I get this sometimes. People look at me; they see I can talk, I can take care of myself, I live on my own with no more than a case manager checking in weekly (thank goodness, by the way; it was long overdue and I'm very pleased to finally be able to depend on someone to help me figure out the little unexpected bits of daily life ( Read more... )

My attitude toward having autism is, in general, "I don't really mind being autistic." That is, it's part of me, part of my normal life, part of my outlook and experiences. Autism can be frustrating, annoying, painful, enjoyable, or interesting--much like life in general ( Read more... )

I've just come from WrongPlanet, and from yet another inevitable discussion--the repetitively posed, "Do you want a cure?" question.

Most people on WP say no. Some say yes. The ironic thing is that it's a question we'll almost certainly never have to answer in real life.

Autism is such a complex disorder that a cure would only be available once we ( Read more... )

In response to:
http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opinion-the-c-word-what-it-means-to-cure-autism

I am autistic, I am disabled, and I do not want a cure. I’ve lived my whole life autistic. The way I think and feel and see the world is built on a developmental scaffold that includes autism. A total "cure" for autism would be like having your ( Read more... )

Some people think that the only alternative to wanting a cure for your autism is thinking that you are superior, that your skills make autism worthwhile, and that autism must be the next step in evolution ( Read more... )

It's your right to want a cure... just like it's your right to want to win the lottery. But unlike lotteries, there aren't millions of tickets out there; just a few hundred scientists, most of whom are working towards a genetic test and not a cure. Just like me and the many others who wouldn't want a cure for autism if it could be invented, you're ( Read more... )

"Overcome" is the worst possible advice you could ever give to someone with autism, Asperger's or otherwise. An autistic person who comes to believe this will begin to hate himself for being too lazy, too immature, too stupid ( Read more... )

A while ago I decided, "Well, Jenny McCarthy's book may be horrible; but  I really don't have the right to say that if I haven't read it ( Read more... )

For those of you who don't know, Redbook is a magazine aimed at women in their twenties and thirties. Most of the articles have to do with the typical women's-magazine things--weight loss, sex, fashion, boyfriends, husbands, and occasionally "serious topics" like breast cancer or sexual harassment. This is the group of women who are at exactly the ( Read more... )

Even if autism had no positive aspects, it wouldn't be right to try to cure it, if you define "cure" as "make an autistic person indistinguishable from a neurotypical person ( Read more... )