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Why do some NTs want to "cure" us so badly?

oregano

oregano

So buzz off!
V.I.P Member
If you've noticed, we have a spammer in the Autism Science forum pushing hyperbaric therapy as a cure for autism. It makes me wonder why some NTs are so desperate to "cure" our autism, to the point that children are forced to drink industrial bleach, undergo 200 rounds of chelation to remove "mercury poisoning", etc. The fact that kids are dying from these things doesn't seem to matter, the attitude seem to me that death is better than autism. What is so wrong with being autistic in the eyes of NT society that we must be "cured" at any and all costs, up to death? (MODS NOTE: I am NOT discussing the merits or nonmerits of quack theories, but the underlying assumption of "curing" autism.)
 
Look at it this way. When a pharmaceutical manufacturer solicits people to use their product, I don't think they're interested in seeing much of anyone really "cured" for any reason.

It's more a matter of repeat cu$tomer$. o_O

Unless of course it involves a scenario where money isn't changing hands. Then who knows? For some, it might be an extension of "white man's burden". Someone who feels it's their duty to "fix" us poor Aspies. :rolleyes:
 
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Well, given that the DSM pretty much implies that we are mentally ill (do 2 wrongs make a right?), I'm not surprised someone would try to cure said "illness", although I highly doubt any alleged cure has the well-being of autists in mind as much as the big bucks that can be made, as Judge wrote.
 
1st people are vain so if youre different you DONT boost their vanity
they perceive autism in a primal way they see death and hear death
then they worship cures medical science 1st if they disrespect g~d, then alternative therapies then most distastefully g~d going to a faith healer or praying for a cure
downs syndrome does not get huge media coverage because parents want a cure
because they are perceived as good
and autism is seen as bad some people say demonic
 
I know that Big Pharma is all about money, but the fact is that they're using the idea of "curing autism" as a sales pitch, and the fact that the pitch works means that there are obviously a fair number of NT's out there who are so desperate to make their AS kids into NT kids that they will do/try anything even if it's harmful/lethal to the kid. So, therefore, there are a group of NT's who want a cure for autism. My question is, why, even if the kid isn't violent?
 
It's not only autism. They want to cure "non-hetero" and transgender people too. They tried to"cure" lefthandedness The question is why they want to cure anything that doesn't fit the mold of majority.

Some kind of complex?
 
I think they want to cure the people who suffer from their difference (autism, sexuality, you name it) because it seems easier than curing the society that make those people suffer in the first place. Easy as that.
"You're not feeling well because the kids bullied you after your monologue on the rise of syndicalism in Eighteenth-century English society? Here, take a pill" is definitely easier than teaching all those other kids and their parents (and possibly the teachers who didn't intervene) that they must treat everyone with respect, even if they don't understand them.

I can, to a certain extent, understand that some parents are devastated at the idea that their child is bound to suffer out there in the world. I doubt that when you're building dreams for what you hope your spawn will become and do, you hope that they will be humiliated, rejected, will have overall less prospects in terms of jobs, sensory issues, issues with food, etc. Everyone dreams of the perfect kid, I guess, and Aspies aren't seen as perfect (pff, little do they know how badass we are, surviving all that crap and then some).
But where I diverge is that just because it might be harder in society doesn't mean it has to be, doesn't mean it's not worth putting up a fight. If more people had the balls to do that, how much could be achieved? That's why I made the decision that I'm going to carry this Aspie flag high, even though I know it will come at a cost. I can, at my little level, be part of that "positive" representation (people have no clue how I struggle and usually think I have a good life. Gosh, I should have pursued acting, if only I wasn't so painfully incapable of loosening up). I'm not saying I'm going to become the poster child of Asperger's, or that people will idolize me like they idolize Beyoncé (still don't understand that), but if just one parent sees the things in common between me & their kid, and realize it's worth accepting them as is, or if one manager ever understands that hey, they can contribute to my company, I have to treat them well & maybe hire more, then I'll be happy.
 
This is a sore spot with me. All of the above is correct. Then you just get the thing that some are uncomfortable around us. Teachers were uncomfortable around me and some other children so if we were labeled as "retarded" - it was 1958-62 - they could put me in another class or a whole 'nother school and would not need to deal with me. I probably would have been labelled ADD if they had the diagnosis back then. My mother was embarrassed while my dad just kept saying that I was like his cousin. In most cases, it is their problem. Too bad I scored 140 IQ in 1962. The school and my mom had to deal with me as I was. Can't speak coherently when 4 to a high IQ when 10. The school system could not deal. My mom could not deal. All autistic people should develop an IQ of 140 and force everyone else just to deal with it. Unfortunately that does not happen.

I have known a couple who were so appalled at their autistic daughter that she was shuttled off to relatives and then into an institution. The relatives just could not afford the attention required and they did not have legal custody. I do not know what happened to her but this person had an autistic son as the next child. There was not enough known at the time to figure out that the child's artist grandfather was probably autistic. I really did not see a big issue with the child except he was shy and nonverbal at 4 and had bowel problems and could not be in daycare. Inconvenient to mom. Later I heard that he was in a special school but could draw. Mmm like his grandfather and uncle, both artists.

The bottom line is that a person is easier to interact with if the person is like them. The teacher's job is easier if the student sits in the chair like some inanimate doll or doesn't cause playground issues like getting bullied.

There are always differences between people. People always have skill areas that are different. Focus on people who are open to us.
 
Because the parents think it is will be so much better for their child to be normal and fit in, fitting into the mould the parents want them to be. So the parents want cures for their unique children, whether it be Aspergers or anything else really. It's kind of sad.
 
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Momo said:
Because the parents think it is will be so much better for their child to be normal and fit in, fitting into the mood the parents want them to be. So the parents want cures for their unique children, whether it be Aspergers or anything else really. It's kind of sad.
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This reminds me of all the science fiction stories where humanity has "cured" itself of all its "afflictions", only to realize too late that humanity is now so inbred and genetically brittle that some simple ailment wipes it out.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to Germany had Hitler been successful in creating his "master race". Probably the same thing that happened to the Fundamentalist Mormon Church, an offshoot cult that practices polygamy, when the leaders decided to create perfect people by inbreeding already inbred people (most of the cult is descended from just two men)-they had some really rare genetic defect become so widespread that the leader set up drop off points in the desert outside their compound where women were ordered to abandon their afflicted babies so that the infants could be "dealt with". And then of course there's movies like Gattaca where only genetically superior people have rights and inferior people are seen as a threat.

Maybe in the future humans will erase "inferiors" like autistics and homosexuals from their species, only to discover that the "inferiors" performed such an important function that humans are doomed without them. Anybody remember Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where an alien probe arrives at Earth and tries to contact the whales, and when it discovers that there are no whales it decides to destroy the planet and Kirk and crew have to go back to the 20th century and bring back whales to save the planet?
 
Marketing is focused on telling everyone what they need to be to 'belong' in society: young, perfect body, white smile, perfect hair dynamic, outgoing and energetic, optimistic, happy go lucky, you have to have attitude, you must be popular and be stud to belong, your own image is the most important thing in the world which allows you to establish your position in the herd, so you need to be and buy everything that contributes to selling yourself to achieve this. I guess this probably stems from an evolutionary perspective where outgoing group thinkers may have been more useful to survival than withdrawn individualists.

Building up (normal/simple) people's self image and then getting them to compare themselves to others is how you make money. In the process, the image that marketing projects is the image that NT's benchmark themselves against when defining normality and success. Being on the spectrum automatically puts yourself outside this herd, so we must be unhappy failures that need to be fixed.

As per TV (and per association society) being quiet and behaviourally different makes you either an oddity/abnormality, someone who must be unhappy, or someone who is about to explode and harm people. If you are shy, you must be a victim and whatever happens to you is your own fault. People assume you have to be 'normal' to be happy and successful in life. People assume that being normal makes you happier and more successful than people that are not. Something to be fixed then.

The leap to being ashamed of a different child is not too great. I guess some people try to cure their children because they are honestly worried about the wellbeing of their child and they are too shortsighted to nurture their child instead of trying to change it. Superficial society has deemed different as being bad, hence it is justifiable to cure it, enter the medical industry.

It's up to us to accept who we are, accept our weaknesses and embrace our strengths and to explore those areas that make us feel happy or good about ourselves and tell the rest to piss off. I refuse to let anyone tell me how i should be or what i should have to be happy or successful. It has taken me more than forty years to get to that point though. I do take meds, not to cure myself, but to make it possible for me to endure those things that i have difficulty with, but that are inevitable to allow me to achieve those things that i do want or find important.
 
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PS, i know i'm being longwinded again, but i do find their is one important comment i should make. i am quite 'militant' about defining one's own identity and one's own criteria for happiness and not letting the norms of NT's make us unhappy.

there is however one risk/trap with this way of thinking, and i've found myself falling into the trap too regularly. i should be able to appreciate myself on a standalone basis, on my own merits and NOT through a blanket rejection other people's view of society, i should not build my sense of self worth by belittling or destroying another's. I shouldn't consider myself superior but just accept that i'm different. it's not us against them, it's us with them. there are kind empathetic, well intentioned people in all communities and there are assholes in all communities. Its probably better to appreciate the kind and to avoid building identity through generalisation when confronted by the bad.
 
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Kisa the tea said:
Because "Autism Speaks" exists >.>
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Absolutely. Think about it. Charities want donations, to fill their own pockets too. What is the best way to get donations? To make it seem like Autism is a scary disease that needs to be eradicated and cured. But, they never tell the donors it will never be cured, so the charities get a lifetime of excuses to keep searching for a cure. They had a really scary billboard last year in our area about sensory sensitivity. It was a freaky Halloween large sign with scary letters and haunting imagery.

They are not the only charity and entity that wants to take advantage of those with Autism. Other charities are set up to take advantage of those with Autism, too. Those charities do worthless negative studies that supposedly costs millions of dollars with one objective: with results to spread negative information about Autism and huge needs for more studies. And yet they never do anything about the supposedly accurate data that results. They do not follow through on the supposed needs, but put that money to more studies and negative advertisement.

Therapy is the same way. The whole goal is to convince the Autistic patients that they are defective and needing help. They try to change things that cannot be changed or should not be changed, and trying to make them like NTs, assuming that everyone wants that. For those who want improvement, fine, but when was the last time you saw a doctor or therapist ask a patient, "Do you want us try to help or do you want counseling and support just for us to accept you as you are?"

All these entities just assume those with Autism want help with certain things, and because that is how they make their money. Yes, if he or she is a danger to themselves or others, maybe that assumption of needing help, might be more well received, but many with Autism are very functional and have no desire to change much, if at all. They see the NTs as the problem, and the doctors and the therapists as just trying to take financial advantage of them, or knowing their help will not do a whole lot for them.
 
Darius said:
The norm is there only because the difference exist. How come it's not obvious to them? :D
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This is so deep, so true, and I love it. This will be my go-to comeback every time someone takes issue that I'm not like the norm.
 
Well, now that you ask, probably not every time, no. There will very likely be some of the F word involved, depending on my mood and who I'm talking to ;)
 
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