Would you take a cure?

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No. I'll keep my brain the way it is, thank you. I like being analytical and logical. I may be socially aloof and awkward but I am a good person and I like being in my own little world.
I appreciate the research that is being done because I think it can lead to understanding autism, and understanding can lead to acceptance, and I believe that understanding and acceptance are very important.
Understanding that we are not weird, but unique individuals would be nice.
Understanding what causes repetitive behaviors and sensory problems and executive function problems can lead to acceptance and better ways to deal with these issues.
Also understanding these things is very very interesting.
The thought of trying to cure autism and change autistic brains into neurotypical brains, when science doesn't even know exactly what autism is and why autistic brains are different is just ridiculous.
Knowledge first please, before even thinking about eradicating autistic people from the face of the earth by curing autism.

Is a treatment that requires taking special steps in how you live your daily life really a cure?

NTs would also likely experience some "improvement" of this or that if taking the same steps.

The simple fact is, the individual is still autistic and is just minimizing the symptoms.

If an NT stopped following those daily precautions, they'd revert to what they were before. They'd still be NT, all the way thru.

If a person on the spectrum stopped following 'the method', they'd revert as well. That's not a cure. It's a treatment.

In order for me to build better social skills and actually want to be more social I had to become manic. There are always side effects. I think my brain needed to be autistic to be in a kind of safety zone. I seemed to have less sensory issues too. I was always more hyposensitive.

Ritalin helped me with my executive function issues and I'm a more organised person because of it. It made me more social too but that's when I became manic.

Now I am more social at times because of a fully developed mood disorder. Fixing my autism, at least parts of it, seemed to make me worse.

I would rather keep the parts of my autism that remain and be content with it and not risk my mental health anymore.

And still remaining poor social skills have made me want to string myself up on the back of the bathroom door, so I know this disorder isn't without its struggles. Although I never experienced many suicidal thoughts before taking medication.

I wouldn't take a cure, because I'm not broken and I don't need to be fixed.

It may be; time will tell. So far so good. It's not a permanent diet change nor treatment protocol. It's temporary. Yes, it'll last several months to a couple of years depending on the severity of infection, condition of the intestines, level of dedication & discipline and how long it takes to heal up. This isn't a diet & treatment protocol that must be followed for life, only until things are healed up and you're ready to reintroduce other foods again. I've recently had a few other foods over the Christmas holidays without any horribly detrimental effects because I've been doing this long enough to have cleared the infection and healed the intestinal lining a fair bit already. But I know I'm not entirely out of the woods yet, so I'm continuing on with it. I've begun the third stage of adding more probiotics into my diet, and know that I'll have to carry on with that for months yet. Overall it'll be at least one full year from when I started by the time I should be good to go in terms of eating other things in moderation again. I read that for some who are very very bad off it can take up to 2 years of dedicated diet to heal. I've heard stories of others who've attempted this but haven't been nearly as successful as I have. I believe the reason is that they didn't go full-on with mass amounts of herbs as I have, nor did they go to the extremes of dozens of high volume herbal enemas in order to deliver medicine directly to the source of the problems in the intestines.

Once the infection is cleared & intestinal lining healed completely, and gut rebalanced with healthy probiotic bacterial flora - it may very well be a cure vs. treatment. I've yet to complete the entire process, but it has been several months now and my symptoms are extremely minimal compared to what they were. The only way I can see reverting back to having strong symptoms again would be if I were to wipe out my healthy intestinal flora with a bunch of strong doses of antibiotics, and then consume a bunch of foods that fuel yeast overgrowth, allowing it to grow through me and perforate my intestines again & spread to my lungs and other organs again. I'm not about to do that, ever, so, it should be a cure & not a treatment.

I am curious how many have read the book "The Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon? It is a science fiction book about this very topic and to me, presented an interesting view on HFA. By the way, her son is autistic so it is not as though she doesn't have some familiarity with the subject.

My thoughts are that after all the struggle to get to where I am and am now comfortable with me, why change it? I don't know that I would be any happier without what it is that makes me be me. I see enough ordinary people who are miserable, why take the chance and add to that number?

When I stop the treatment or get sick I do regress a bit. I never regress to how I first was unless I have a very bad fever. When I was first diagnosed they considered me moderate functioning.

I walked on my tiptoes, I had echolalia and a bunch of other symptoms I don't have anymore. When I started treatment most of my echolalia disappeared. It completely disappeared when I was ten or eleven.

When I was twelve I had quite a big regression. I even had echolalia when I had a fever. That really freaked me out. It was like all my hard work was destroyed. I had trouble understanding movies I used to enjoy. I was super depressed about that.

When I was fourteen I began to understand nonverbals again. I was really happy about that. I also started to become aware of my brain fog. For a few years my head got foggy whenever I ate bad foods or didn't have my supplements.

Lately most of my brain fog has disappeared. Now I mostly notice hyperactivity, lack of focus and executive dysfunction if I neglect my treatment.

I've read that book. A lot of the symptoms the main character has don't apply to me. I can read nonverbals and I have better self-care skills. I think my ability to read non-verbals is a bit below average. I was a bit like him when I was younger. I've noticed that as I've gotten older I've been getting worse at math and paying attention to small details. It seems like my math abilities and my attention to detail returns when I get into a special interest. Maybe I was good at math because math itself was a special interest when I was a kid.

No-one would be able to stop me from taking it the second it became available to me.

Yeah, you've certainly cured yourself of yammering on and on and on about your personal obsessive interest.

Glad to hear your motor skills are improving and all that, but that's not really what AS is about.

When are you going to wake up to the fact that you cannot cure yourself of autism and if you think you have, you're delusional. Just because you think you don't seem odd anymore, doesn't mean the rest of the world can't still clearly see your eccentric behaviors.

Maybe, but it would be such a radical change and adjustment that I would be very apprehensive about it. I would prefer to disclose and be able to get employment that I do well and then not feel anxious at work.

I think this is a very interesting subject and there are a few ways to look at it.

Suppose somebody came up with a cure and you had the choice to take it. Most of us it seems would say no.

But what if they gave us a trial period, say 30 days and we suddenly found ourselves to be one of those people that everyone adores and defers to and invites everywhere. We find ourselves being described as people who light up a room. Since our sensory issues would be gone, the adoring crowds wouldn't bother us. What do you think would happen then? Would we just become one of them? Or do you think we'd still just want to be us?

I kind of like my life so I have no desire to be the life of the party, but it seems like if all of sudden it was happening to me, it might be weirdly and creepily addictive.

And then just not being misunderstood so much, that would be sooooo nice.

But then I guess we'd just find a whole new set of problems to deal with because who doesn't have problems?

I like seeing the world differently than other people. I like my AS. If I didn't have AS, I'd probably be studying in Rome and on my way to becoming a bishop. But who cares. That's not me.

I have had to work very hard on how I come off to people. Social skills, boundaries, not stimming, being aware of posture and facial expressions, trying to understand others' intentions, etc. Very hard stuff. I have good friends who help me interpret the NT world for me.

I've improved. But those who are around me will always pick up that I'm a bit "off." But that's ok.

I continue to go on about it because of how much this has helped in every area of ASD. I'm not lying, it's not a hoax. I hope it helps others.

I'm very well aware that AS is about a lot more than motor skills, and as I've stated, virtually all symptoms have been reduced to near zero and it's truly changing my entire life.

when are you going to accept the possibility that it can be cured? If it's of the same cause, that is. I'm not delusional, I'm living it. It's not me that doesn't think I seem odd anymore, it's everyone around me and their feedback. You're not around me and haven't had a chance to observe me, but if you're anywhere nearby I'd gladly meet with you and you can assess me for yourself.

The way I see it is that the whole world needs to take a cure pill.
Just look at it. It is pathetic.
As people diagnosed with what the rest of the world sees as a deficit we see things as they are in 'black & white'. The fact is that either something is, or something isn't. Also, we appreciate that certain things should be up to the individual to decide.

I say; let one of us run for president & put the world into order, coz the NT's are crap at it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVnvNhiM9kg[/youtube]

It's definitely helped me. I used to be considered moderate functioning. Now, some people doubt I even have Asperger's. When I was twelve a psychiatrist I visited was skeptical about my diagnosis. I was quite a bit worse back then.