'cure' or super-power?

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Most of us are alarmed by the attempts of NT parents, family, and society in general to find 'cures' for autism because we see it as essentially a memory-wipe and re-boot of our personalities.

What if we could get some of the talents of NTs without changing our intrinsic personality (except to the extent that having such a talent would change us... this is purely hypothetical; I'm not saying that this possibility exists)? For example, if someone could give you a shot that would allow you to read other people's emotions without them having to verbalize it, would you take it? Or would it seem too distracting and intrusive to both yourself and them?

Look for books on Amazon.com by a man named Paul Ekman. Scientist who spent many years studying facial expressions -- simply learning to read them would in theory give you that ability without forcing you to change your personality in any way.

The possibility doesn't exist.

I feel like it would be interesting to experience, so that I could understand NTs better; but the way I function is based on an autistic brain, and such a thing on a regular basis, for more than just learning, would mean I'd have to re-learn all the strategies I've used to take advantage of the autism--even to take advantage of the social isolation and sensory overload.

It's like autism is the foundation on which I've built myself all my life; and I wouldn't even really know what to do with additional parts randomly tacked on. It feels like adding a barbecue grill attachment to a grand piano... it just doesn't fit in.

Talents?

What talents?

I never really could identify with the little professor syndrome.

I am still not able to define what cure means with respect to me.

When it comes to people with autism that cannot verbalize what they want then I understand cure. Should they desire a cure I hope one is developed.

I'm not sure what personality as to do with it unless you talking about being socially withdrawn. For me personally the cure for that has been government funded day programs that help me with my ideas with a job coach. I am put into social situations for employment advocacy and with lots of success. So this kind of integrations is technically a cure which I am not insulted by because I say it's a cure for being withdrawn. Autism is a spectrum and cure can mean a spectrum of things subjectively to an individual. To destroy what manifests and is diagnosed as autism as in the person prior to birth as a cure I do not support, but rather it is discriminatory and a societal judgment.

But it's impossible.

Well, it might become possible once they can teach you biology or turn you into a racquetball player by giving you a shot. But not until then.

You know what? ................... [warning: rant]

There's something wrong with society more than us...a society truly sick and gone off the deep-end. A society that needs to scapegoat and target the most vulnerable of its members so as to avoid being held accountable. We've been purposely damaged by a society waaayyyy beyond broken and corrupt. If they find us defective, that's their problem.....they caused it, they're responsible for it, and they owe us. It's really not the AS that is problematic--either to society or to us, it's rather the co-morbids. When drugs are prescribed to keep the co-morbids under control, it damages our very sensitive neurological wiring, sometimes permanently. Quite a few [perhaps most] of these drugs are diabolical poison, and will absolutely irreparably ruin your life if you take them for more than a few days. Many of them make the symptoms--they are ostensibly treating--worse, not better. And remember, whatever injures an NT, is likely to injure us far more, due to our uber sensitive neurological wiring.

When we are harrassed and bullied and ostracized in school, it further damages us. When we are fired from jobs for being introverted...or because we aren't friendly or haven't the right kind of smile, or for being the butt of office jokes........these are abuses of our CIVIL RIGHTS!! They are deliberately making it difficult to impossible for us to survive, after ruining the quality of our lives! ! And most of you know full well this is the truth. We're told we don't play well with others. Well, if you take a normal NT child and subject them to the kind of abuse to which we have been subjected, if you totally crush their spirit and take their voice away, they wouldn't be very friendly either.

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And it hurts us a great deal more because of our genetically determined wiring. This isn't our fault, damn it! And it's a blessing not a curse!! It is society that turns it into a curse. And it is society that is cursed, not us. This is a very twisted blame game, where we should be the winners but instead are deluded into thinking we are the losers. Wake up people! WHEN WE CAPITULATE TO A WRECKED CORRUPT SOCIETY, EVERYONE LOSES....IT'S A LOSE-LOSE SCENARIO.
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By the time we're 21, we've been so invalidated and made to think we have a disorder, that quite a few of us need therapy just to keep existing--in a wretched, broken, irrational, criminally insane society.

I find it deplorable that so many of us have fallen for the lie. It is society that needs fixing, not us. When will we wake up to that fact? When will we hold "society" accountable for what they have done to us? When will we demand retribution? and accessibility? and validation?

When will we demand to have our voices be heard? When will we demand representation on autistic boards and agencies making decisions on our behalf? We've been denied a voice in our own affairs. We've been shut up. No one, or very few in positions of authority, will listen to us. They don't want to know our opinion. They don't want to hear our ideas. They don't want to ever try to understand what it's like to be us. Because they've fallen for their own lie.

Ah yes, I will have me as I am with a few excellent NT traits, that would be wonderful

The possibilities for me to succeed in something with that combination are endless

When someone speaks of a "Cure for Autism", I know that technically that includes AS, but I think that the ones that are at the forefront of their thoughts are the ones that are affected with "regular" Autism. The ones that are tightly locked into their own worlds and would die without someone taking care of them or assisting them a large percentage of the time.