I want to be cured.

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Or are even likely to exist, since the existence of HIV is still only theoretical. They've never been able to isolate a specimen of a virus that's received the label "HIV", they only assume that it must exist... which isn't necessarily true and after 20 years of searching for and not finding HIV, I'm apt to think they're wrong and that it actually doesn't exist. The tests for HIV are notoriously inaccurate and like many similar tests only work by detecting antibodies. However the antibodies that are presumably created to combat HIV are also created by the body to combat various other viruses... so it's fairly likely actually that all these "HIV antibodies" are just antibodies for different non-HIV viruses and have nothing to do with the theoretical "HIV".

Any other virus that's been identified, they've been able to isolate the actual virus (the creature) which they then grow in cultures in the lab which is how they ultimately develop the vaccines. If you can't get the original virus then you can't really create a vaccine. But since they've easily been able to capture and cultivate everything from polio to measles to chicken pox to the flu (which they do every year because it mutates), I think it's unlikely that somehow HIV is just some kind of super-stealth-ninja virus that can't be found after 20 someodd years of searching.

It's amazing how many of these 'money-making' diseases seem to be around for a very long time before there's a cure, but there sure is a lot of treatments available.

I just saw a documentary called The Lobotomist, it was about Walter Freeman, the man who popularised widespread lobotomy in the U.S.

Great doco. Anyway, he was never short of volunteers for the procedure. Even after there were news reports and very vocal criticisms of the side effects and results of lobotomy, many didn't care, they just wanted a cure for the misery they were going through.

And I understand that. I've had chronic depression for most of my life and the suffering is unbearable. I've been semi-suicidal before and definitely less concerned for my safety simply because I didn't care if I lived or died. And there are many people who are much worse off than I ever was. It's a living hell for many.

Now those who underwent lobotomies were almost all more docile and perhaps, yes, even content and comfortable with their lives after the operation. But it wasn't really a cure.

I have gotten past my depression for the most part - it actually came about mostly because I was diagnosed with AS and finally had something to help me understand why my mind was the way it was and why my life had the trials in it that I've had to overcome.

Now that I'm older (many years older) both my depression and my AS are far less pronounced, simply through adaptation and development.

If I had been given a fairly radical cure earlier in my life, something irreversible like a lobotomy, I wouldn't have had the experiences I'm having now.

But I tell you what. At the depths of my depression, when the misery and pain and confussion were so great that I wanted to end it all, something, maybe not a lobotomy, but some operation or trade off between my essence and my contentment would have been very difficult to refuse. I would have given anything for a cure to my depression (as I was unaware I had AS back then), and trading a part of who I am would not have been too high a price to pay for happiness, or even numbness. It wouldn't be too high a price at all. Even though now, I'm glad that no such offer was made to me.

I don't know if any of this rambling helps at all.

I would never want to be cured. Having aspergers has made me who I am, why would I change that? If you don't like having Aspergers or whatever it is you have, then get help for it. There will always be help for you, whether its social skills or emotional help.

Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! Pick me! :)

In 2000 when my ex kicked me out of the house I didn't have any place to go. I gather that most people on WP aren't in as bad a shape as I was... my family are spread out all over the place and mostly hate each other's guts ... nobody likes my dad, except my grandmother, whom he doesn't really talk to... nobody likes my mother... my sister tolerates everyone else, but everyone hates her husband and avoids her because of him. They're all NTs, but totally screwed up (except I think my dad has AS but hasn't been diagnosed with it). So staying with family was out of the question. And staying with friends was out of the question too... because I didn't have any in the local area... My choice was take a day off to find a place to stay temporarily (weekly hotel) or sleep in the gutter. I called in to work and let them know that I had to take the day off... and when I'd gotten into a hotel and set up my computer I had an email telling me that I was fired and I needed to turn in my office key. My boss later lied and told the judge that I had abandoned the job.

If I were the kind of person who "fit in" much of anywhere, none of that would have happened. Most people when they get kicked out of their house have friends they can go stay with while they recover.

That's a really modern example... however... it's basically the same thing. Fitting into groups is a survival strategy, so humans like most pack animals evolved to be social the way NTs are for survival reasons. In early tribal cultures banishment was viewed basically like a "death sentence". People can survive on their own in the wild with or without modern equipment, that's been very thoroughly proven... the difference is that survival is a lot harder as an individual than it is in a group.

The comfort that comes from fitting in is a product of "someone's got my back" in the event that something bad happens. And that's been one of my biggest problems over the past decade, aside from problems caused by the state and their backward rules regarding child support.

I'm not saying you're bad people, nor that you're not sensible and responsible; how would I know that, when I've never met you? I'm just trying to challenge the idea that you've got to be worth more if you can do more. Seems to me that judging people by what they can do would lead us to reject more than just disabled people; there wouldn't be much worth to the unskilled workers or the retired, either, under that definition of worth. The average person wouldn't be worth much more than that, as the average person is replaceable when it comes to jobs and such, and society doesn't need him; just one like him. I don't like that way of thinking; I don't think it's ethical to assign more worth to one person over another, especially based on skills; and it doesn't make it any better that you're one of the people you assign to a low-worth category, because it means automatically looking down on people who can do even less...

I found it quite lucid actually.

Hey that's me.

No interest, attention equals mild MR and I have the habit to get into trouble wherever I am because I'm impulsive, active but not normal. I love my life indeed because I love me and being alive.

Last edited by Sora on 05 Jan 2009, 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well my guarantee against that approach is the likelihood that, in the absence of any higher power, no-one and nothing is ultimately worth anything at all -Positive nihilism - And to say that people are worth only what they give to others is self-evidently a circular argument, because those others then lose the intrinsic worth that would make giving to them worthwhile

On the other hand, the practicalities of maintaining such an advanced civilisation, which I feel is a very beautiful thing, mean that every1 has to give life their best shot. And yes, if you look at us auties objectively, you can see that we are less-complicated machines than NTs are, but at the same time, there's no value-judgement (or even a prediction of usefulness levels) tied up with that truth.

I don't want to be cured either as I think it would ruin my intelligence. I enjoy thinking differently about things--although I don't always enjoy the results from doing so (with other people).

There are a few things that I might like to change if given the opportunity, but I'm content for the most part with being an aspie.

I think maybe what you are referring to isn't intelligence, but original thought... raw processing power is different from the general tendency of the neurodiverse to think in ways that other people don't, and come up with ideas most people don't think of. Actually, that's why I think it's important to maintain neurodiversity in a society in general, despite the costs; everyone thinking in the same general way, however intelligent they are, doesn't come up with a lot of solutions to the problems we face. On the other hand, scatter in a few people who think in odd ways, and the whole society has interesting new input to process.

I like it - A slave caste of aspie problem-solvers - Any1 seen or read 'Jeeves and Wooster' by P G Wodehouse?

Seriously though, what about the leaders in a society, whose role is to help direct corporations and public opinion? Isn't it their job to 'come up with ideas most people don't think of'? Apart from Bill Gates, they tend to be strongly NT, starting out by just popularising the latest trends before using the the resulting respect to gain power. Having gained power, there's no longer the need to defer to superiors in any way_



Again, this is about leadership, not victimhood; the same as when an entrepreneur popularises a new brand - If one of my philosophical ideas spread throughout society, it wouldn't be 'odd' (i.e. just my idea) any more.

I like being different. It makes me feel, well, different. I like being able to stand out in a crowd, only problem is the AS makes it uncomfortable to do so. I would not want to be like every other bob and sue out there, I just want to forge my own path, and be proud of the differences I have.

Can anyone else say Autism Pride?

{Thought Padium was part of discussion rather than just posting replies to the OP - Sorry if I'm being 'square' }

It is sideways to the discussion, not forwards, if you know what I mean by that. I just found the right words to finally make the most sense out of my opinion, so bam! there it goes.

One thing I don't understand is how one can be solely defined by their disorder. We might as well consider ourselves walking diseases. If one needs medication, special help and in some cases monetary benefits, it's a disease and there is no way around that.

Yes, people should be judged by their talents because average people are dispensable. Only high ability and originality makes humanity progress. If you have no special abilities, you are replaceable and although we need someone to do the 9 to 5 cubicle job, we can easily find someone else to do it the next day. Same goes for stuff like cashier, janitor, etc...