What would the effect of a "cure" be?

Post Reply New Topic

If one were to take a "cure", what would the effect be?

As an adult, social ability wouldn't be any better (see: feral children). Sensory sensitivities and the repetitive behaviours would move to a normal level. Other symptoms will go too. Overall productivity and outcome would increase amongst the diagnosed population with a cure compared to those without such a cure. Still socially ret*d.

Will work on children in regards to social development.

Don't know the effect it'd have on the world, probably none.

The removal of personality.

ASDs and personality haven't been proven to be related, other than how someone handles the ASD they have (Wing, Attwood, et alli).

My mother and I have a similar personality, I have Autism, and she doesn't. The only difference being is she's affected by her social interactions in how she manifests behaviour in some ways, I'm cut-off from mine. I'm rigid, unaffected.

Last edited by Danielismyname on 08 Mar 2009, 8:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

The traits of ASDs make up parts of your personality.

Plus, most NTs are sheep. Aspies, in general, arn't.

biggest problem with feral children is that they missed the window frame for learning language... which surely affects many many other cognitive capacities required in society. but even ("most") non-verbal autistics can relate to verbal language via some venue. it's a slightly different developmental issue... but probably just by degree. i agree with the sentiments.

Having a "cure" would take away our natural non-conformity that has historically led to genius accomplishments for our society. We wouldn't be able to look at life from the same angle. Having a cure is risky to civilization for that reason.

Also, a lot of NT's are shallow and unquestioning. Would it take away our depth? Would girls who can hardly kick a ball due to coordination problems suddenly become cheerleaders?

I don't think any "cure" could take away all of those types of traits. Besides, how do you change brain "wiring?" You can change brain chemistry, but wiring?

I'd be the superficial white girl, without an accent who's too lazy to understand people who speak with accents.

[/quote]

The traits of ASDs make up parts of your personality.

Plus, most NTs are sheep. Aspies, in general, arn't.[/quote]

I own my personality, if I want to change it, I can.

A lot of people in general are sheep, but I think I would not imply that most NT's are, or that being NT would make me a sheep.

(I don't mean to be argumentative, I just feel I disagree with your implications. It seems tome you are imply ASD is good. I feel it is bad for some people and good for others. For me, I think it's bad, because it limits my ability to have friends and I want to change it)

Changing brain wiring is not that hard, it takes about 2 monthes of solid work to rewire our neural pathways. People do it all the time. The difficulty level is roughly equivalent to quiting smoking.

The entire industry of NLP is based on learning to rewire your neural pathways. It's kinda like developing a new habit. It takes specific techniques, it doesn't happen just because "you really want it." But it's do-able. Anthony Robins does it all the time.

There will not be a cure any time soon so you're much better off just being happy with who you are than wishing you where something you're not.

Last edited by DeLoreanDude on 08 Mar 2009, 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I thought of this the other day.

If a drug or treatment would "cure" AS, all it would do is enable us to process information just as NTs do.

The problem is that our social development skills are already set. Any scars from growing up have already left their mark.

Some things would become easier. We'd probably stop being prone to things that make us awkward, but how much better would our quality of life be...really?

If someone was a low-functioning AS, they would probably have more of a reason to take the treatment than a high-functioning AS person who's managed to cope with the challenges that AS poses.

I very much disagree with that. Well, at least with one possible interpretation of both the above statements (there are 2 I can think of).

One is wishing not to be have the deficits which I think is very questionable and not helping with mental health. The other is that you don't agree with your impairments and people saying you should limit yourself to your impairments/strengths and weaknesses and pick accordingly which I absolutely disagree with.

Nobody should be forced to give up their dreams and nobody should be forced to adjust and remodel their dreams to fit given circumstances.

For me such statements seem like saying it's better to be lazy and not try that's hard than to attempt hard or impossible things and do what you want.

This is the same as when you tell someone with an LD that they shouldn't hope for a good education because they're stupid anyway and should be happy to try something that fits their intellect rather than trying to do their best in academics. I so not agree with that if someone wants friends but is autistic that they shouldn't try.

They should however accept their LD as a given fact they cannot change and base all their effort and hopes on finding a different-than-standard way. Because if they hoped to be 'normal' to achieve an average education they're probably not only going to fail hard but also get a whole lot of physical and mental illnesses because thinking you're bad or a looser is so harmful.