Cure for autism:

The treatment or drug that would eliminate all the negative aspects of autism in a person while at the same time preserving all the positive aspects of autism and not changing their personality.

For example:

- you'd get better social skills
- you'd find it easier to understand people and to empathize with them
- you'd be more skilled at "reading people's minds" and predicting their actions
- you'd feel more comfortable in social situations
- you wouldn't need to do stimming
- you would be able to have much broader interests
- you would find new interests that are more interesting to NTs
- you would become much better communicator
- you would more easily make new friends
- you would more easily find new romantic partners and would be better ar seduction

But at the same time:

- you would still ENJOY all the your "autistic" interests, they would simply not be as important to you as before
- you would still be highly intelligent, as intelligent as before
- you would still ENJOY stimming, you just wouldn't NEED it
- you would still have EQUALLY GOOD concentration abilities and would be able to focus extremely well on what you are doing
- all your skills would remain as strong as before
- you would still be able to enjoy being alone for long periods of time and your need for people wouldn't be any higher. Only when you are with people you would relate to them much better than before.

This would still be called "cure" because it would focus only on negative elements and would eliminate them. So this cure would eliminate "the disease part" of the autism, but it would keep "the difference" part, so your personality and all that makes you - you, would stay unaffected by such "a cure".

If such a cure was really discovered and proven as safe and effective would you like to be "cured" in such a way?

If yes, why?
If not, why not?

Interesting observation, yet still I'm left undecided.

I don't like to take mind altering drugs. Enough of a reason for me. If I want changes in my personality and how I go about things I can work at them to earn it. Even if I'm not successful maybe I'll learn something.

Voted "no."

This post was last modified: 09-26-2010 05:27 AM by q w e r t y.

I'm still undecided, I have cover-ups now and then.... but that's just basically who I am.

"interests that are more interesting to NTs", what rot.

Cure my comorbids, not my autism - leave who I actually am alone. My anxieties, insomnia and so on you can take, and gladly so.  

Autism is not a disease;  It's a genetically transferred neurological variance.

This post was last modified: 09-26-2010 06:08 AM by ῦ.

@Pikajedi3, but all your autistic interests would remain intact, only you would be more open minded to finding new interests, while keeping your old ones as well.

This post was last modified: 09-26-2010 06:07 AM by Yozla.

Gah, too slow editing ill considered words; read my previous post again.

This is going to be a long night, I'll just vote no.

All of our what you are calling negative aspects are our positive aspects.

I would like to get rid of my depression and anxiety though.

@Skyblue: Could you please list which exactly so-called negative aspects are actually your positive aspects?

nope........

I will list what I mentioned and I will deduce from it "negative aspects":

- you'd get better social skills > negative: poor social skills
- you'd find it easier to understand people and to empathize with them > negative: problems with understanding people and empathy
- you'd be more skilled at "reading people's minds" and predicting their actions > negative: low "mind reading" skills
- you'd feel more comfortable in social situations > negative: anxiety in social situations
- you wouldn't need to do stimming > negative: constant need for stimming
- you would be able to have much broader interests > negative: too narrow interests
- you would find new interests that are more interesting to NTs > negative: interest such that most people find them uninteresting
- you would become much better communicator > negative: being a bad communicator
- you would more easily make new friends > negative: issues with making new friends
- you would more easily find new romantic partners and would be better ar seduction > negative: issues with finding erotic partners

I'd like to know what do you find positive in these things:

poor social skills
problems with understanding people and empathy
low "mind reading" skills
anxiety in social situations
constant need for stimming
too narrow interests
interest such that most people find them uninteresting
being a bad communicator
issues with making new friends
issues with finding erotic partners

This sounds a bit like what Zoloft did for me.

You sound like that "JUICE" Salesman in Requiem for a Dream (which in actual reality is a crappy crappy movie) and another thing.... This sounds like a sale pitch, we're not getting it! The one thing that would help me calm down is the over-perseveration.

Explain why we should care if our interests are interesting to you?