I want to be cured.

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I dislike how stem cell research opponents and those against the cure of autism act like they speak for all of us. Some of us really do want to be cured, and have a mind of our own to make this decision.

It is okay if you do not want a cure for yourself, but do not impede on mine or anyone else's decision. You will sound like a hypocrite as you have individualist undertones yet feel that everyone deep inside wants to agree with you with a little convincing on your part.

As for everyone else, imagine only being a few inches away from the special prize you have always wanted yet your are trapped behind steel bars and cannot quite reach out to grab it. You try over and over again, sometimes you even get to touch it, but you never get a full palm grasp of it to pull it inside the steel prison you are in. That wonderful prize is the golden key to help you open the steel cage to escape and let you live a normal life that neurotypicals take for granted.

I do not like being so close to normalcy, yet never being able to finally achieve it. Let's face it, normal people have more fun and this disorder has done nothing special for most people. The vast majority of us will not become the next Einstein who died before the idea of AS was widespread, and therefore cannot be properly diagnosed.

Does anyone else want to be cured?

Well, I'm not sure if I have Asperger's or not. I do have some AS traits - mostly difficulty interacting with people...
Some days I wish I could understand them instinctively, and think that if I wasn't maybe AS I could, and other days I think, even neurotypicals have trouble understanding each other, I'm not particularly special in my difficulty.

So...
Some days I would like to be cured.

And I think that any research is good research, and that individuals have the right to their own decisions, be they popular within a group or not.

I do. I'd trade in my entire personality to get rid of the sensory defensiveness.

Wanting to be cured...I guess what you are saying is there are some things that you want to change about yourself. Pardon me for seeming nosey, but, what are the things about yourself you wish were different? Sometimes it helps to talk about it.

I don't have any special aspie talents so I think I wouldn't have to sacrifice much. so yes, I'd love to be cured.

I am perfectly fine the way I am, a little lonely, but perfectly fine. No interest in being "cured". AS is as much a part of me as the rest of my genetics, so I don't mind it.

I hate being socially dense. I take everything too literally. I have no close friends. I'm boring. Everyone thinks I'm a joke. I can't read emotions and misinterpret them most of the time. I'm missing out on my youth because of this disorder, normal people don't know how good they have it. I've already missed out on the fun in high school, the same will probably be true for college too. I'm 20 years old, I'm going to have to go to the real world soon and AS is not making things easy.

I think it's not just a matter of if we want to be cured, but rather what we do and don't want to be cured of. Because of that, talking about a cure for autism (or Asperger's) makes no sense. Rather, cure talk, if it's to be grounded in the real world rather than fantasy, should be more specific.

What are the specific traits you would like to be cured of?

Along with that, "cure" isn't always the only answer. I can't say I've been "cured" of having no friends, and I can't say I'll never be back there, but for now, I have friends, and don't see that changing, and that's a good thing. But it wasn't a cure. It was personal growth plus finding the right social group.

I would probably like to get rid of some of my aspie traits, but not get cured completely. It makes me who I am and I don't want to take that away from me.

Still, I still get those days where I wish I was cured.

It's your right to want a cure.

It's also your right to want to win the lottery.

As I see it, within our lifetimes, a cure is just as likely as any given lottery ticket being a winner... and unlike lotteries, there aren't millions of tickets out there. We would need about the same sort of technology to cure autism as we would to both create designer babies (for the genetic aspect) and to change, damage-free, the human brain into any configuration of cognition and personality (for the already-present neurological wiring). Anything less is not a complete cure. And what I'm talking about is something that won't be possible for decades, certainly... probably a few hundred years, realistically, for the sort of complete control over the changes made that might actually leave your personality mostly intact.

The problem I see with wanting a cure is that it seems to obscure everything else--you pin all your hopes on that one thing, and you forget that there's a life to be lived, with autism, and that this life isn't empty or worthless even though it may have its drawbacks. You start to see everything bad in your life as there because of your autism; and everything good that you want as something you could get if only you weren't autistic.

But... there is no cure. There won't be one for a long time--possibly never. People have lived good, happy, fulfilling, purposeful lives with all the problems that autism can bring, and more. And people without any sort of disability at all have had unhappy, empty, miserable lives.

While parents pin their hopes on cures, their children live lives where medicine and therapy push out childish fun and real learning. While autistics hope for cures, they ignore the good parts of life that they can have right now, with or without autism. I could be harsh and say "You are autistic, you will always be autistic; now learn to work with it," but if you think about it, that isn't such a harsh statement at all. Accepting yourself for who you are instead of thinking yourself unacceptable is about the most satisfying feeling in the world; and when you do that, you can learn to work with what you have--even if it isn't a lot; even if you're severely disabled; even if you face a lot of prejudice--and end up with a decent life, autism or no autism.

Or you could just keep buying lottery tickets, wasting your money and hoping for the big win...

Where does it end though, what if they also found a cure for evil, greed, lust, etc? There would not be a Ying or Yang, happiness or sadness, joy or pain. One without the other is everlasting boredom, life would not have meaning. I live to be happy, therefore I exist.

(yeah, i often talk weird like that)

Autism is probably an extreme trait that in small amounts is beneficial. It was probably a slightly-autistic nerd who first figured out how to build a fire or grow wheat... As such an "extreme version of normal", I don't think it would be very easy to pick autism out of someone's genes. And picking it out of the genes wouldn't be enough; you would have to change their current brain configuration, too.

I honestly think that wanting or not wanting a cure has much more to do with how you handle your autism than anything else. You could say, "I'll take a cure if one comes along, but for now I'm going to live my life," or you could put your life on hold hoping for a cure that never materializes... Too many autistic people and their parents are choosing that second option, and missing out on life because of it.

I personally can't imagine that being an NT is any better, in fact I imagine that it's a pretty horrible way to have to live but to each his own.