I want to be cured.

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What about the cashier or janitor who is a genius? What do we do about those types of people?

Good point: Those people are either exploited by their employers, as my father was many times (he came up with ideas that benefitted the company, and then they took on his ideas and suddenly didn't need him. Som now he is self employed. Other than that, these people need to find ways to benefit humanity, as isnt that the purpose of intelligence, to further humanity in the direction it was intended to go in?

But there's more to being autistic or aspie than the disorder. My autistic traits don't define me. But they are very much a part of who I am, enough so that there is no who I am without those traits.

Most people in replaceable jobs are not gifted or a genius and it doesn't only take that to have a unique use, but you have to work hard and channel your talents into good use as well.

Some people find menial employment satisfying.
The objective of intelligence is most assuredly not intended for the benefit of mankind or the human race, if it was it would be a big waste of energy.

Yes; what if your genius prefers to use his genius on something other than work? I've met some rather knowledgeable "menial workers"; and while many of them are underemployed, others enjoy it. I once met a bus driver who graduated high school at age fourteen, for example; and he likes his job because he says it gives him interesting people to talk to. I think he must be some kind of amateur anthropologist or something.

I used to want to be cured.

But ive learnt to accept msyelf for who i am.

Sometimes i have days where i wonder what my life woul be like without AS. sometimes if im having a really bad day il think if only i didnt have it or i wish i didnt have it why why why!! !

However, I am Me. if i got cured i would not be me anymore. Besides i dont have a disease. there is nothing to be cured from.

you're right. its you're choice to be cured. like its my choice not to be. but if a cure did come up, be careful as you wont be able to go back! i ont try to speka for everyone. When i first found out about my AS. yes i was desperate for a cure, but now i am happy just the way i am.
xxxx

I met a guy out in the middle of the desert one time who in my opinion was very probably the most intelligent man I've ever met in my entire life. He spent his days cataloging lizards. I have to admit that the ones I saw did indeed look to be individuals but I don't know a whole lot about lizards. He was getting paid to this work by the way by the university he was attached to.

They can't cure you, they won't cure you. It's simple, really. There's no point in worrying about something that will just not happen. Of course, they could brainwash you into thinking you are cured, but you'll still be this awkward person that can't achieve normality.

Maybe, maybe your life will be better once you begin to accept yourself instead of waiting for something that will not happen. Do you think they will open your head and put steam cells inside of your brain and that will magically make you another person? There are NOT easy solutions. Want to have a good life, then take the example of those AS guys that have actually achieved it, cause there are many who did instead of shielding inside their diagnosis.

But then again, how do we know that?

Everybody knows that autistic have way more fun with life than NT's. It's common knowledge. That's why we don't get beat down by the BS.

There is actually some really interesting work being done on electronic implants that could basically replace neurons that are currently unusually formed or working in odd ways. (I won't say they're broken or defective, but merely different.) There's some speculation that mirror neurons don't work the same way in AS and if we could replace those, that might change quite a lot. We might find that it allows those of us who are able to afford it to learn those missing social skills by casual observation rather quickly after the treatment. Or we might not. It's a possibility.

But at this point it's anyone's guess about how long it will take for them to perfect it -- technology accelerates but the acceleration has also done a pretty darned good job of defying people's attempts to predict the acceleration. So it could be in the next decade or it could be in our children's generation. But too, even once it's available, it's apt to be available only to a small number of test subjects for a long time, followed by a small number of super-wealthy aspies for an even longer period of time. It might be technically achievable for an entire human lifespan before the average person can even hope to afford it.

Check out the timeline for progress on prosthetic retinas as an example.

By prostetic retinas are you referring to those brain implats that allow someone with aquired blindness to see via a cmera wired to the brain? We have those implants for the brain, and only a few wealthy test subject have had them put in.

See:

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT0 ... sm&rank=18

for some less invasive research into autism treatment.

I feel that the social symptoms of autism could be treated in this way. I don't think a cure for adult autism is conceivable, because so much of NT adults' identities are based on foundations of self-confidence built up by proving themselves (in various ways) during adolescence. Think of adult cats - They know they can use the fighting skills developed while playing as kittens, straightaway if they have to, even though you wouldn't think it from their usual serene expression.

If successful, the potential treatment I linked to would be useful for bridging the gap between autistic and NT adults, but I don't feel it would be a cop-out from learning to deal with one's autism (is that even somethnig NTs have to do?!), particularly as it merely encourages development in certain directions.

Although nationalised healthcare exists in the UK where I live, the trend here is very much towards autism acceptance (see http://www.nas.org.uk), so any treatments are unlikely to be approved for our National Health Service. From what I read online, autism seems to jive with "the American Way" (in many Americans' perceptions) about as well as an entrepreneurial spirit jived with the Soviet Union, so maybe there's more chance of American auties receiving any treatment on their health insurance-?! {British citizens don't have any revolutionary founding ideals to live up to, so it's more "anything goes" over here, I guess }

Last edited by undefineable on 06 Jan 2009, 10:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

I feel the same way too. I'm 20 and I feel like I'm missing out on life. When ever I see a group of girls hanging out at the mall, in collage in a sorority or something. I want to be like them. Ever since I took notice of other people I wanted that closeness and the fun they seem to have.

But due to my AS it would rearly (if ever) be like how it is in the movies.

I go between these two, keeping my AS or trading it in for a cure.

Underachievement is a messy business - If I were to become a bus driver (actually I'm being inducted as a local autistic society care support worker), might one say I was taking work from the classically mentally-retarded instead of finding a more suitable niche? I guess that in your view it suddenly becomes 'bad' when I tell you I've been underemployed because I lack interest in my own 'genius' talents (which include such money-spinning thrills as a knack of accur8ly pronouncing foreign words), and because I intended to finish working on - rather than dealing with - my autism.

But it's only now that I accept my autism as being OK and (importantly) for life that I'm developing a suitable career. And surely the best recipe for universal underachievment is to pressure every1 to achieve 'or else'

A curious inquiry: did you actually mean that the way you said it? Had me gawking at the screen for a moment.

Because a person with LD or even MR wouldn't be a bus-driver where I live. And by all the love, if they were, I'd probably make sure to not take that bus.

Too many people who go crazy on buses these days and need to be handled by the driver who must know how to handle these ever new and complex situations.