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Daily Beast article "They Don’t Want an Autism Cure"

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DeaconBlues
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09 Mar 2015, 12:13 pm

My issue with the concept of a "cure" is that autism is a neurological distinction, not a neurochemical one. The only possible "cure" would involve radical neurosurgery at damn near the molecular level. And if my brain is that radically restructured, am I still me? How can I possibly ethically support something that "cures" a condition by essentially destroying the person that was there, and replacing them with someone more "acceptable"?

Treatment can be useful; my kids are benefiting greatly from learning how the world expects them to interact (because like it or not, boys and girls and others, we're a tiny minority and always will be; expecting the world to conform to us is unrealistic at best). However, they're still who they essentially are - that hasn't changed, and won't. Iain will still plug his ears at loud and high-pitched sounds; Morgana will still try to hit anyone who touches her without her permission. And I wouldn't see that change for anything.


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Protogenoi
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09 Mar 2015, 4:50 pm

DeaconBlues wrote:
My issue with the concept of a "cure" is that autism is a neurological distinction, not a neurochemical one. The only possible "cure" would involve radical neurosurgery at damn near the molecular level. And if my brain is that radically restructured, am I still me? How can I possibly ethically support something that "cures" a condition by essentially destroying the person that was there, and replacing them with someone more "acceptable"?

Treatment can be useful; my kids are benefiting greatly from learning how the world expects them to interact (because like it or not, boys and girls and others, we're a tiny minority and always will be; expecting the world to conform to us is unrealistic at best). However, they're still who they essentially are - that hasn't changed, and won't. Iain will still plug his ears at loud and high-pitched sounds; Morgana will still try to hit anyone who touches her without her permission. And I wouldn't see that change for anything.


Well, "cure" in this context means "eradication" or "prevention" through neonatal testing, a fallacious anti-autisitic hate campaign aimed at pregnant women... and everyone who is already autistic can rot.


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emax10000
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09 Mar 2015, 4:57 pm

ASPartOfMe wrote:
emax10000 wrote:
That said, I think among the autistics who "don't want a cure". plenty of them would be totally open to the ideas of cures, therapies and treatments that would alleviate them of all the agonizing symptoms that go with autism. I think many of them have become completely alienated by waves of promised solutions with no basis behind them with the intent of trying to make them "normal" humans. The often fraudulent practices behind these proposed solutions and the malicious intent behind them, I think, has led many autistics who really do want a cure to instead shift their attention on figuring out how to embrace autism including the symptoms they wish they didn't have.


I did a poll about this in the Fall of 2013. Unscientific as it was opinion was split between "I would do anything for a cure" to "no way no how". There was a subgroup of us, me included open to "curing" one or more elements most particularly Executive Functioning deficits. That being said people who does not want a cure blames some of their difficulties in life on negative value judgments of society to traits that they feel are positive, or just a part of who they are who they are.
I have not seen any evidence of reasons you discuss conscious or subconsciously. Of course I am not a mind reader but while I am sure the motivation to embrace autism you think involves many exists I doubt it is widespread.

In my opinion the motivation for fraudulent practices besides money is desperation to make us neurotypical.

I totally get what you mean, but I still maintain that the number of autistics who say they reject a cure would, at least as far as I can tell, undoubtedly be a lot smaller than it is now if a "cure" that removed all the debilitating effects of autism actually was right there in front of them. And that insisting that being autistic is simply being different and not a disability is not going to work for the majority in that community, indeed it is only really going to work for those in the most high functioning, verbal end of it.



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09 Mar 2015, 5:02 pm

ASPartOfMe wrote:
heavenlyabyss wrote:
I don't get what the problem is with autistic people.

Some people say that it is the highly functioning autistics that don't want the cure. But I have far far far fewer problems with lower functioning autistics than high functioning autistics. I've encountered people who I believed to be lower-functioning autistic. Very quiet, very reserved, very very non-threatening. Very honest.

I actually think it's sometimes the higher-function autistics that need the most help, because they appear so normal to everyone else.

I don't get any of this. Treat the symptoms. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

There is mass non recognition and mis or non diagnosis for more "normal" appearing autistics. That is very damaging. But the more obvious get 40-60 hours a week of Applied Behavioral Analysis to make them as "normal" as possible. While it might get the short to medium term results normal people want I can not help but believe long term damage is very bad for many.

I agree with you. I was congratulated by my (non)diagnostician for having "cured myself" of my AS symptoms with my autdidactic masking skills. If I cured myself, I must have done a very bad job of it because I still feel the effects despite all the masking I could hope to perform. So, what do I do with the effects of AS, but no diagnosis, let alone any recognition by professionals at all?


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starkid
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27 Mar 2015, 7:28 pm

heavenlyabyss wrote:
Some people say that it is the highly functioning autistics that don't want the cure. But I have far far far fewer problems with lower functioning autistics than high functioning autistics.


What does whom you have more problems with have to do with who does or does not want a cure?



Lnb1771
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28 Apr 2015, 11:23 am

Greenhat wrote:
Lnb1771 wrote:
From the article: “We’re big supporters of speech therapy or occupational therapy, where the focus is on supporting someone to gain skills or find accommodations,” said Bascom. “ABA therapy is another story; the stated end goal of ABA is for the autistic child to become ‘indistinguishable from their peers,’ and we just don’t think that’s an ethical goal. Would we be able to justify that for any other child?”

I agree that it's unethical to change a child from autistic to "normal" using behavioral therapy and then not telling the child that he was autistic.

Plus, even with ABA, the kid's not going to stop being autistic. He'll just get better at hiding it. Loud noises will still make him want to scream or stim or rock; it's just that with ABA, he'll have been trained to be cut off from his natural coping mechanisms and "look normal".


Or the individual uses his or her coping mechanisms when no one is looking :-P But yes, I still have many autistic traits. They tend to show up more when I'm tired or under a lot of stress.
Lydia