Glad I'm Autistic

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You’ve crossed the 1,000 posts plateau. Congratulations.

You are completely right. Autism isn't something that needs to be "cured". It needs to be understood.

Yes, I am.

Over the past year, I've realised it's a definitive plus to be able to cut through the BS, not go along with the madness of the crowd and look at things rationally rather than just accept what we're being spoon-fed. If that is a common autistic trait then I'm 100% glad to be autistic and I absolutely would not want to be cured if such a thing was possible.

I’ve recently come to terms in accepting myself for who I am as someone with HFA, that’s why I came to this site. I’ve faced a lot of verbal and occasionally physical abuse for being on the spectrum, but despite what people said about me saying I’ll be nothing but a failure, I’ve been beating the odds and have moved forward in my higher education studying computer programming with a 3.5 GPA. I don’t think that if they had a so called “cure” for Autism, that I would take it because my fear would be that the cure (most likely through gene editing) that I would end up with every cancer know to man or worse.

I only speak for one Autistic, myself. If you've met one Autistic you've met one Autistic. I accept that my experiences and opinions are not universal.

And having made that disclaimer--I think I share opinions with a few of the previous posters...

I am very, very glad to be me. I learned when I was 64 that included Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1 (Mild) so I guess I'm glad to be Autistic.

I do not want to be cured. I now know Autism had some negative impacts on my life, but probably also had some positive ones. I've muddled through life reasonably well and I look good on paper, and I suspect if I had not had Autism I might have looked more normal but less successful. And I would be very concerned that after being "cured" I would no longer be "me".

So, see my signature block, below:

I am ok with being autistic too although my diagnosis is not defined....i don't fit classical autism and I don't fit aspergers due to developmental differences as a child. I am PDD NOS with selective mutism, social anxiety and autoimmune issues. I am ok with it.

Unfortunately my son and family are not...I am horrified, gutted, don't understand, but such is life.