What would a "cured" autistic person look like?

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I always wondered this when people talk about curing autistic people. My mom thinks it will involve gene therapy before a child is born to make them not autistic. Are they really looking to cure adults and already born babies and children? Or are they looking for a gene that can be detected before the child is born and and suggest the parents have an abortion? Are adults ignored because they are seen as a "lost cause"?

As of 2012, 98 to 99 percent of Autism research money was going to children. At the beginning it was mostly hoping for genetic elimination. Because that has proved very complicated intercepting and altering autism or autistic traits through behavior modification at a very young age has become more of a priority. The human brain wires itself very rapidly in the first few years life so the idea is to prevent the autistic brain from doing what it it does naturally. That is why the breathless excitement every time a new study claims they have found a way to detect autism in infancy or before. That is why the repeated insistence on earlier and earlier diagnosis instead of letting kids be kids.

As for adults my predictiion is that CRISPR-CAS 9 gene editing technology will be used to try and cure or at least eliminate as much autism as posssibe in teens and younger adults. I predict older adults will remain mostly ignored.

Everybody will deny "curabee" intent, they will say this research is just for treatments to ameliorate the negative symptoms, they are ethical people, and even if a cure is found they do not want force it on anybody. Some maybe many will mean it. As long as us autistics remain divided, and so many of us continue to hate ourselves or the Autistic part of our lives that won't be enough.

I honestly don't want to be cured away from Autism. I like the way cool way I am. Last weekend me and mom were talking. And she said even if a guy said that he had a pill that could cure Autism. She would never do it because she likes the way I already am. And I 100% agree with her.

They look the same as an "uncured" autistic person.

Autism, without an accompanying genetic component, doesn't change the appearance of a person.

I've heard that people on the spectrum usually look younger and more attractive, so being cured will make you look old and ugly, I guess.

But what I think doesn't matter since I have Asperger's and therefore I am not even seen as really autistic and maybe even something of a supremacist on this site for not wanting to be "cured". That's the message I've been getting lately, anyway.

Since you're an adult are you married and have kids with Asperger's too?

I wish there was some sort of invention where autism in an unborn child can be detected, a bit like how Down's Syndrome can be detected before the child is born. That way I can choose whether to abort the baby or not. I wouldn't want a child with Down's Syndrome either, or anything that will cause any developmental delays or differences for the child.

But autism isn't bad at all. I and most other users on here have it and we love it. It's not bad. Sure we have some difficulties. But we're over all really good people.

Likely will look the same.. On the outside.

A child who got cured would probably be more of an NT. They don't have to adjust or worry much about changes. There probably wouldn't be a cost or training needed. And as being young, their experiences wouldn't interfere much, they are still 'moldable'.
Much so as being unborn yet...
So that's probably it. Whether they have a choice or not, and there's no telling if there's a consequences in his or her life later as a teen or as an adult or as an elderly.

An adult who got cured would probably get changed(internally), possibly overwhelmed by whatever he or she is socially perceiving that didn't most of his or her life.
Might get happier for grasping whatever he or she has been missing, or disappointed that it's not what he or she expects of whatever mystery he or she wonders about the norm. Has to cope and adjust to the neurology, and might do something drastic.

I don't know if this also takes account of the biological parts. (Certain sensitivities/insensitivities, physiology, biochemistry, etc...) But I'm certain about the behavioural and perception changes.


That's my theory.
I don't mind a glimpse of what being an NT would like, as long as I have a choice of reversing or not going towards full blown or permanent 'cure'. I don't mind remaining autistic as long as it's a choice, and I'm not the kind who hates herself or hates things for someone for whatever reason -- so they reap what they sow, for whatever possibilities it might be.

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Obviously the OP doesnt mean "look like" literally.

He means "how would a cure work".

Since any "cure for autism" is light years away any cure is pure conjecture. You can write any sci fi scenario you want.

The OP is probably right in that any real future "cure" would likely be some kind of genetic, or epigenetic, manipulation of the unborn (in vitro, or even beyond that -in a petri dish).

But ofcourse you could imagine them inventing a pill that actually "cured autism" in adults, or children, or anyone who took it.

Since I grew up in the Seventies generation I am used to the idea of using psychoactive drugs. So a drug that made you temporarily NT for four hours, and then wore off has some appeal (like caffine, pot, or even the way that Sudafed kinda alters your mood). Take it and ace that job interview, or make that sale, as a temporarily affable salesmen type NT. And then go home and do solitary creative stuff as your normal autistic self.

At the moment and the near future, I doubt both curing and prevention is possible, but who knows about the distant future? Are they more likely to identify the causes of autism or be able to change the brain?

But....to abort a baby with autism would be horrendous. Why would one do that?

Even with Down Syndrome???

Modern medicine can cure autistic and allistic people of all sorts of things. For example, one who is cured of an infection may enjoy having non-neon-green snot.