• Replies 27 replies
  • Subscribers 91 subscribers
  • Views 4327 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Do You Believe Autism Can Be 'Cured'?

Daniel

I keep coming across parents dangling bunches of herbs in front of parents saying "This is the cure to autism!" 

Every time I hear parents promoting the lie that they can cure autism I feel so hated and unwanted by this world, it is autism that makes me who I am, if it were not for my Dad's unconditional love giving me a sense of belonging I would probably be dead by now. 

It hurts and depresses me so much that parents so willfully hate their child's identity and think it needs to be 'cured'. It's disgraceful they so carelessly fall for lies and love to promote them, especially as it can increase the liklihood of suicide. 

Parents

  • I don't believe so as there's nothing to cure. Rather than looking for cures people should focus on more support for autism and more knowledge and rights on it.

    Autism makes me who I am I don't want that changed.

  • in reply to Fleur

    Well said Fleur, I’m just getting used to being the 1 in 100 and I’m finally starting to like me. We aren’t broken, I’ve most probably said this before, as children we weren’t the ugly duckling, it turns out that we are actually swans. The rest of the pond will always just be ducks!

  • in reply to Roy

    I'm pretty sure there are many different neurotypes it's just that autism is a collection of certain traits and there's a name for it to be labelled with. I'm pretty sure most of the population have at least one trait or another. Or something which deviates from the norm. What is normal anyway? Do we cure everyone? Homosexuality was a disorder to be cured and look how far we have come with that.  There will be a shift eventually but it'll take time.

  • in reply to Daniel

    Yes I often think autistic people (and I'm speaking from my own exoerience) are less likely to be bound by social conventions - authenticity has always been very important to me and its something I struggle with when I don't see it in others. (Eg someone likes something because it's a trend and not because they have a true affinity with it...this isn't authentic) But then there's the double bind of masking where we are not being authentic to oursrlves and yes it causes a heck of a lot of anxiety. I don't think masking is pretending in the social sense but a built in and often unconscious mechanism to get by.

  • in reply to Deleted User

    By a condition of authenticity I mean it may be a condition that makes us more willing to live as our authentic selves, live as who we really are. 

    I've noticed through things like masking autistic people suffer stress and anxiety when we pretend to be someone we're not. I've read some studies showing autistic people as more reflective of standard norms and don't sacrifice their personal values to adopt the social values. We are not so unconsciously compliant. 

    Basically it makes us live by our own values and not be pretenders. 

Reply
  • in reply to Deleted User

    By a condition of authenticity I mean it may be a condition that makes us more willing to live as our authentic selves, live as who we really are. 

    I've noticed through things like masking autistic people suffer stress and anxiety when we pretend to be someone we're not. I've read some studies showing autistic people as more reflective of standard norms and don't sacrifice their personal values to adopt the social values. We are not so unconsciously compliant. 

    Basically it makes us live by our own values and not be pretenders. 

Children
  • in reply to Daniel

    Yes I often think autistic people (and I'm speaking from my own exoerience) are less likely to be bound by social conventions - authenticity has always been very important to me and its something I struggle with when I don't see it in others. (Eg someone likes something because it's a trend and not because they have a true affinity with it...this isn't authentic) But then there's the double bind of masking where we are not being authentic to oursrlves and yes it causes a heck of a lot of anxiety. I don't think masking is pretending in the social sense but a built in and often unconscious mechanism to get by.