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
  • Classic Codger, I think you've picked up on the general vibe of negativity that comes with being a diagnosed ASD person on the spectrum on this forum.

    The main reason I rarely post and have actually gone to lengths to avoid this forum is because of three key reasons:

    a) Parents wanting to 'fix' their kids, not neccessarily in those words but its always implied. The constant barrage of words implying that children on the spectrum are a burden upsets and repels me, too much 'they're different how do I make them stop?' and not enough 'how do I make them happy?'

    b) I feel like an ant in an ant farm. Its easy to feel dismissed, or problems belittled/outright ignored by anyone from the NAS. So far the only help I have ever had from this forum is from the 'veterens' such as yourself, Longman and Recombiantsocks (sorry I'm a bit to upset to spellcheck your name right now R). Its us, vs everyone else, with the Mods stepping in and censoring our pleas for help or search for reassurance.

    -And no, refering someone to the same page of NAS website with generalised information harvested by NTs and no one to deliver adequate tailored information does NOT count as helping. Sorry Mods.

    c) The forum simply doesn't support community bonding among those with ASD. Other than uniting around posts like this, we aren't ACTUALLY a community. We're volunteers trying to do the NAS' work for them with little to no recognition or any appreciation. I know of others on the spectrum who once joined this forum only to abandon it because of this lack of community. I first joined approximately five years ago, and have moderated my amount of time spent here since. This isn't a forum for those with ASD. Its a forum for the carers with the odd 'bone' thrown to those on the spectrum.

    I could go on for far longer but I am aware of the need to 'censor' myself before someone gets offended. Its so easy to fall into an 'us' vs 'them' mentality when everything is catered to the NT parents (who rarely ever get the professional help they need).

    If the members on this forum with ASD went silent in protest, there would be no forum.

Reply
  • Classic Codger, I think you've picked up on the general vibe of negativity that comes with being a diagnosed ASD person on the spectrum on this forum.

    The main reason I rarely post and have actually gone to lengths to avoid this forum is because of three key reasons:

    a) Parents wanting to 'fix' their kids, not neccessarily in those words but its always implied. The constant barrage of words implying that children on the spectrum are a burden upsets and repels me, too much 'they're different how do I make them stop?' and not enough 'how do I make them happy?'

    b) I feel like an ant in an ant farm. Its easy to feel dismissed, or problems belittled/outright ignored by anyone from the NAS. So far the only help I have ever had from this forum is from the 'veterens' such as yourself, Longman and Recombiantsocks (sorry I'm a bit to upset to spellcheck your name right now R). Its us, vs everyone else, with the Mods stepping in and censoring our pleas for help or search for reassurance.

    -And no, refering someone to the same page of NAS website with generalised information harvested by NTs and no one to deliver adequate tailored information does NOT count as helping. Sorry Mods.

    c) The forum simply doesn't support community bonding among those with ASD. Other than uniting around posts like this, we aren't ACTUALLY a community. We're volunteers trying to do the NAS' work for them with little to no recognition or any appreciation. I know of others on the spectrum who once joined this forum only to abandon it because of this lack of community. I first joined approximately five years ago, and have moderated my amount of time spent here since. This isn't a forum for those with ASD. Its a forum for the carers with the odd 'bone' thrown to those on the spectrum.

    I could go on for far longer but I am aware of the need to 'censor' myself before someone gets offended. Its so easy to fall into an 'us' vs 'them' mentality when everything is catered to the NT parents (who rarely ever get the professional help they need).

    If the members on this forum with ASD went silent in protest, there would be no forum.

Children
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