It's too bad John felt he needed to seek treatment to 'cure' his autism.
I was diagnosed when I was 17, and I get to interact with a lot of other students on the spectrum every day at my school. There are a few students that believe autism is something to overcome, and that if they try hard enough perhaps one day they won't be 'autistic'. Most of us are comfortable with the fact that we're different.
Then you're lucky enough to be on the "functional" end of the spectrum. There's a lot of people out there on the "non-functional" end whom a cure could help.
As someone who is also on the functional end of the spectrum, I'm tired of having to intellectualize a feeling of empathy for others. It's draining, and I'd rather have that brain power to work on something more meaningful. For better or worse, most of our work involves other people, and being able empathize with them makes that work much more productive.
However scientifically sound it is I wonder how much sense it really makes to lump together all ASD the way we do; how much does the author of this piece really have in common with nonverbal autistic people, for instance?
I blame the DSMV for lumping us all together. There are definitely some similarities, like stimming, touch aversion, and hyperacusis, but the degrees to which they affect daily life are dramatically different.
Everyone is different, their problems effect them in different ways, they have different dreams for the future. Live with it or cure it is a decision all of us make with different premises and conclusions.
I was formally diagnosed with ADHD a year ago after realizing a few years prior. There was a long time where I struggled to come to terms with it, and I still do get frustrated with my differences. At the end of the day though it's a significant part of who I am, and I don't think I would want it any other way. I may struggle with some things quite a bit, but I think it gives me a unique way of seeing things and going through life. There's even been a few smaller studies recently showing those with ADHD are better at divergent thinking, more likely to receive awards related to creativity, as well as an inability to ignore irrelevant thoughts being correlated with high creativity.
I think it's time we start to recognize that mental differences or disorders aren't necessarily disabilities and something to be cured or looked down upon
Oh, absolutely. I don't know that much about ADHD but it always stroke me as an odd thing to diagnose.
"This kid is not good at following orders and is unwilling to engage in long hours of monotonous and repetitive tasks? Clearly we need to fix that".
If you think about it, what would ADHD mean in the animal kingdom? Most animals just run around and do whatever they feel like in the moment. Humans are the only species where that's not the norm. I wonder why.
When you say "most of us are comfortable with the fact that we're different", keep in mind that you are now speaking for many children and adults with autism that are entirely incapable of expressing whether or not they are or are not "comfortable" with anything.
When we read an article like this we tend to think of autism as mostly a diagnosis for the high functioning end of the spectrum, and we completely forget that there is a large percentage of the population with autism that lacks communication skills or the ability to even connect a few words.
Please be careful when speaking for "most" of those with autism. There are many (what percentage is hard to say based on the numbers changing so rapidly) that can't speak for themselves.
"us" certainly could be referring to just those students. My reaction was based on the interpretation of "us" as "those with autism".
There is a trend of the high functioning population (see 'neurodiverse' or ND) debating those that advocate for the low functioning as to whether or not we should try and help the low functioning to "change". It's more complicated than that, but those that advocate for the lowest functioning get frustrated by the debate. It usually comes down to "if you have the ability to say you 'like' your autism, you can keep it, but don't try and prevent others from trying to help those who can't advocate for themselves."
If orik was only referring to a handful of fellow students, he/she wasn't speaking for all of the spectrum and I misinterpreted who was meant by "us".
Advocating for them - full transparency, I'm a parent of a low-functioning daughter with autism. I wouldn't support an organization that tried to develop prenatal testing for autism.
What works for you, may not work for someone else. I know some very successful autistics who leverage it to their benefit, and some very unsuccessful ones who are dogged by it.
If everyone feels different, there isn't a need to downvote @orik's voice on this.
Let's take @orik's observation at face value -- that "most of us are comfortable with the fact that we're different". In that case, who is uncomfortable, the people who are autistic, or the people who are not? The dysfunction is in the people who feel uncomfortable and have difficulty accepting someone as they are.
By the way, I am not autistic. I'm speaking as someone who has had a lot of experience working with intense emotions.
I'm not really convinced that "autism" in the broad sense is a thing. It seems primarily to be "social retardation not otherwise specified" at the early end of the spectrum and full "mental retardation not otherwise specified", including inability to speak or read, at the late end. I believe that unfortunately, simple intelligence is placed on the early end of the spectrum, and that it's not a defect that requires treatment. It's just a normal variation.
I was diagnosed when I was 17, and I get to interact with a lot of other students on the spectrum every day at my school. There are a few students that believe autism is something to overcome, and that if they try hard enough perhaps one day they won't be 'autistic'. Most of us are comfortable with the fact that we're different.