Autism can't be cured if you don't want to be

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Magneto
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19 Jun 2009, 11:23 am

Unless we know what is different between NTs and Aspies, we can't know what a cure would change. I'm asking now what a cure would change.



CyclopsSummers
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19 Jun 2009, 11:37 am

Magneto wrote:
Unless we know what is different between NTs and Aspies, we can't know what a cure would change. I'm asking now what a cure would change.

I've wondered about this, too, but I'm a complete layman when it comes to neurology, so I'm oblivious to the neurological details of ASD. My assumption is that if they'd come up with any medicine, it would only serve to suppress certain traits, and may well have long-term negative effects on the brain. I prefer a self-styled psychological 'crutch' to a cure.


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fiddlerpianist
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19 Jun 2009, 11:51 am

Autism is a developmental disorder, not a disease. Can you cure a disorder? Even hypothetically?

The only thing you might be able to do would be to prevent whatever neurological conditions "set up" autism, from an early enough age. For instance, there is some research out there that suggests that autism may be caused by a brain which grows unusually rapidly. (I'm not commenting on the validity of the study, just using it to highlight my point.) Let's say that this is demonstrably true, or at least true in many cases. If you could come up with some sort of treatment that prevents said rapid growth, you could maybe prevent autism.

Once your brain has developed that way, though, you're pretty much stuck with that for life.


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Magneto
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19 Jun 2009, 1:38 pm

It all comes down to what the difference between NT and Autism is. A question which has still not been satisfactorily answered.

A 'cure' for people who already have it would have to suppress certain traits of the person. But what if the person decides consciously to still exhibit those traits?



bushratcandy
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15 Aug 2016, 7:16 am

Magneto wrote:
Okay, what is the difference between Aspie and NT? What is is people are worried they'd lose if they were 'cured'?


I don't claim to know much about how the NT mind works, but I know when i get excited about seeing Mars or Jupiter NTs don't care.. eg the other day I spotted Mars pointed it out to some other people who were camping, they didn't even bother to look up(wtf). On saturday morning I got up early to see a meteor shower, me and my mate were the only 2 people on the beach. I found a super cool rock in my garden, it has strips and some dots that are fossils (it's a rare rock call zebra rock) , showed it to my landlord totally unimpressed!

I can spend hours working out mathematical problems or creating the perfect computer algorithm, I don't need other people around me to make me happy.

Of course not all scientists, mathematicians, musicians, authors etc are aspies but I suspect the really brilliant ones are. Being an aspie gives me a super power called persistence - I don't care how many hours it takes to understand vector equations I will get there then move on to the next topic. Who is going to keep all the knowledge if the world gets rid of the aspies? We are the ones who will spend our whole lives learning it, we are the ones who understand it's importance :heart:


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The_Dark_Citadel
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22 Aug 2016, 9:23 am

I don't think a cure would be effective, since autism varies so much from one person to another. It would be a bit like curing brain damage. What's done is done. Maybe the brain can be rewired, but it would never be "normal." I know, I have both.


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