Would you want to be cured if you could?

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Depends on how extensive this 'cure' is. I think I would want some of the more pain-in-the-ass aspects of Asperger's to be remedied. First and foremost, I would want whatever 'it' is that prevents me from driving a car to be eliminated! That's a major quality of life issue right there, and it was especially so when I still lived in Southern California (where I was born and raised). I'd also want to be not so slow when it comes to certain tasks, and other things that cramp my ability to get by in life.

I fear if it were a 'total cure' I would be robbed of my innate musical talent and many other things, my ability to entertain myself for hours on end without any external stimuli, my weird way of seeing and experiencing certain things, and other positives.

Couldn't help but smile at this...

I wouldn't want to be cured as my autism has given me an insight into the true nature of other people/human beings and hence gives me a head up over the majority who walk around blind to it until it bites them.

I would not like to be like the majority as I think they walk around 'blind' to a lot of things in life. I'm glad to be sensitive as I think I get a deeper experience of life itself whereas most people merely skim over the surface of it. So I think the suffering I experience is a worthwhile trade-off for the depth of experience I get.

I wouldn't want to be cured, because I don't have to put up with people's s**t except on an extremely limited bases where I'm forced to socialize. No abuse, no STDs, no unwanted babies, no promiscuity and a lot of other sick things many other people do. I HATE TO BE TOUCHED, KISSED AND HUGGED.

I wouldn't want to be cured because I may not be a professional artist or a model builder where I build models that would be for engineers.

It would scare the hell out of me if someone tried to cure me.

Such comments make me sad.


No. There's nothing to cure because small breasts can be fully functional.
Unlike an autistic brain, which lacks some capabilities that an NT brain has.


It's not. That's like claiming having dyslexia is perfect and the global use of script is unnecessary and discriminatory.

It makes sense for human beings to do social interaction. Most people have a brain that is good at this. We don't. So there's something wrong with us.

I think Projectile was joking...but if it wasn't a joke, it would make me sad too.



I don't totally disagree with you on this point, but I don't totally agree with you either.

I don't think one type of brain is right and the rest are wrong.

I agree that it makes sense for human beings to do social interaction. But I think that "social interaction" is made up of a lot of different things/skills...and that there are a lot of different ways to interact with others. I think that autistic people can be good at some of the skills involved in social interaction, or better at some ways of interacting than others.

I think that some -- not all, but some -- of the difficulty that we have with social interaction is partly caused by non-autistic people refusing to be flexible in their communication style, or simply writing us off as incapable or not-worth-it before even trying to learn why we don't understand them or why we don't act like they do. I think a lot of us might find social interaction easier if we had the opportunity to interact with others in ways that made sense to us, or in ways that didn't require us to do things we simply can't do.

A lot of what NTs might expect of me seems sort of similar to if I was deaf, and a hearing-person started talking to me verbally when they were across the room and facing a wall so I couldn't even see their face...and expected me to hear and understand them. If they acknowledged that I didn't hear, that I needed to communicate using sign language or to see their lips move to lip read what they were saying, and faced me when speaking and/or using sign -- then we could communicate. ...It's not exactly the same situation as between NT's and autistic people (and I might be missing some very, very important differences), but I think there are similarities.... people need to accomodate each other's differences for social interaction to work, no matter what those differences are.

There are a lot of things about my autism that make socializing difficult for me, but I don't think that those things automatically mean there is something wrong with me that is right with everybody else.

He continued with

A humorous comment.


And NT brains lack some capabilities that an autistic brain has.


It makes sense to have a good long term memory. It makes sense to be able to hyperfocus. It makes sense to pick up patterns. We are good at details and the biggest pictures (while bad at the big picture smaller than the biggest). Most autistic brains are good at these, while Nts can't. So there must be something wrong with them, then.

I'm quite sure it was a joke, but it still makes me sad because it conveys the attitude: "It's the others' fault."


That makes sense.

But the difference to deaf people is: Only their communication channel differs, not the communication itself.
That is, would life be perfect if everyone had autism? I don't think so. Granted, maybe 50% of Aspie problems originate from other people's expectations that we can't fulfill, but the other 50% remain.

Talking to other Aspies has the advantage that they know my perspective and therefore don't expect me to do things like showing facial expressions, and they'll more likely forgive me if a disobey the social protocol. But that still doesn't mean perfect understanding. When talking to an Aspie, how do I tell if I bore them (unless they tell me)? It's actually easier for me to tell that in NTs because I've learned how to read facial expressions (to a certain extent).

I think the NT-way of communication is superior. If it wasn't, evolution wouldn't have developed anything like non-verbal communication in the first place.

I'm not Rain Man, I don't have any special talent.
OK, I'm good at math and at a couple of other things. But there are NT people who are also good at this, and many of them are far better than me (some of them at everything at the same time).

So if the deal was "Would you adopt the NT way of thinking if you otherwise (interests, abilities, views, etc.) remained the same?", I would agree immediately.
If the deal was "Would you give 10 IQ points for NT abilities?", I'd probably try to beat it down to 5 and then agree. (I don't know my IQ number anyway.)

I think we can all agree there's something wrong with all of us. I don't believe one as a whole is better than the other.

Oh, I didn't pick up on that! I understand better what you mean now...I'm unclear about this part, though: Do you find it sad because the attitude, "It's the others' fault" is divisive/antagonistic or for some other reason?




I don't understand what you mean about how the communication itself differs between people with autism and NTs. Can you explain it in a different way?



I don't think life would be perfect if everyone had autism either.

I also agree that not all of the problems autistic folk have are caused by non-autistic people's expectations...although I have no idea about percentages, and I imagine it would vary from person to person.



I'm not sure that there is a single autistic way of communicating...and not every autistic person has more problems non-verbal communication than with verbal communication.

A lot of the time when I'm talking to people in person I'm using memorized phrases or mirroring to respond to their nonverbal communication instead of what they're actually saying, because I can usually pick up on at least some of how a person feels about what they're saying but often find myself lost when it comes to understanding their words. (I try to do this less now than I used to...ever since I realized how important the actual meaning of the words can be I've been trying to improve my verbal communication with respect to explaining when I'm totally lost and don't get what people are saying.)




Agreed.

I wouldn't cure the autism but I would like some of the communication issues that tend to go with it cured, like the auditory processing problems I have and the sensory issues. That alone can be what causes most of my stress.

I would probably not take the cure. It would depend. I'd like to have NT social skills and not deal with as many sensory issues.

I would welcome news of a cure, because there are some people who are affected much more by their autism than I am and I don't think they should have to stay that way if they choose not to. I have no idea what they would choose, of course. I would have some concerns that the cure would be forced upon me (for example, withdrawing support).

The cure I'm looking for is for depression (different from sadness), persistent social anxiety (although I think a little social anxiety is actually healthy...), and lack of self-esteem. The autistic traits I happen to have may be related to those above problems, but they aren't the same, and they aren't going away.

Self-acceptance of who you are goes a long way. I am finding this to be more and more true.

I'd like to send this straight to Autism Speaks.

No, I'm fine the way I am.

I'm not against a cure or anything, though. Those that want one should get it.