AS people, please can you help me?

I am trying, with great difficulty, to understand something. I could really use your help with this, it's literaly taken me over (you know the one) and I need the thinking of others. Call it an intervention!

Before I begin, please can I ask you to look over the following article?;

nymag.com/.../

I have seen many posts from NT parents about 'treatment' for AS.

The question I have asked myself is, 'if I could go back and be changed into an NT by 'treatment', would I choose it?'

My firm answer is 'No'. I am the sum total of a life spent as an AS person. I can't change my past, so my best option is to use the learning that is 'the sum of who I am' to help others if I can, and especially for the next generation. If any of you think that I can be helpful and supportive, understanding and insightful, fine. If you think the opposite, also fine and I am sorry that I wasn't helpful. I do what everyone does - the best I can.

I'm an egalitarian by instinct. I will state my thoughts and opinions, but they are mine alone. When I read other people's posts, I assume the right to agree or disagree, and simply expect the same fairness back.

Thank you for listening this far, and now I've come to my taxing absorption.

I read this post under the title Stem cell treatment for autism: 'Has anyone undergone stem cell treatment for autism?'

I responded with '

This is my personal opinion. I don't argue my personal opinions, just for them.

How about 'tretament' for being NT? Their capacity for being the most illogical, spiteful, self-destructive creature on this planet leaves me staggered. I pity the poor creatures and their lack of insight, but what can you do? No-one is researching 'treatment' for them, because they collectively agree that their unsanity is 'normal'.

The inmates are running the asylum.

Now, I thought that I was humourously disparaging the idea of 'treating' people just because they are different. It is my belief that most people will be able to see that I have reiterated the concepts of the same thing as the poster, with our roles reversed. Here's your mirror, as it were.

I just discovered that I got moderated for this post . Apparently, I should watch my language. A particular word picked out is asylum because it is derrogatory towards past attitudes to mental health (?).

I am totaly confused. I don't know why 'mental health' is being brought into it. Given the various current uses of the word 'asylum' I don't know how it becomes offensive, even in context, 'the inmates are running the asylum' is a common concept and has been the root idea behind several award winning books, plays and films, yet it appears that some ignoramus doesn't like it. And apparently, I'm supposed to know this and understand it in their particular case. Que?

Please, any insights will do. Sooner or later one of you will say something that will help me get a grip on this. You know the one where the more you try, the more you're shaking your head, you're laughing bleakly, you don't know whether to be angry, offended, confused, puch drunk, weakened, disempowered, desperate to understand, shocked, fed up with mods public messages yet again, privacy invaded, and a whole bunch more, and because you can't choose one, you have them all at once instead. That's where I am right now.

Phew! Bit of a maze. Ariadne, the thread!

Parents

Former Member over 9 years ago

This forum is a strange beast. In some ways it is like a field hospital on a bad day with more incoming distressed souls than we can deal with. I consciously ration my time on here because otherwise it would turn into an obsession and the rest of my life would suffer. Sometimes I see posts that would suggest that things should be getting resolved and I don't feel the need to add another 'me too' post. I'm sorry if this has contributed to you feeling abandoned CC. The forum works best when there are a variety of views and as I have said before, we need to be given some allowance for our lack of tact and diplomacy at times.
In this case, Sophie apologised and retracted her complaints against you just leaving a small reproach to you for using the word ignoramus.
I can see that it has thrown you into more of a wobble than is healthy. Tell yourself that it is only a forum and that occasionally things will get said that you don't agree with, go for a walk, let off some steam but try not to let it ruin your day. I hope you have other people to talk with in your life that can help talk through issues. I sense that you have more need for this at the moment to bring you back into orbit?
There is a point of view that some have that people with AS don't need treatment. We certainly can't be cured of the autism but we can learn to deal with it better by understanding how it works and what the implications are. My life has changed because I am now aware of my difference, I try and conduct myself differently and have managed to reduce the conflict and misunderstandings in my life. I make a big distinction between learning how to deal with the world vs trying to erase the autism. Non autistics should be able to deal with us better too but I think that task is actually too difficult so I don't lose sleep over the fact that they treat us ignorantly - everyone knows a tiny fraction of what can be known otherwise we would all be brain surgeons and particle physicists and actors and writers at the same time.
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Former Member over 9 years ago

This forum is a strange beast. In some ways it is like a field hospital on a bad day with more incoming distressed souls than we can deal with. I consciously ration my time on here because otherwise it would turn into an obsession and the rest of my life would suffer. Sometimes I see posts that would suggest that things should be getting resolved and I don't feel the need to add another 'me too' post. I'm sorry if this has contributed to you feeling abandoned CC. The forum works best when there are a variety of views and as I have said before, we need to be given some allowance for our lack of tact and diplomacy at times.
In this case, Sophie apologised and retracted her complaints against you just leaving a small reproach to you for using the word ignoramus.
I can see that it has thrown you into more of a wobble than is healthy. Tell yourself that it is only a forum and that occasionally things will get said that you don't agree with, go for a walk, let off some steam but try not to let it ruin your day. I hope you have other people to talk with in your life that can help talk through issues. I sense that you have more need for this at the moment to bring you back into orbit?
There is a point of view that some have that people with AS don't need treatment. We certainly can't be cured of the autism but we can learn to deal with it better by understanding how it works and what the implications are. My life has changed because I am now aware of my difference, I try and conduct myself differently and have managed to reduce the conflict and misunderstandings in my life. I make a big distinction between learning how to deal with the world vs trying to erase the autism. Non autistics should be able to deal with us better too but I think that task is actually too difficult so I don't lose sleep over the fact that they treat us ignorantly - everyone knows a tiny fraction of what can be known otherwise we would all be brain surgeons and particle physicists and actors and writers at the same time.
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