Equuno wrote:"Cured"? I'm sorry, but when I heard that, I shuddered. Cured really is not a good word to use, here. It makes people sound like freaks with some zombie disorder that need to be fixed because there is something horribly wrong with them. I suspect that I'm somewhere on the spectrum, and if I am, I do not wish to be cured. Social interaction is awkward and confusing, but it's part of a person's character. If they can't function in society and will never do anything on their own, yes, they should have access to treatment. However, autism is not something you can look at and say "Oh... how odd... that person is different, there must be something wrong, let's fix them." It's not rabies. It's not the plague. Curing it would be like looking at yourself and deciding that you wanted to remove a part of your character. I know that I would not change anything about myself (ever) because it is who I am, and that is something I want to stay with me for the rest of my life. If you can't keep yourself, is there anything you can keep?
People routinely decide that they don't like part of their character and take steps to change it. People who have trouble sleeping might take pills to help them go to bed. People often therapy to cure themselves of various mental disorders. People often read self-help books or take classes on how to mitigate various undesirable personality traits that make it difficult for them to socialize effectively, just like autism does. Autism, however, is more deeply rooted in the brain and requires more drastic methods.
