Where's The Cure?

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I've been waiting 21 years for a cure now. All Asperger's Syndrome does is cause me problems. I missed out on so much of being a kid and a teenager, and now I'm missing out on being a young adult due to this god-awful affliction. I understand if I did something wrong in the past life and I'm being punished, but I wouldn't wish this illness on my worst enemy. Awareness campaigns are all well and good if you don't mind having it, but to me it's nothing more than a horrendous plague that I want to be free of. Where's the cure?

Honestly I cannot figure out any way they could come up with a cure...I don't necessarily blame people for wanting one, but in my mind it just seems impossible. Your user name says Black Metal, so sometimes my only advice can be stay calm and listen to black metal ...I personally am not so comfortable with the idea of a cure I mean sure it would be nice to get rid of the problems being on the autism spectrum gives me but at the same time I feel a cure might totally alter who I am which is a disturbing thought to me.

Altered how? Now that you bring that up I'm curious.

Wait, we got another Black Metal fan here? Yeah, you and me should get along great. lmao \m/

I guess Sweetleaf means that ASDs are pervasive and impact almost every aspect of mental functioning in some way. Speaking from personal experience, most aspects of my personality tie to autistic traits in some way. Sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly.

Yeah, what cure has there ever been that only affected a cure and nothing else? Even Advil does things to your liver, etc.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but biomedical treatments have helped me a lot.

I see what you're saying, but I'm tired of not being able to have much of a social life, I'm tired of having problems keeping a job, staying in school, I'm tired of not being able to have a girlfriend and/or a healthy sex life, I'm tired of judgmental stares, the rejection, the limitations my government wants to impose on me because of it, I want nothing to do with it unless it's a cure or something close. I don't want any autistic traits, direct or inderict. I just wanna be cured...

If it effects my liver, or effects anything else, so be it. Even if it kills me after 5 years, at least I'll be able to say I had the chance to live a somewhat normal life and not miss out on things NT's enjoy.

Yeah, I take a probiotic.

Well, we don't even comprehensively understand what even causes it. I think it's very unlikely that we'll find a cure before we learn of autism's cause. We currently know very little of the brain and how it comes to be affected by autism spectrum disorders. And to be honest, I think we're going to learn how to screen autism prenatally before that, so all we'll see is the autistic population dwindle and research into a cure stagnate because there's lesser incentive for a cure when you can choose to screen for autism and abort autistic embryos/fetuses.

A cure is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Last edited by Norepinephrine on 17 Mar 2014, 12:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The Cure? I don't know if they are even still touring.

Like what? I keep seeing NT life being seen as some kind of paradise by many with autism, but I don't see it that way at all. I'm on two teen help and advice forums and many times find myself very thankful that my autism makes me immune to their problems. Maybe on the outside it looks like they have great lives idk. But when they are spilling their guts online, it does not look all that great to me.

I'm not saying that I do not have a lot of impairments that I would like to be rid of, but I think life is just plain difficult for everyone in many ways. That's why I do the count my blessings thing. I have friend who is a C5 quadriplegic, and one of the things he's most grateful for is not needing a respirator. A lot of this has to do with perspective I think.

This kind of thinking is particularly gratifying to see in anyone, but especially a teenager, as this gives me hope for the future of humanity---looking at things from both ends of the stick and trying to see the glass as half full rather than half empty. Some people, due to the influence of people around them, begin to develop in childhood the possibility to be more resilient and think comprehensively, and others do not have as much of an opportunity to learn it, so either good habits or bad habits can be built upon and patterns formed, but once a person sees he has developed some ways of thinking that are counter productive, then he can work to change that, Any person in this world is probably going to have developed some habits of thinking that are counter productive, and he can benefit by seeing how his own thinking may be affecting him in negative ways and then Working to change certain aspects of this thinking.

"Curing" autism seems to me like wishing you were a different person as the one you are. I wouldn't say it is wrong, but just it seems to me that it is wishful thinking right now. It is a bit like wishing you were tall if you are short, or wishing you are the opposite sex to the one you are born (well this one is actually mostly possible but it requires heavy medication and surgery). Maybe in a few centuries we will have ways of doing that, but right now it is science fiction.

I took the previous example deliberately. I don't hate myself but if there was a way to experience the world as a NT for a while and then go back to being who I am, I would gladly try it out of curiosity and to better understand people who differ from me if not for any other reason. And I feel the same for things like sex, race, etc. These topics have been explored in many good sci-fi books.

On the other hands, what we can hope to cure (using medication, therapy, social changes, etc.) are the problems caused by having autism in our world : discrimination, unhappiness, anxiety, depression, etc.

I had about the same reaction when first reading the topic title

Well since it effects my entire neurology, making it work different than someone without autism...so the only kind of cure I could think of would have to alter ones neurology turning it into typical neurology which might be sort of like becoming a different person. Also I figure even if they developed such a treatment it would likely be very dangerous.

But yeah I do enjoy black metal I think there are some people that if they came in my room when I am listening to it would probably be afraid of whats coming out of my speakers.

honestly, i am not sure if i even *want* a cure...
aspergers is not only a persuasive effect (i wont call it a desease or affliction, you dont 'get' and 'get rid of' it), it is a way of being, an integral part of my personality.
asking to cure aspergers is like asking the cure for being gay... and the only cure for both will kill you, either physically or mentally, changing an integral part of your personality is basically the same as killing you.

also, the NT interests aren't that interesting imo, soccer, getting buzzfaced and getting laid... no thanks, i prefer to lose myself into a good book.

there are some bad points for having aspergers, sure, but it's a 2-bladed sword, and i like the positives better then i hate the negatives.