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

Dear KaloJaro
I am going to try and help you find a way forwards. Amongst all of the fierce debate and controversy raised by this thread and others like it we sometimes forget that the forum is supposed to be helping people with problems like yours.
I will try and challenge some of the thinking that has contributed towards your desperation. Nobody involved in this debate (the mods, the more and less experienced members) has got everything right. We have all spoken with a mixture of wisdom and ignorance but the one thing I am sure of is that noone has spoken with ill intent.
My summary of where we are is that the moderators have stepped in with size 9 boots to intervene in some debates where some extreme views were being discussed. The moderators have not, in my opinion, enough expertese in autism to keep everyone happy. Keeping everyone happy all of the time is actually impossible and I will fall back to consider that they, and we, are at the end of the day only human and that our humanity is more fallible and must be forgiven for that before we keep throwing more stones. (I'm not religious but I recognise that I am not the first person to put forward this point!)
The debate under consideration has people who cannot yet accept that the other side even has a valid point of view. There is a lack of understanding and an inability to imagine the world from other people's point of view. It seems very black and white but in reality "nothing is simple".
The debate prompted me to read Neurotribes (I'm not quick with books so have only got half way through so far). This has informed me of a lot of the rather murky history of what happened to "different" people in darker times. I'm guessing that this has informed some of the opinions in this thread. I haven't got to the conclusion of that book but I can certainly see more clearly why the subject of curing autism is quite so emotive.
I can also see that the natives of this forum, if I can call them that, have not maintained a Spock-like scientific detachment from the topic under discussion. Anybody involved in this debate needs to thoroughly understand two important concepts. "Groupthink" and "Confirmation bias". People in unions and special interest groups will support each other in maintaining extreme views when the views are contrary to the views of the man on the clapham omnibus. People also interpret information in ways that seem to agree with the idea they started with. It is easy to spot conspiracy and cruel treatment when the actual intents are unknown and the gritty reality of life suggests that ***-ups are far more common than conspiracies.
The forum can be a bad place but it can also be a good place as it enables us to look in the mirror and examine how the other natives are struggling and coping more or less with life. I have learnt an enormous amount from joining in the discussion. I learn things and take from the debates so I also try and contribute what little I know back in so that we can move forward and improve our insight into the condition.

Reply

Former Member over 9 years ago

Dear KaloJaro
I am going to try and help you find a way forwards. Amongst all of the fierce debate and controversy raised by this thread and others like it we sometimes forget that the forum is supposed to be helping people with problems like yours.
I will try and challenge some of the thinking that has contributed towards your desperation. Nobody involved in this debate (the mods, the more and less experienced members) has got everything right. We have all spoken with a mixture of wisdom and ignorance but the one thing I am sure of is that noone has spoken with ill intent.
My summary of where we are is that the moderators have stepped in with size 9 boots to intervene in some debates where some extreme views were being discussed. The moderators have not, in my opinion, enough expertese in autism to keep everyone happy. Keeping everyone happy all of the time is actually impossible and I will fall back to consider that they, and we, are at the end of the day only human and that our humanity is more fallible and must be forgiven for that before we keep throwing more stones. (I'm not religious but I recognise that I am not the first person to put forward this point!)
The debate under consideration has people who cannot yet accept that the other side even has a valid point of view. There is a lack of understanding and an inability to imagine the world from other people's point of view. It seems very black and white but in reality "nothing is simple".
The debate prompted me to read Neurotribes (I'm not quick with books so have only got half way through so far). This has informed me of a lot of the rather murky history of what happened to "different" people in darker times. I'm guessing that this has informed some of the opinions in this thread. I haven't got to the conclusion of that book but I can certainly see more clearly why the subject of curing autism is quite so emotive.
I can also see that the natives of this forum, if I can call them that, have not maintained a Spock-like scientific detachment from the topic under discussion. Anybody involved in this debate needs to thoroughly understand two important concepts. "Groupthink" and "Confirmation bias". People in unions and special interest groups will support each other in maintaining extreme views when the views are contrary to the views of the man on the clapham omnibus. People also interpret information in ways that seem to agree with the idea they started with. It is easy to spot conspiracy and cruel treatment when the actual intents are unknown and the gritty reality of life suggests that ***-ups are far more common than conspiracies.
The forum can be a bad place but it can also be a good place as it enables us to look in the mirror and examine how the other natives are struggling and coping more or less with life. I have learnt an enormous amount from joining in the discussion. I learn things and take from the debates so I also try and contribute what little I know back in so that we can move forward and improve our insight into the condition.

Children

No Data