Will a cure for Aspergers be found soon ???

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I am just curious if anyone thinks a cure for Aspergers is on the horizon in the next 10 years or so?

A few times in the last few years, my father has chirped excitedly to me that apparently scientists are finding ways to "make neurons bounce differently" in the brain, which apparently is the precursor to a cure for Aspergers. I'm not imminently scared of being forced to take a cure in the next few years or so. I think, however, if a cure were made available, my parents would pressure me endlessly until I gave up the ghost and agreed for treatments.

I could find no concrete information on anything my father talked about. However, my father gets giddy at the prospect of a cure for me. He seems to think it will make me less anxious and allow me to lose my inhibitions. I sort of agree.... The only thing, however, is that I think my anxieties are more "learned" as the result of decades of repeated failing in life-situations. I feel like even if I was "cured," i would not forget my whole life history and every negative event that shaped my current personality as an adult. I think he would be upset when I did not just start acting like a type-A alpha male overnight after being cured.

This is what I sort of tried to explain to him, but I don't think it came over very clearly; Even if I was cured, I still have not had the key 30 years of formative life experiences that would allow me to function as a healthy adult. If I had been a 30 year old NT, I would have a lifetime of networking, making friends and connections, and doing everything to build the basis for a strong adulthood. However, having AS all of these years, I've sort of lived as a marginal indivdual who has never integrated into mainstream culture or learned how to interact with others. Even if I was just "cured," I would basically be horrendously "behind" and starting from square-1 at age 30. I could only get the most menial work, if that, and I doubt I could hold it. I never learned how to do the "little tricks" like making effective small talk, and these things are crucial for holding entry-level jobs.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that by the time you are an adult, it is not just having AS or not having AS, but what kind of construction you have built up to base your life on. I think if I was a kid in public school, and I was at the same basic level as everyone else, I would accept a cure with no hesitation. For me, however, I think it is too late now, as everyone has passed me by and lapped me several times.

I know a cure is hypothetical, but these are sort of my thoughts regarding if I was being forced or pressured to take one. I would sort of feel like I no longer knew who I was, but thrust into a weird and unfamiliar world and expected to function instantly.

call it a cure or call it something else, whatever it is, if it will make my life better then I want it.

To my mind a cure for autism is like a cure for being black, female, blue eyed or being gay. None of the five "cures" are morally defendable.

I respectfully suggest that those misguided souls who either work on or fund a cure for autism should find something better to do with their time / money, while I am tempted to suggest that they stare out of the window as a more contructive alternative I think it would be better if the research effort went on a cure for cancer / heart disease or strokes.

no not a chance.

I want to have better social functioning at least.

One poster is afraid he will be forced to take a cure and another poster is concerned about the moral implications of a cure.

Well I can puts their minds at rest there is no chance of a cure if there was I would be the first in line.
There is more chance of pigs flying.

The short answer is no. We're not even sure about what causes autism in the first place.

While I don't entirely disagree (nor entirely agree), the OP did not ask for our opinion on whether or not a cure is morally acceptable, only if it will happen in the foreseeable future.
The pro/against argument has been done to death.

The only time I've seen a potential 'cure' was with that of a few individuals that through pulsed EM therapy have specific neural regions 'zapped' into becoming active and it gave these individuals, for a short time, the ability to pick up and read other people's emotions, body language, etc at a 'normal' level. These individuals themselves said it was like a switch had been turned on and that they had never experienced instinctive ease at reading social cues before.

The effect of the EM pulse lasted only a few days and wore off. It took one of those individuals a couple of years of the therapy until they found the right neurons to zap to trigger the 'fix'. So its not like they just jolt your brain in the first try and it works. So far. It also only lasted for a few days which means the actual neural connections are there but for some reason they are de-activated or have a blocking signal affecting it.

If there is a cure I'd say it would be in the form of a chip implant in the brain that somehow zeroes out whatever mechanism is responsible for the issue. Either way.. expensive....

I wouldn't want to be 'cured'. I know it's difficult sometimes, but I really like who I am and wouldn't want to be any different

There will never be a cure. Asperger's and Autism is so cruel that it's just too stubborn to to be cured. It molds itself so deep into your brain what nothing can get to to change it. It is such a f*****g big shame. People on the spectrum just have to suffer and that's that. That is why I self-harm by hitting myself in the head when angry. I don't want to take it out on innocent animals, objects or other people. I whack myself round the head several times to tell my brain ''that's it, I've had enough - wire yourself into an NT brain so I can be part of this crazy world!'' The brain just folds it's arms stubbornly and goes ''no, and just for that, you will get a headache.''

I hate my stupid f*****g brain.

I had to learn how to love me and love my brain and sweet talk to it, telling it, "I know you're doing the best you can."

OP wrote:

A wonderful and very important point you are making here. Even an infant's data processing is built upon. This is why early intervention can be important in autism.. There is no way a person can say all of his troubles are because he was born a certain way. It is like saying a person cannot do this or that because some kind of interaction happened 2 billion of years ago in a pool of slime.

If you are only thirty, then life can still change radically for you, but I think it would involve dedication and work, as many patterns have been built upon.and by the time a person is thirty, and even much younger, a lot of these pattersn are very entrenched or even crystallized. Most of my personal dewvelopment did not even begin until after thirty. Never forget that the brain is very flexible and its fimnctioning can by different methods be transformed. There is much interest in this by scientists and programs about this on national public television all the time. I have seeen many.

The whole cure concept is in my opinion ridiculous. When people talk about a cure (but not you in this instance) they are generally skipping steps about how things actually work. Do not be duped into thinking this way but continue to think in the way you are, There is even further to go with this kind of thinking as your personally situation can be viewed as a great opportunity. There is this saying that I heard around age twenty which greatly inspired me and changed the course of my entire life: "God's curses are our opportunity."

IOW god put us in these tough earthschool classes to work on skills we were weak on and needed strengthening in?

Of course I can't cough up a link, but I have read at least one story of a blind person, when given sight, basically freaks out.

Wonder if that would happen to me?

I have no clue about a cure for Autism. Won't be tomorrow I'm pretty sure.

I work at a factory doing product testing, and some times I get a hold of customer returns. Often the product is just ruined beyond belief, can't figure much out of it. But every once in a while, one pops in that isn't quite ruined and oh oh oh ... now I see the light on what is going wrong. (Other co-workers too).

Or I do something at home the same way for 10 years, putting up with it, and then I finally think thru, what if I do it this way? And bam! problem solved.

Or maybe I go for a walk on the weekend, or mowing the lawn, or riding my bike, and the solution comes to me then.

Scientific research can be a lot like that. You just never know. So a cure in 10 years could be possible. I guarantee that cell phone in your pocket will be a laughable piece of junk 10 years from now.

Its too bad, if I was 17 and knew what I knew now, I would like to go into research on Autism ... but now its somebody's else's quest.

Joe, I do not have time to respond in depth today, but your message is heartbreaking to me. I am so very sorry about the suffering you are going through. You are a young person and the brain is still very flexible. Do not think brain, even. Think mind,.The mind is your thinking, and the mind can affect the function of the brain just as much as brain function can affect the thinking of the mind, and maybe even more if there is an approach.

So there is you and your brain. Between these two poles there is the possibility of an interchange. Do not think too big...that can be frustrating and overwhelming. Start little...one small step at a time...you can even start with a question or a small action like taking a walk in the sun or petting an animal or watering a plant....Anything small which allows the sun to shine on your own relationship with yourself. The person doing the simple action is you. You are here and simply doing it and you can.

Yep.
This is really the only way I ever got anywhere.