because of judgement.

I used to be a very social child and I always wanted to make new friends but I failed and kept failing over and over.

I am not really the problem, we are not the problem.

The problem is that others do not know how to react to people who aren't exactly as they are.

This^

I too never fit in the category of genius or mentally handicapped- but I was forced to try twice as hard as my NT counterparts and I think of myself as a success in life because of it. I've had to endure many things that people twice my age have not had to go through and I believe it has made me a more well-rounded person; I am able to tackle life's challenges with practicality because I am more realistic- having been there, done that. I don't think my NT sister could even walk a day in my shoes. When everyone hears my story they comment that I am a "tough chick" but really, I wouldn't have it any other way. Going through all those struggles made me come out a better and stronger person who does not have to rely on others for their happiness.

It can seem daunting and hopeless when you are stuck in a rut- but it will not last very long! You must pull through it and realize that you are the only one that can help yourself. When you realize this, you will gain a sense of power because you realize that your life is in your control.

This. Whenever I am stuck on some difficult or exhausting task, I try. Then when I see it is not good enough, I try again. Take a deep breath, try again. Repeat. Sounds obvious, but experience tells me that a lot of people never even get to the second "try". It's exhausting in the long run, though. Taking care of yourself is important.

I fit in pretty well these days, and I've only been lonely once in my life. (I think I was having some kind of oxytocin-related withdrawal effect.) I don't think a personality change would help me with those. "Broad autism phenotype" traits actually seem pretty normal among the NTs in the area where I live, so becoming too un-Aspie would probably make me fit in less.

I've got a big list of problems that I really, really want a cure for. (Like if there was a pill that had a 50% chance of causing spontaneous death, a 40% of no effect, and a 10% curing of curing me, I honestly think I'd take that pill.) There's a few more problems that aren't quite that big of a deal but a cure would still be really swell. Many of these problems seem to be very common among people with autism. However, most of them aren't in the DSM-5 autism criteria, none of them are in the DSM-4 autism or Asperger's criteria, and people who try to research cures and treatments for autism aren't looking to solve these problems. They're trying to fix things like repetitive motor movements, relative lack of eye-to-eye gaze, introversion, and overall subjective weirdness, and their criteria for success is how well you can act like a normal person (who is also extroverted) regardless of the cost of that act. If those folks somehow managed to actually change me to their criteria of a healthy person, I'd still be a loser, but I'd be an extroverted loser who burns fewer calories and makes a lot of eye contact. Not really an improvement.

There are some other problems that are widely considered autism-related that I can understand people wanting a cure for (e.g. inability or severe difficulty speaking), and researchers seem like they actually have a productive goal in treating many of those, but having those problems will generally prevent you from getting a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome because you would have been diagnosed with some other form of autism instead.

Speaking of diagnostic criteria, if I remember right, the "clinically significant impairment" requirement wasn't always a requirement. So there might be a significant number of people diagnosed as Asperger's Syndrome who really never were disordered?

Regardless, there's a reason Asperger's Syndrome is considered "high functioning." Even the Aspies who aren't functioning very well in life overall are still functioning pretty well in terms of autism-related problems.

If introverts were to suggest the need to 'cure' extroversion, people would laugh derisively.
Extroverts would say that they don't need to be 'cured', that they are merely different than introverts.

Many Autists view ASD the same way.