Views on autism 'cures'

A cure as I see it would be aborting before birth, like they do with other disabled babies on pre natal tests.Its not a cure needed, its learning how to nuture and support as all are different with different challenges, a cure in my mind would mean to not exist.I love my son the way he is.I could not wish he was someone else .He has grown and developed into a lovely young man of 14.He has a lot to live for,with a promising future.He is in mainstream school, with good support into S3 looking towards striving for standard grades, then highers after that.How could anyone want to cure him of who he is? Certainly not me.He has been a gift, a challenge, but worth it.

Hi

If I could recommend one exercise its the boy scan meditation.  It helps with body dissasociation and for me it helps with my digestion too because it activates my Parasympathetic Nervous System too.  I know it takes a long time to.  SOmetimes my boy scans take over half an hour but you feel more in touch with your body and surroundings.

Thanks for the tip.  I have just been given a mindfulness CD (relaxation by focusing on parts of the body and sensations) which is similar but due to lack of free time from my 2 children I don't really get the chance.  One day...

Hi

I have always felt social pressures myself so I put on this persona and mask of Cary Grant.  Unfortunately I play it so well the mask has altered my original face.

And sometimes I push myself to be more sociable and reading far too many books about body language and social skills (as well as keeping a social diary in case I have any social experience I have difficulty in understanding).

One thing I've found that helped me a lot to calm down and reduce my anxiety is meditation.  I have religiously practiced meditation for the past 14 and half years.  Well i say that there have been periods of a month where I didn't meditate but i always came back to it.  That helps keep me calm and I thoroughly recommend it.  Even if its only for 10 minutes a day.  If you do it for long enough it does make a difference.  If you do fancy pursuing that I would read Meditation for Dummies by Stephen Bodian or The Mindful Way Through Depression by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

I'm so pleased your traits and symptoms have alleviated with age.  Sadly mine appear to be doing the opposite.

I think for many females particularly, a life of social pressures with communication means you end up with a form of breakdown.

I was more passive as a child and would have been harder to identify as autistic.  Under the smallest pressure now, I am rocking and hand-flapping and unable to cope.

I think humans are innovative enough to find a cure for anything.  Personally I think the answers to world hunger, world peace and to land a man on mars are already in our grasp but we don't have inclination to do.  Emotions take precedence over logic but that's just the way the world works.  I believe Simon Baron-Cohen is doing exceptional work in this regard.

As for a cure.  I believe I was far more Aspergic when I was younger.  For some reason I have outgrown some of the characteristics and been able to adapt to the ones that still remain.  When I think of my younger days and how robotic and logical I was it seems like a different person.  School was a nightmare and I went through a phase of selective mutism.  In fact if you have given me a big red button that would effectively end my life I would have pressed it.

Now for some reason as I start my thirties I have lost my allergies and digestion problems as well as the difficulties I have with eye contact and touch.  Now I can understand what a difference an intervention like that would have made when I was younger.  (Or at the very least some acknowledgement and understanding of my condition from the doctors).

But if I had a cure I thought to myself how would that have changed me?  I don't know how much of my identity is part of my autism and how much is part of the rest of my personality.  For instance there is one side of me that loves space and interplanetary science and pens but on the other hand I love speaking to trainee doctors as part of my job and I love to be affectionate with my nephews, nieces and female friends.  Or the side that doesn't quite understand how I am feeling (Alexythmia) but then there's the other who people talk to because I listen so well.

What I'm saying is at my age has the damage been done?  All the stuff I should have learnt when I was child I am relearning with my therapist now.  I would definitely have it if I was a child but as an adult I am not sure how much difference it would make.

As I have diabetes, whenever I have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) there is often a sense of clearness and ability to learn alot in a short amount of time, in other words I feel like a different person possibly a NT, but it is a shame I don't feel that way all the time. It could be the way insulin is formulated but you'd have to ask another person who has autism and diabetes to get a more accurate result.

I wouldn't call that a cure, just a suspension of the condition.

I'm also a bit worried about whether some of the autism is necessary for evolution. I know that seems irrelevant to the everyday suffering of individuals, but a lot of those sufferings seem to be down to the nature of modern society, with techniology and media that force similarity and standardisation of expectations.

Tampering like this might actually bring about a premature collapse of the human race - OK from a Green perspective that might not seem a bad idea.

But we are moving into an age of vastly higher and faster information processing in the space of one or two generations. Social compatibility may be one of the things sacrificed in that process. People who can work independently, without dependencies, may actually be a pointer to the future.

And also important scientific breakthroughs still depend on highly focussed individuals with the patience and persistance to find the one crucial parameter everone else misses.

No comfort to those suffering the day to day stresses of ASD. But a lot of that is down to society's current obsession with socialisation, which all this new comms technology is actually undermining.

I'm more interested in research to better understand ASD, better advise specialists supporting us, and improve people's delay lives.

I've a cynical feeling that looking for cures is usually pursued because it is a money spinner. Research funds chase cures, especially if the pharmacutical companies can benefit. Research to improve lifestyles doesn't attract anything like as much funding.

OthoDPS said:

do you think there ever will be a cure for Autism?

No.

Well, that is to say that, I think at some point in the future we will be able to 'correct' the genes that lead to a child's brain developing along the autistic path, but such 'corrections' would have to be done very early on in a fetus' development - possibly even whilst it is still a single cell.

I don't think we will ever develop a cure that can be given to a fully formed child, let alone an adult.

But, assuming such a cure could exist...

OthoDPS said:

if there was suddenly a cure, would you get your child/partner/yourself to undergo the cure?

No.

Like Hope, I'd like to change some aspects of having Asperger's, but I would not like to lose the many positive traits it gives me.

Also, I think 'correcting' the genes that lead to children's brains developing down the autistic path would be of detriment to humanity as a whole.

I firmly believe that if is was not for those of us on the Autistic Spectrum we would have barely made it out of Africa, let alone developed the myriad of technologies we all take for granted in the modern world.

The cure for Autism is sleep. ZZZZZZZZ  but it only lasts as long as the pillow time.

I would like a cure for my anxiety and inability to tune out distracting stimuli, and a cure for my OCD. A cure for the negatives, while retaining my curiosity, intense interests, and motivation.

I do not want all of my Aspergers to be cured, just the problematic aspects. I would then no longer have a disability, and would probably no longer have a diagnosis, in any case.

I'd love a cure so I could be the person I feel I am inside!