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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. 

  • I believe intellectual handicap can be cured. One day with biotechnology and special education. I don't believe autism is itself a disease to be cured.

  • 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 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!

  • no, because its a personality disorder and part of personality.... even if you could, would you want to? .... it would mean destroying your personality and becoming a entirely different person. to the parent this means pretty much killing their child they know and replacing it with a new one, but yet that new one which is deemed neurotypical could yet still be bad, probably be worse, and less lovable, and not the child they see as theirs, and would probably hang out with  the wrong crowd and get into gang culture and take drugs.... so even if they could cure it by death of the persona and replacing with a carbon cut out standard persona, that standard persona will be worse behaved anyway and theyd want the old one back but yet any such cure would be a death and unreversable.

  • 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.

  • Technically, autism is not a disease and therefore cannot be 'cured'. Your neurology is part of who you are, and it's only ignorant neurotypicals who think any divergence from what they call 'normal' exists only to be fixed. The worst part is that an autistic child often has a parent who is on the spectrum too. They may not be as divergent and may never have been diagnosed, and probably learned to mask and to cope with neurotypicals to some degree. (That's how I relate to my ASD son.)

    It's up to each of us to decide what we don't like about ourselves and what we can do about it. That should be your only focus - you won't find happiness by trying to be who others want you to be.

    Now for the crazy part of my response. I don't disbelieve this article, but it does suggest ways to 'cure' Aspergers at least. It's an interesting read. The NHS are very firmly against a whole bunch of ideas to the extent that they call them fake/harmful. What they really mean for at least some of these therapies is that efficacy is unproven. Neurofeedback (brain training), for example has inconclusive evidence so probably depends on the subject, and as far as I know is not harmful (many brain-training devices are openly sold in the UK) so trying it could be worthwhile - worst case is you waste some time and money. Look up "Mind Amend" on YouTube or Spotify too - isochronic tones are often claimed to help focus/attention/etc by adjusting brainwaves, and you're supposed to be able to see the effects on an EEG. I personally can't say it works for me, so again maybe it depends on the subject. I keep an open mind, and would add the normal disclaimer to "check with your physician" but they will obviously preach the NHS line. Do your own research if you want to, and take care.

  • I believe that even if it was possible and it is not it should not be attempted as it would be the worst atrocity  mankind ever did