Want info on possible cures for autism/AS?

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As a sideline to that line of thought....

from the online edition of the Guardian Unlimited January 3rd date

I found that interesting in light of the general discussion.

Zendell, these are legitimate questions, I will clarify and answer each of these questions as one, as they are part of my whole self.

Aspergian Affirmation

I know all traits are part of my Aspie personality. They are what I am, my conscious awareness. I cannot divorce any of these traits, desireable or not, and still be me. They are as much a part of me as my arms and legs. My personality is a whole, and even greater than the sum of its parts. I accept my personality. I am unique, as each one of is. I call this my existential ecstacy, as opposed to angst. I am happy to be me, and I would not want it any other way. Call it my age if you will, but at least now I can accept what is.

This why a cure for me is unthinkable.

It was very interesting to read your posts Sedaka, Odin and Aspie Dave. It is great that you are working in the area of autism research. From your research I'm sure you will find more strategies to cope with this genetic spectrum.

It seems most people are interested in cures/treatments for autism based on poll results so far. I wish there was a separate area to list treatments so I wouldn't offend anyone on general autism discussion section.

That seems like quite a sensible Idea Zendell but I'm not going to put it to Alex because I've already suggested two changes and don't want to look like I'm trying to change the site. Especially as I'm a relative newbie.

You might want to ask him about that.

Of course, the other alternatives could include starting a new thread for each alternative treatment and putting it into the General Autism Discussion area. I'd suggest that you include in your first post for each, a note warning anti-curebies away since your intent is to discuss details of a given therapy, not force it on people.

I didnt'realise there were so many people so against a cure on here (whether it's a total cure for autism, which I don't believe is particularly possible, or a cure for the triggers of some symptoms, which probably is). It would be nice to be able to post this information without being called a quack or curebie or bigot - I guess the best way will be probably to just do a warning as was said and post them in here. It's a shame people aren't willing to discuss things reasonably because there are a lot of intelligent people here who could probably at least have some good input, if not benefit from the sharing of info, rather than just turning it into a flamewar all the time.

It's sick and offensive.

But why? I don't get this mindset. Nobody's trying to lobotomise anyone or change your personality, it's an attempt at making life easier for those who have it. We don't all just have Asperger's syndrome, there are people with autism who genuinely have a very, very difficult life. Even to bring them up to a milder version of autism in terms of their symptoms would be an improvement? Would you deny that to someone who wanted it?

If you want it go ahead, but I think it's sick and offensive. it wouldn't make life easier if there was a "cure". it would change who i am, and thats wrong.

But what about those who are lower functioning than you are and whose lives it has the potential to make so much easier? Are you sick and offended at the thought of helping them to get a better deal?

No. But you can't really speak for them. Your kid is your kid, you shouldn't changewho he was born to be.

"Why?", you ask.

Well, as i've now said a few times on a few threads it's because of the words aspergers and autism themselves, (see my other two/three posts on this thread , and my thread on "WP Tagline is like saying Homosexuality is not a disease"). As Donna Williams asked in a paper at recent Awares Conference, "Is there such a thing as Autism?", not because she is suggesting that people haven't got a lot of real problems etc, but because the term autism, like aspergers, imposes blanket thinking.

People start identifying with the term, and no longer want to split it up into its many constituents, many of which as you say, and i believe too, are susceptible to prevention, reduction, and better management, or are in fact simply disability-illusions created by societys current preferences in behaviour.
The introversion/High Sensitivity for instance, may well be genetic and unchangeable, but wouldn't be a disavantage or difficulty in a society not so geared to extraverts as this one currently is.

Why people react with such hostility all over this thread and all over the forum to suggestions of a cure is because having identified with the term it becomes like their football team, or a religion, and needs defending against all comers. Very tribal, ....

Last edited by ouinon on 03 Jan 2008, 4:57 am, edited 6 times in total.

I totally get that. Love to watch a crowd in a station when waiting , alone, for a train, and see millions of stories in the "language" of faces and bodies. But if need to wait "with" someone can't do it.
Also re touch, can concentrate only on one "direction" at a time; unless go very very slowly the whole process of sex becomes active-passive ( not great for independent woman in her sexual relationships, unless prepared to explore the formulas of pre-negotiated BDSM,)! I can't "follow" the mutuality of it because i can only clearly feel what I am touching IF am NOT supposed to be feeling someone else touching me at same time. ( a sort of problem with subject/object relations !?! )

I gathered recently that this kind of thing has something to do with poor development of the proprioceptive system as a result, in some/many cases, of enforced immobility , and other " stimuli deprivations" in earliest infancy, which leave whole stretches of brain connections to body esp the senses, undeveloped..... In other words perhaps preventable.

..... in other words..... might easily have ended up "not-me"! Is that what they mean by "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" ?
I still want to understand the ways in which i ended up "me" tho', rather than "not-me". I'm not going to feel threatened by the idea that if i had experienced x rather than y in infancy i would have become not-me. Though i think i have in the past, when i would have preferred to be "not-me". Maybe that's why all this identity labelling has been spreading though, cos we haven't had immortal souls since the 1800s.

Excuse me, LeKiwi, but point one - there is no cure. Autism at it's root is genetic, and to cure that is DNA fiddling. Unacceptable and will never happen. So yes, there IS something wrong with wanting a cure.

Point two - I don't make the decisions. Medical fact dictates the proceedings, and no one (not you, me, Zendell or anyone else) has any control over that.

Point three - what makes their lives "hell" is the lack of support and the lack of understanding, both within themselves and from others.

The sort of help you are talking about is intolerant, and therefore bigoted. The sort of help I'm talking about is the sort of help that is needed. If that's arrogant, then it's only because I'm responding in kind.



Yes it offends me, because wanting treatment for symptoms is NOT a cure. So don't call it a cure. That's why you are offending people in here. Keep it to treatments for any symptoms - then you might get a few more ears.

This makes a great deal of sense. The term "cure" is usually inaccurate in the context of autism.

You've been getting the quack treatment because we aspies and auties are sick and tired of being sold quack ideas. We get it all the time and it's demeaning.

I suppose it's like unsolicited people approaching fat people and telling them to go to the gym or eat less chocolates etc.. or to try Jenny Craig, or the new WonderSlim Drug etc... Some people just want to be left alone. Fat people know that they're fat - if they wanted to try some method to slim down, they'd ask or look around themselves. Of course, one of the worst things you could do is go somewhere where fat people hang out (especially if you, yourself are slim) and start telling them about your "cure".

I've probably just insulted people on this board with that last paragraph. If I have - sorry - I was just trying to demonstrate a point by moving the problem away from Autism and away from the absolutely "incurable" condition.