Do you think autism needs to be cured

Post Reply New Topic

Ask me when I was 12, making word noises euphorically in my little room the size of the universe, I would have said no. Ask me again when I was 19 getting beat up and worse in the navy, I'd say yes. Ask me when I was 30 in love with Shelley and long walks in my mind, I'd say no. Ask me again when I was 45 when my wife left me and took the kids, the answer would be yes. Ask me today, I'd say it's too late I don't care. You could be as normal as a blank sheet of paper and still there's ups & downs when you hit the typewriter. Is there a cure for suffering? The cure for joy will probably be right around the corner.

There should be a cure for NT

Only for problems such as challenging behaviour, lack of speech, etc.

I think it's called forced sterilisation.

Wisdom here.

Very profound

No, I just want help for my anxiety & depression that plagues me along side of it.

I feel the same way that you do on this issue.

I also don't wish to be cured, because my autism is an important part of who I am. I have my unusual quirks, kinks and interests because of that. I'd rather eat lemons than be cured.

I'll say - a wonderfully poetic and considered response to a simple question, avoiding all the simplistic answers.

This brought tears of happy recognition to my eyes:
Ask me when I was 12, making word noises euphorically in my little room the size of the universe, I would have said no.

Last edited by Cornflake on 14 May 2012, 11:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

Same. Well, it would be nice for the sensory issues to be cured.

A cure is too universal and interferes too much with your personality. It would damage the people subjected to it, and it would damage society as a whole by getting rid of at least one useful aspect of diversity.

What we need is better education, more useful treatment, better acceptance and integration. We don't need to change the brains of the autistic people; we need to change the society they have trouble fitting into.

I don't think there should be a cure, and I don't think they will find one.

But I think that a lot of people would be happier and have a better life with autism/AS if they got the help they needed and the understanding they needed. I think maybe the best treatment would be knowlegde and giving people the help they need.

Probably very naïve of me to think this way...

I guess a few personality traits would change. But psychopharmaceuticals do the same (how many aspies are on antidepressants?), and so does a different diet. Add more tryptophane to your diet by eating more bananas, poultry or cheese, and your serotonin levels go up, resulting in a different outlook on life and different behavior. Among other things, elevated tryptophane / serotonin levels improve self-control (link), change people's sense of fairness (link), and lead to more rational decision making (link).

I'd call that a personality change. Eat a cheese sandwich, and two hours later you're a slightly different person. And yet people barely notice when neurotransmitter precursors in their diet change their personality for the better. They simply feel good after ingesting psychoactive chemicals. I imagine that an improved neural connectivity would do the same. One would be more alert, more in the here and now, more socially capable, and better able to enjoy life rather than being anxious, stressed and confused all the time. That's a personality change I could live with

PS: It's interesting that you would compare it to a missing primary color. Personally, I would compare it to being able to see additional colors that one was unaware of before.

What I find disgusting is that humans still breed like animals and roll genetic dice without giving much thought to the happiness and capabilities of their future children. "Sorry son, something went awry when we put you together, but we went ahead and forced you into this world anyway. Off you go now, good luck trying to survive on your own out there". We should be better than that.

Anyway, if there was a cure for autism, there would be no reason to abort autistic children. I don't understand why people read "cure" and think "abortion". Cures are for existing people who struggle with medical conditions. As for embryos, in an ideal world they would be cultured in vitro and screened for disorders before they're implanted, which means that abortions would be a thing of the past.