Controversial Topic - if there was a cure for autism, would you take it?

I would take a cure, simply because living in a world where the majority are different is such hard work, it is simply exhausting.

That's a lovely answer.

I think about this question a lot and I think I've finally come to something of a conclusion, at least for myself. And that is, for the people who would answer yes, I feel it's important to look inside yourself and make a clear distinction - is it autism you want to be rid of, or is it the struggles of being autistic you want to be rid of? I feel that there's a difference.

Do I want to struggle to communicate with others and form lasting relationships? Of course not. Do I want to experience debilitating anxiety and self-loathing due to my condition? Of course not. But do I want to stop being autistic? Not at all. I have no idea who I'd be without it. I could be someone with very different values, that my current self would not enjoy being around. I would lose the intense joy I get from my special interests, the focused state I get into when I'm finally comfortable with where I am and what I'm doing. From how it appears to me, neurotypical people don't seem to experience these things as much if at all, and I find that terribly sad. What do neurotypicals do with their time if they're not fixated on something? I can't imagine. It sounds very boring.

But obviously we don't want to experience the negative portions of the condition. I've had many times in the past where I've said I would take a cure in a heartbeat. But then when I think about it more, the things I and others really hate about being autistic, from a social standpoint, isn't so much about autism being a problem so much as the reaction to autism being a problem. My internal shame doesn't exist because I'm autistic. It exists because of how other people treat me because I'm autistic. And doesn't that say much more about the outside world than it does me?

I don't know your stepfather so I can only guess, but from how you describe it sounds as though he and his associates believe that having autism makes you a lesser human, as opposed to being someone with unique struggles. The difference being it sounds as though he wants autism as a concept to be wiped out, which is a dangerous slippery slope into eugenics. If we as a society begin setting such a standard for "normal" as to either "correct" or "cure" children who don't meet it, what's to stop ever more demanding and impossible standards to become "the norm" and "expected", only increasing the amount of shame forced onto children considered perfectly average and unremarkable? If your stepfather, and other therapists and scientists actually cared about us and wanted to help, they'd be researching ways to lessen the struggles we face and encourage acceptance in society of our differences. Instead we're seen as defective and something to be killed off. I know this is an extreme and perhaps uncomfortable statement to make especially about a family member but views such as this are frighteningly common, and many well-meaning neurotypicals may not realise that is the sentiment they are in fact encouraging with such topics.

And that's not even getting into the moral or even physical aspects of "curing" a neurological way of being. As if there is a one-size-fits-all to us, a switch we can turn off and become "normal". It's called a spectrum disorder for a reason.

From the social side, I don't think we want a cure, we just want acceptance. Not just tolerance. True acceptance.

From the emotional and intellectual side, I don't think we want a cure, we want to be understood and not have to always apologise for being our true selves, when our true selves are harming no-one.

From the physical side, I think we have confused wanting support with our unique struggles with wanting a cure. What we really need is an inexpensive clothing line that doesn't provoke our touch sensitivities, or for non-verbal communication methods to be more normalised, or for employment opportunities to be more inclusive, and so on and so on as the case may be.

I hope this doesn't come across as too preachy - I don't mean to "soapbox" about this, it's just a subject I am deeply passionate about. Probably due to the real effect it has on every aspect of my life. And of course I don't claim to actually speak for all of us.

Though honestly on top of all I've said above,  I'm really not so sure these days that I'd like to be what is called "normal". Speaking from personal experience, people who fixate on concepts like "normal" and "correct" tend to be very judgemental and even cruel. And I'd much rather be considered a little eccentric than someone who is mean.

For me, even though I have very bad anxiety, depression and sensitivites, I wouldn't take a cure.  As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't be me, and I appreciate my mind (even when others don't!) far too much to sacrifice that.  So even if I'm forced into a situation that will cause awful anxiety, and I have to deal with the meldown/shutdown and burnout that comes with that, I wouldn't want that cure. For me a cure indicates there is something wrong with me, and I wouldn't want to reinforce that for myself or others.  I agree more acceptance and understanding is what is needed.  I've spent all my life trying to fit in and be something I'm not to suit everyone else and be blamed and rejected when I get it wrong and have to change myself again, and I think a cure would be more damaging to my mental health, because it would give the impression those people were right.  Good question and I for one am glad you asked it

yes. because my life reeks.............and i fear, and feel, it will reek until i'm 6' under. 

No, I don’t think I would want a ‘cure’ I’m happy with who I am, even though it has been incredibly hard for many years. However, perhaps there needs to be a cure for (some) NT’s!?

They seldom make proper sense, lie perpetually, seldom respect or consider logic and expect the world to listen and agree to their half-baked, ass-backwards none factual ‘opinions’. Unfortunately, many NT’s are more likely to ‘hope’ for a ‘cure’ because AS can be so demanding on them. They seldom understand AS properly (Masters or otherwise)  and it makes them feel awkward, confused and can sometimes express ‘pity’ at us because they often lack the quality of ‘acceptance’. If only many NTs would just accept our initial social ‘differences’ they would have a better chance of accepting and seeing how amazing, unique, awesomely logical, honest and pure-minded AS individuals can be. 

Yes of course it’s hard for us, we can get tremendously stressed, overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, exhausted, angry, regretful - made to feel shame for past conflicts, inappropriate responses and behaviours but isn’t that just what being a human is all about anyway, regardless of peoples neuro-type blue print?

We seldom know or are reminded just how incredible as AS we can be.

It is (some) NTs that need to get their house together and it is they that should stop trying to tell the world that we are the odd ones out and that we need curing.   

Acceptance is the key, both for ourselves of ourselves, and from everyone else. 

I’m not professionally diagnosed yet but me n my family think it’s very very likely that I am, I hope it’s ok to still answer this..

I don’t think I would take a cure, but I find the negative aspects I struggle with so draining mentally that I would want to go without them somehow? It’s so hard daily life the simplest things. I’m proud of who I am but my words has living been a struggle over the years 

Quick answer no. But what would I rather want?

1. the anxiety gone

2. the social and communicational difficulties gone

3. the compulsion to do things without considering how it affects others gone.

longer answer:

What superpowers I'd have a hard time parting ways? (And you guys can chime in if you know whether any of these are actually related to autism)

1. my creativity, the love of music, the new music that constantly floods my brain

2. the vivid video flashbacks and imagination

3. my fondness of data, numbers, and geometry

4. My weird thinking patterns, relating things that most people don't

It's tempting though, I may be able to rekindle with my wife and be on better terms with my family (since they think my autism is nonsense), but would I be myself?

YES FIX MY FUCKING EMOTIONS AND LONLIENESS AND SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, LET ME LIVE A LIFE WHERE I CAN MAKE FRIENDS ND FEEL THE POSITIVE SIDES OF FRIENSHIPS AND RELATIONSHIPS, FIX MY MENTAL HEALTH THAT IS DOWN TO AUTISM FKING FIX ME

A year or two ago I would have said yes in an instant.  I was undiagnosed, usually single, generally lonely, often unemployed, easily burnt out when working, struggling to cope with the synagogue services I wanted to attend, but which were too noisy and overwhelming.

Now I'm not sure.  I'd tentatively say no.  That's partly because my life is in a better place: diagnosed, working part-time, engaged, more forgiving of my need for solitude and quiet.  But I still am not 100% OK with things.  I still with I had the magical ability to read social situations, talk to people and make friends.  I wish I could do a day of work without feeling like I've been run over by a steamroller by the end of it.  I wish I could experience shared religious services without feeling so overwhelmed by noise and people.  I don't think I have any of the interesting or useful quirks or traits others have spoken about here.  I don't think I'm particularly logical, my special interests are fun, but trivial, and I'm not convinced my honesty is purely due to ASD rather than upbringing and general values.  Nevertheless, there is less that I would actively like to remove nowadays and the precautionary principle would suggest leaving things be.

I wouldn't take a cure for this because I feel it's a part of me and makes me the person I am and who I've become. And though there's anxiety, ocd, meltdowns and crappy social skills I've still become a good person and I enjoy life. Despite all the rubbish I've managed to achieve a lot so far, the best achievement was having my daughter. She's my life, my everything and I did all that despite being autistic. It sucks at times being this way but it's manageable and makes me who I am. With that in mind I wouldn't want that to change.

Exactly. Which is why they're referred to in clinical psychiatry as Neurotic-Paranoiac (normal functioning state) where as we've been referred to as Schizo-Analytic (normal functioning state). I'd just update to Autistic-Analytic. But from my research I don't mind the other, as it's used to describe an Escape from the paranoid Oedipalised way of functioning/malfunctioning with our vivid imaginations. 

Everyone has problems to some degree or another anyway.

I would like it if certian symptoms could be treated, but I still like some of me to be autistic. Would be good if I could just slow my brain down to a more normal speed. I wish I had some NT traits like not overley worrying about so much, being able to be overconfident about anything, being happy and settled. I rarely feel settled and relaxed, only really when on holiday, otherwise its constant worry. I am sure there is lots of stuff NT people would also like to fix too?

Its like normal people (TM) have a demon in their head constantly looking at other people and figuring out what other people would do. And then when it comes time for a normal person (TM) to express their natural inclinations this little demon pops up on their shoulder and goes "normal people wouldn't do that." Only most of the time their not even conscious of the demon. It influences their behaviour so subtly they are rarely aware its their.

It might be quite useful to autistic people to have a demon in a box. A box you could open when you need to figure out if your 'friend' is lying to you or if they girl you're chatting up is repulsed by you or just board with your conversation. But letting that demon out of the box and in your head where you can't turn it off or get away from it. That would be a terrible thing.

Looking at the world this way gives you a whole new take on morality too. How many people only do that right thing because the demon tells them. Or would do the wrong thing if the demon told them to? Aztec society used to think killing children in blood sacrifices was a normal part of their culture. Most people in abu ghraib prison went along with the torture. If the only thing keeping you moral is a demon in your head telling you what society expects of you are you really moral at all?

It's not a Thing to be "cured". In fact, in the 1960s, Psychoanalyst Felix Guattari and Philosopher Gilles Deleuze found that the Typical Human being was The Neurotic (look up Lacan - Neurotic, Perverse, Psychotic) and could only be cured by perceiving the world in the Liberated way of the Autistic.

What they discovered is that the problem is not the Autistic imagination or the Autistic bi-lateral processing or the Autistic wiring which while some may have added support needs, is JUST another human 'personality' with a different way of perceiving and understanding and communicating. It is not secret these individuals are at the core of our technological advances and integral to Art and Science. Humans are supposed to use their senses - not just 5 but internal navigation, human barometers, all KINDS of senses to navigate the wild safely.

Think about how the advertising industry throws Billions into researching how to hypnotise the neurotic / normal public into buying their product. Why doesn't that work on us? Because they've tapped into a Typical brain wiring that can be hooked through the power of suggestion. I'm rather relieved my social skills are what they are. I can learn hard manners and some principles of engagement and add healthy boundaries and other promising values and still be kind and invest in friendships consciously. While my social skills aren't intuitive except when around other autistic individuals, I quite like my other abilities which can detect safety issues like air quality and make sure to use ear plugs while NT individuals slowly go deaf and wonder what happened. I don't like that I need to advocate for a human-friendly life, but at least there exist external tools to back up my calculations and reasoning. 

If you want a good deal of homework and to eventually have a grounded response to your step father, check out for a few years and read Anti-Oedipus, Capitalism and Schizophrenia. If it seems daunting, learn a bit of symbolic logic first. You won't regret it.

Also, humans are inspired into becoming, not dominated. I'm not too sure who gets a masters and then stops following the science. Considering psych 101 is to not stonewall or dominate or cause the other in a discussion to withdraw or shut down. He could use a little 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse of Relationships methinks. 

For additional reading, this chap is amazing autcollab.org/.../

No, 

Despite all the problems it causes (the anxiety and meltdowns would be nice to be without) I would be an entirely different person without it so it would be removing a lot of what makes me me. 

I worked really hard to like myself as I am better, it would be a shame to turn back on that now

no. I'd be loosing too much of my uniqueness. Sure if I got to pick and choose the cognitive skills that might be useful from being non autistic that would be great. But not at the expense of loosing some of the skills that are probably a product of my autism.

Never in a million years. 

Some of the things that come with it I could do without, but neurotypical people aren't immune from negative aspects of their being either. 

It's different for everyone, because we're not all the same. 

But for me, personally, nothing - absolutely nothing - would persuade me to take a "cure".  

It has its hassles, it certainly needs managing, some of it is a bit crapulous, and (speaking only for myself) I have to keep a watchful eye on my 'autistic head'. 

But for me personally, it's a significant net lifetime advantage.

I think you have got it about right, if the anxiety could be helped without the usual antidepressants that would be helpful but I wouldn’t want to change my personality. I can do things at work that normies can only dream of.

No, I would not take an 'overall' cure. If I could have targeted alleviation of anxiety, fatigue caused by social interaction, my panic and rage when in crowded situations and my strange sensory problems, then I would take it like a shot. Anything that might interfere with my productive obsessions, ability to hyper-focus and problem-solving capacity, I would not touch, even if it relieved me entirely of the aforementioned problems.