One Pill Makes You Autistic -- And One Pill Changes You Back

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qbit
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29 Jan 2008, 10:55 pm

http://io9.com/349956/one-pill-makes-yo ... s-you-back

WurdBendur
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29 Jan 2008, 11:52 pm

I'll take the red pill.

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nutbag
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30 Jan 2008, 12:23 am

Screw both pills. The cause I don't need; the cure I don't want.

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KimJ
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30 Jan 2008, 12:31 am

I can't tell if it's the blogger that comes up with the recreational autism idea? If so, it's pretty ignorant. My son doesn't care for inantimate objects more than people. In fact, one of his obsessions is socializing. I could see my mom taking one of those pills and doing the same thing, obsessing over people that she can't communicate with.

jijin
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30 Jan 2008, 12:53 am

KimJ I agree.

The post also brings up Provigil. I have taken that before, it is not a nice pill. It's long use side effects are not known, unless I missed a study about it, however, the ethical and societal effects are not known either.

The same goes for something like this.

Ethics. No body uses it any more, so why bother?

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jrknothead
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30 Jan 2008, 12:53 am

nutbag wrote:

Screw both pills. The cause I don't need; the cure I don't want.

i second that

WurdBendur
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30 Jan 2008, 1:16 am

It's funny how people here can be so elitist and act like being on the spectrum is such a great thing and how much they enjoy it, but they go batshıt when someone talks about doing it recreationally.
I think most of you just don't want to accept the reality most of the time that ASD can be a serious problem, but you'll preach it as soon as someone else wants in on it.

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KimJ
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30 Jan 2008, 1:26 am

What about my reaction is "going batshit" and how have I acted elitist about being on the spectrum? I was very specific about why I saw that sentiment on recreational autism as being ignorant. It is, no one I know that is autistic is devoid of emotion or lives some simple, unentangled life without social worries. Quite the opposite, for the most part.

I don't know that I've ever said that I enjoy being an aspie, it's quite maddening most of the time. But that's just the way it is.

asplanet
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30 Jan 2008, 1:35 am

Quote "It's a way of being. There is no cure, nor is there a need for one." John Elder Robison

I tend to agree as I see my symptoms are apart of who I am, not some unfortunate illness and have no intention to becoming anyone else - never liked taking pills anyway...

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zendell
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30 Jan 2008, 1:53 am

KimJ wrote:

My son doesn't care for inanimate objects more than people

I used to care about inanimate objects more than people.

KimJ wrote:

no one I know that is autistic is devoid of emotion or lives some simple, unentangled life without social worries.

I used to live a simple, unentangled life without social worries. I don't think I was ever devoid of emotion but I'm sure some people thought I was. Autism was so depressing that I didn't get emotional about things that stir up emotions in some people. I always had emotions but I didn't use to express them.

hartzofspace
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30 Jan 2008, 2:13 am

Oh, wow! Here's a pill to make you a different skin color! Imagine, finally fitting in with the rest of the sheeple! And when the novelty wears off...Oh, wait. What if I end up like Michael Jackson? Arghhh! What have I done!

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KimJ
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30 Jan 2008, 2:31 am

Depression overwhelming any other emotion is still feeling emotion and not expressing emotion is vastly different from being devoid of them.
I'm saying it's a stereotype that autistics like objects more than people. Someone will always fit the stereotype, but it's not necessarily true for most or all.

hale_bopp
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30 Jan 2008, 3:55 am

I mean ffs, people need help concentrating and they don't even have ADD?

HARDEN THE FARK UP.

I have ADD, and i'm sure a lot of people here do as well, and if we can make ourselves work without some lame pill, anyone can.

jijin
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30 Jan 2008, 4:39 am

Did a little further digging and I found this on reddit.com (great site btw)

Quote:

What a worthless blogspam.

1) There's no pill. At all. The animals are genetically-modified in both cases, and, in both cases, in different manners/to different effects.

2) "Autism" is not able to be witnessed in animals. We can try to model some of its symptoms, but that's still far from anything close to actual autism as observed in humans.

3) By the same logic as this blogger tries to use, I could "make a pill to induce stillborn kids" (i.e., mutate a gene in a transgenic mouse line that causes an embryonic lethal phenotype) and then "cure" it (by breeding mice that don't have the mutation).

...so, yeah. These studies aren't causing or curing much of anything. They're simply attempts to figure out the mechanism behind some of the observable symptoms of autism (which, while a very good cause, is something very different from "inducing" or "curing" autism).

Also, this:

Quote:

Pill? Pill?!?

These are knockout mice, meaning they've had a specific gene damaged. It's not as though there's a recreational drug.

And finally:

Quote:

Yes they are mice with autism, but the autism was cured through something given to the mice

[Quoting one of the articles] "They then reversed symptoms of the condition by inhibiting the action of an enzyme in the brain...Researcher Dr Susumu Tonegawa stressed that the mice were not treated until a few weeks after symptoms of disease first appeared."

And if you can induce a condition through a knockout model, you can probably eventually induce the condition through a pill (e.g. target the protein produced by the gene).

The article was all hypothetical. They never said that today you can take a pill, they said maybe one day.

So nothing to get too much up-in-arms about yet.

asplanet
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30 Jan 2008, 5:17 am

Medicine is far from perfect. But so is the human body. Many diagnoses are not necessary. But how often do you say to yourself, this doesn't feel right. What is wrong with me? I'd think that most people think this way. I'm not saying no one needs medication, but sometimes understanding ourselves and realizing our symptoms are a part of who we are, can be just as important.

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WurdBendur
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30 Jan 2008, 5:25 am

KimJ wrote:

What about my reaction is "going batshit" and how have I acted elitist about being on the spectrum?

It's not you in particular. See any thread pertaining to cures or treatments.

KimJ wrote:

I was very specific about why I saw that sentiment on recreational autism as being ignorant. It is, no one I know that is autistic is devoid of emotion or lives some simple, unentangled life without social worries. Quite the opposite, for the most part.

It's true, the article was ret*d, and people are seriously misunderstanding autism. It's just that some of us seem to totally change our opinions when this comes up. If you want to cure it, being an aspie is wonderful. If you want to cause it, being an aspie is not fun at all.

KimJ wrote:

I don't know that I've ever said that I enjoy being an aspie, it's quite maddening most of the time. But that's just the way it is.

Again, see any thread pertaining to cures or treatments. Everybody else seems to be enjoying themselves! Just not in this thread.

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