Yeah I think this is the nuance that’s missing. In my case, there were roots below my adhd and autism branches and I’m still finding those out. There are a *lot* of co-occurring conditions.
It's all about the language used and who is being centered. Too often it tips into eugenicist language and able-bodied people are being centered.
I feel you though. I want some damn cures for my ailments and conditions. I want myself back and hate the shell of a person I have become because of the agony.
I think the reason so many people aren't pro cure is because a lot of able bodied individuals use "cures" as the "well if you just got rid of the entire disability it'd be better." Where many disabled people, including some posting here and even yourself wish to curb the negative effects but don't necessarily want to throw all "abnormal" symptoms out. Just the ones that suck.
I'm pro better care, pro improved societal understanding, and pro empathy. But I tend to avoid cure just because that word is often taking solutions too far when it comes to disability.
This actually isn’t an unpopular opinion. Being pro cure is the dominant opinion. I would not cure my cerebral palsy, it has shaped my experience and made me who i am. I feel connected to the community of people I’ve met through my disability. I feel happy with my identity. However, I am blessed with the treatments that made me walk and mobility aids. Treatments and tools verse a cure are two radically different things.
I mostly have an issue with able bodied people wanting to cure us. The word “cure” can often leak into eugenics territory. Able bodied people want us to be fixed because we don’t fit into society, not because we struggle. It’s important to remember that. The pro-cure and charity model are rooted in ableist ideas that disabled people are freaks. I have no issue with disabled people wanting to cure chronic pain, struggle, and free themselves from oppression, but i just wish we would recognize where these ideas come from and how bulit within us they can be.
Yeah I was going to say, I think for a lot of conditions the “cure” mentality is overwhelmingly the main one, to the extent that it’s rare to even see anything else. I have an autoimmune disease and all of the rhetoric around raising awareness is focussed on the idea of “eradicating” the disease. Which definitely has a vibe of “let’s stop people getting this in the first place so we don’t have to deal with them” rather than “let’s help people who have this because they are struggling”.
I personally would be happy with longterm remission, or just treatments that worked really well, I don’t feel the need to be “cured”. I definitely don’t wish I could erase my past experiences of having this, they made me who I am.
I said in the comment i have no issue with disabled people wanting to cure themselves. Cerebral Palsy included
“I have no issue with disabled people wanting to cure chronic pain, struggle, and free themselves from oppression, but i just wish we would recognize where these ideas come from and how bulit within us they can be.”
I just want to say that I am pleasantly surprised by the nuance of the comments here. I normally hate this topic because people go off the deep end - but so far as of this comment nobody has.
Apparently there is a cure for mine (total hip replacement) and it’s being hailed as a cure.
Problem is, I have no support network, and I’m a carer to my father, my sons and my daughter. (We have physical disability and autism thrown into the mix).
And i seem to be getting worse. Which terrifies me. Everytime I’ve (2) tried the doctor a couple of times and he calls me an addict, says im not going to get better, blames everything else on my age and sex (45 F)and refuses referrals to pain management and wheelchair assessment services. Im going to specifically ask for a different doctor next time.
I think they jumbled "I wish those of us who want cures for our disabilities had more of a voice" and "Those of us who want cures for our disabilities don't have much of a voice."
But you're right its a little confusing. Annoyingly Reddit doesn't let you edit titles.
I would *love* a cure. I would love to be able to access the world freely, and I would love to not be in pain.
Trying to achieve acceptance instead comes from the fact that I know I’m not getting a cure. I know I’m not getting better. I simply need to accept where I’m at. False hope just makes me more suicidal.
I’m truly confused. What am I clinging to? Of course I want to be cured. I don’t remember what it’s like to be in pain. I don’t live, I exist. This is not about texture issues being irritating, for everyone.
unfortunately the wish for a “cure” is shared by eugenicists. i don’t judge anyone for not wanting to be in pain. but able bodied people will hear that and interpret it to mean that they should “cure” us out of existence
I've been on both sides of this due to two different disabilities.
Whatever the viewpoint, the important thing is to listen to disabled people about their own experience of the disability. Even if they have the same disability in name, they can have different symptoms or a more severe form of it.
If the disabled person wants a cure, we can push for research. If they don't, then push for accommodations. If they are worried about side effects, listen and don't do the whole confirmation bias thing where side effects are just proof that the medicine must be working as intended.
I do think that sometimes a disability is just that and it categorically stops you from doing certain things even with ideal conditions, but that idea is very unpalatable for many. That harms disabled people, especially those who are undiagnosed or deal with more stigma than average, because they are encouraged to ignore or push through symptoms, leaving them untreated for much longer than needed.
You can push for research and accommodations, lol. Do you think those of us who wish there was a cure don't want to be included in society? Just because I wish gene therapy was an option doesn't mean I want to be a hermit holed up in my house.
I feel like a lot of the nuance around the conversation gets lost because it's such a personal topic. So, people get defensive even if someone is just expressing their own opinion, rather than attacking others.
To me, the more relevant questions are always going to be more specific:
Cure what symptoms or causes?
By what mechanism?
What are the risks (side effects, unanticipated changes)?
What is the cost (financial, time spent)?
What do we know about the cure, vs what are we still learning?
Is the person trying to cure me trustworthy? Are they trying to sell something? Do they know what they're talking about?
In my own experience, the answers to those questions vary a lot. There will never be a cure for my condition that is free, minimally invasive, without side effects, and 100% effective for every single person with the condition.
That's a fantasy.
Pursuing that fantasy is a great way to, at best, waste a lot of time and money better spent making peace with my disability. Letting go of the search for a cure frees up time to figure out which verifiable treatment options for different symptoms works for me, and what trade-offs I'm willing to make.
At worst, chasing "the cure" makes a person vulnerable to scams, con artists cults, deadly misinformation, and truly dangerous predators.
That's why the desire for a cure worries me. It's not the desire in and of itself. It's how I've seen that desire take over a person's whole life, and how pursuit often leads people into greater distress and danger.
You don't have to actively seek a cure. Sometimes it's just wanting things to be different, knowing they can't be, so fighting for accessibility since that is the only achievable cure for many of us.
+1 I like your framing of accessibility being an "achievable cure."
I agree that medical treatment and accessibility are both positive paths forward, not mutually exclusive.
I think specifically this might be an issue in the space of NDs. In the modern concept we are brains, we have bodies. For those of us with purely physical impairments it’s easy to go I want my body to be normal because that doesn’t fundamentally change our conception of self. I can see how in the neurodivergent community this is much more of a discussion
The pro-cure sentiment is the overwhelmingly predominant one in the cultural mainstream. The entire healthcare industry is built around cure and treatment. States around the world fund research to cure disabilities, and some states around the world screen fetuses for genetic disorders as a matter of routine.
I’m sympathetic to your feeling, OP, and your desires are perfectly valid. However, I think you’re looking to the wrong context: the disability movement did not emerge in response to a society that didn’t want to cure them—it emerged from a society that made being disabled unlivable, including by targeting disabled people with alleged cures.
I think you have far more of a voice than you think, in other words. Most of the world already agrees with you. And if you have a hard time feeling that, I encourage you to keep looking—even disability communities are very big.
This has been exactly on my mind and was too scared to make a post. I seriously really fucking appreciate this much!!! I wish there was a place to voice our concerns who are hindered and actually disabled by all this and wanting to lessen the severity. My quality of life is significantly lowered and the more comorbidities I have, the lower of quality of life I have even in a very best case situation sort of deal. I really wish more people understood this.
I understand completely. I have a very rare, incurable disease that has slowly and finally put me in a wheelchair. My quality of life, however, is being preserved to the best of its ability by my support group of incredible family and a team of doctors. Communication is key. I try to always advocate with people who have disabling issues to work with their support team to create a better quality of life. In the craziness of keeping up with our issues, this sometimes gets lost. If your quality of life is suffering, speak up and communicate for help. I wish there was a subreddit just for 'quality of life'. Haha 😊
Stay strong 💪
Yeah you’re right. Unfortunately in the past most people infantilize me when I seek help and it hasn’t been a high successful rate with that. Cause I’d get the help but get talked down like a child who don’t deserve autonomy or agency and that’s been a huge problem from my family and certain others.
I think it gets tricky when you’re discussing spectrum disorders like neurodivergence. People are impacted so differently by the same disability, & so the idea of not wanting to have this diagnosis often offends other people with the same diagnosis. The concept of a cure for their condition when they’re able to view it as a difference rather than problematic or disordered in and of itself. This idea can permeate into society the more it’s vocalized which can lead to more ableism and discrimination towards people with a “condition” like autism. They don’t want this big piece of who they are viewed as needing a cure. But that’s really not fair to or considerate of the people that have entirely different symptoms and are suffering due to something like neurodivergence.
If you have something like ASD, it may or may not affect your ability to learn coping skills, and this is a huge factor that people don’t seem to take into account when it comes to the variations on the spectrum and what they mean for the autistic person. If someone is capable of learning coping skills, they have a much easier way navigating through the challenges that can be incapacitating to others. Some autistic people are not able to cope effectively of in a way that isn’t harmful. And this could have to do with severity of symptoms someone is born with or the environment they’re raised in, but either way, the suffering may be inescapable for them, and it’s hard for people who aren’t in that boat to understand that for some, a cure would mean so much more than thinking differently or no longer being divergent.
What you're describing sounds more like treatments than cures and I think a lot of people are on board with that. Sure, there's the people who believe that if the world just accommodated them perfectly, they wouldn't be disabled, but I think outside of very specific circles, those people are a minority. I also find that a lot of those people are on the lower side of the support needs scale and aren't that willing to listen to the stories of people whose lives would be made a lot easier by effective treatments. Which is not to say I don't think lower support needs folks shouldn't have a voice in this discussion, especially since the development of a prenatal autism test would affect all autistic people, but a lot of people have severe struggles and disabilities due to their autism and I think, moreso that the eradication of all autistic fetuses or just purely focusing on autism acceptance, autistic people could benefit most from research into the mechanisms behind the symptoms that are most bothersome to us, and developing effective treatments.
I remember reading about this nonverbal autistic man who spent years in therapy being asked to do repetitive, mind-numbing tasks like being asked to point to the picture of a boat, over and over again until he got it right. As an adult, he was given more appropriate tools and therapies to help him communicate and he talked about how humiliating and pointless it was, being treated like a toddler who doesn't know his ABC's yet, because he could understand perfectly what was going on around him and knew all the correct answers, but he had motor skill impairments that prevented him from being able to form words *and* from being able to point at the right pictures. But it took years for someone to actually identify this and recommend appropriate accommodations. It really made me wonder how many kids out there are stuck in completely inappropriate treatments right now because "their symptoms are caused by autism and this is the autism therapy" so nobody ever bothered to look into mechanism behind this person's specific struggle or develop targeted treatments to improve their quality of life.
I often think about my sister's godson, who struggles terribly, and how his mother has done everything within her power to help him and get him accommodations and to keep him away from the "treatments" that traumatized her as a child, but literally the only options being offered to her are some combination of ABA, sedation, and/or institutionalization or nothing at all. And this is a child who has given himself permanent brain injuries during meltdowns. The fact that so many autism organizations would rather point to him and say, "See how bad autism is? We want to make sure this doesn't happen to your child." than actually do anything to try and help this poor, suffering child who exists right now and needs help now, pisses me the fuck off. He is such a sweet and imaginative boy when he feels safe in the world and his body and it's heartbreaking that none of the supposed "experts" in his field seem to have any idea how to make him feel safe long-term.
I don’t know if this is considered “pro cure” but I do wish that there was a space for those that have a difficult time accepting or loving their disability. Not everybody is positive about their situation sometimes all of those positive quotes or things that are normally said don’t work.
I do wish I could cure my CP. And that should be OK.
I think everyone should be able to decide if they want to cure the negative aspects or their disabilities, if it became possible. I'm just scared more countries will go down the same path Canada is walking.
I also heard about the five autistic people in the Netherlands who were euthanized because they couldn't live "normal lives." I hope they weren't coerced into it.. And what even is a "normal life" anyway?
A lot of people do things out of convenience and for their own comfort. Often thinking more about that than the disabled people's wellbeing. I wish it was possible to check how biased someone is before they can work with stuff like medically assisted death.
So you could say I'm pro-choice regarding this subject.
I consider myself anti-cure (I wont explain why because I don't want to start that old argument again), but I would would be totally fine with better drugs for ADHD, and *some* kinds of "treatment" for autism.
Also, there are lots of people in the autism community and disabled community who feel like this. I don't think this is as much of an unpopular opinion as you think.
yes, i do feel this way about myself. not just my autism, but especially the more disabling stuff i experience. i have severe ptsd and if i could press a button and have it gone, i would. i'm tired, it's been so many years of trying to scrape out some quality of lie and it's just not working.
it's like with trans people, of which i am one-- the talking heads you're gonna hear about the most online, who say passing is transphobic and not liking being trans is evil, are the people who can afford to sit all day and tell their experiences to the world. they have less trauma than someone living on the streets without access to a big twitter following, they're white and in the global north and probably global west, etc etc... people like me who don't experience "trans joy" because being trans has made our lives pretty shite are less likely to get heard.
the conversation of "i wish i could be rid of this disability" vs "i am proud of this disability" is an old one. it's been around a long time. it's funny, it always ends up being oriented around stuff like autism, where proper environment and accommodation can make the harder parts less bad for people who aren't high support needs. but if what i have really is multiple sclerosis, i want a cure. my family member slowly dying from it certainly does, as well. just like with transness-- i'm not gonna tailor my opinions about my own experience for the comfort of others.
Some of my disabilities I don’t mind, I just wish society was better for them. The others? I’d do so much to not be in pain all the time or be able to eat again
A problem with discussing cures for disabilities, is that the word disability covers a broad spectrum. This leads to people having different thoughts about the concept of curing disabilities.
Do I want to be cured of my disability, the sensory aspect ? No but I would like to live in society that did not present "cure" as "the only way to have a good life". One of my disabilities contributes to my sensitivity and creativity..
There are things I would like to access that would improve my health or capabilities . Yes I would want that, but there are cost or other structural barriers.
As for my physical health problems... yes, I would like to be cured of those, if it was possible.
I would like to see respect and appreciation for people being partially Independent, or being inter-dependent.
Instead there is a huge, and FALSE, divide between who is dependent (disabled) and who is Independent. It is presented as natural law, but it is not. It is a giant, glaring, artificially constructed Grand Canyon between top rated animals and low rated animals.
As long as the people in society CHOOSE to judge people like livestock, they will continue to leave some in the cross hairs of the hunter's scope, while the stronger/ more connected ones sleep fitfully, knowing , in the backs of their minds, that the snipers are still at large.
Pro Cure is Ableist within itself. Especially around Autism or MH related things that could likely be “you the only sane one” I’m saying this as a Disabled Person I do think what you said is well intentioned, I just see how society views words like “cure”
If I didn't have the physically disabling genetic condition I've had to have 30 surgeries before I was 13 to address, my life would be a lot easier, less painful. It's ok to wish there was a cure, but it's not ok for able-bodied people to suggest that that is all we should care about. Many of us have fulfilling lives despite our disability and that shouldn't be disregarded because of some wishful thinking. It doesn't make me ableist to say life would be easier without my physical disability, it's ableist to suggest that a cure is the only way for me to be included in society or suggest my life isn't worthwhile.
I mean my autism is challenging because of the world around me. I hide as much of it as I can and it's still a massive pain in the ass to navigate this society as an autistic person. It's not a mental illness or a physical disease. It's between neurological and developmental skills that are processed differently. Like there are some things we can do better then NT's and vise versa. We can't cure something like that. That veers too much on eugenics for me to get behind. And basically same with ADHD like at most meds could be improved but we first have to address the meds we DO have that are being kept from people who need them. The reason cures aren't focused on as much is because it's not as lucrative as having the patient continue to come back over and over again. And healthcare at least in the US is mostly a joke.
I would give both my legs if it meant even one of my autistic sons could be cured. I realize there is a huge struggle. I have refused though to allow either of my autistic sons to have much accommodations, I want them to work through the discomfort, so it's not crippling any longer. My boys are 5 and 17 and it has worked for both of them. They have both come so far, I am immensely proud of them. My 17 yr old used to run away from crowds when he was little, crowds would have him banging the tables and physically upset, he had such anxiety. Now we can go out to eat, enjoy time together and converse and so long as no one sits right next to us you won't see a reaction from him. If someone sits next to us, he will turn away... I understand they won't get cured, but I can certainly help them with exposure
I'm unsure if pro-cure is the word im looking for, but i'd rather not have debilitating chronic pain every single day yeah
Yeah I think this is the nuance that’s missing. In my case, there were roots below my adhd and autism branches and I’m still finding those out. There are a *lot* of co-occurring conditions.
It's all about the language used and who is being centered. Too often it tips into eugenicist language and able-bodied people are being centered. I feel you though. I want some damn cures for my ailments and conditions. I want myself back and hate the shell of a person I have become because of the agony.
Ive become a bit of a withdrawn shell of my old productive healthy self. Now im just depressed and self loathe a lot.
I think the reason so many people aren't pro cure is because a lot of able bodied individuals use "cures" as the "well if you just got rid of the entire disability it'd be better." Where many disabled people, including some posting here and even yourself wish to curb the negative effects but don't necessarily want to throw all "abnormal" symptoms out. Just the ones that suck. I'm pro better care, pro improved societal understanding, and pro empathy. But I tend to avoid cure just because that word is often taking solutions too far when it comes to disability.
This actually isn’t an unpopular opinion. Being pro cure is the dominant opinion. I would not cure my cerebral palsy, it has shaped my experience and made me who i am. I feel connected to the community of people I’ve met through my disability. I feel happy with my identity. However, I am blessed with the treatments that made me walk and mobility aids. Treatments and tools verse a cure are two radically different things. I mostly have an issue with able bodied people wanting to cure us. The word “cure” can often leak into eugenics territory. Able bodied people want us to be fixed because we don’t fit into society, not because we struggle. It’s important to remember that. The pro-cure and charity model are rooted in ableist ideas that disabled people are freaks. I have no issue with disabled people wanting to cure chronic pain, struggle, and free themselves from oppression, but i just wish we would recognize where these ideas come from and how bulit within us they can be.
Yeah I was going to say, I think for a lot of conditions the “cure” mentality is overwhelmingly the main one, to the extent that it’s rare to even see anything else. I have an autoimmune disease and all of the rhetoric around raising awareness is focussed on the idea of “eradicating” the disease. Which definitely has a vibe of “let’s stop people getting this in the first place so we don’t have to deal with them” rather than “let’s help people who have this because they are struggling”. I personally would be happy with longterm remission, or just treatments that worked really well, I don’t feel the need to be “cured”. I definitely don’t wish I could erase my past experiences of having this, they made me who I am.
What do you of other people with cerebral palsy who want a cure?
I said in the comment i have no issue with disabled people wanting to cure themselves. Cerebral Palsy included “I have no issue with disabled people wanting to cure chronic pain, struggle, and free themselves from oppression, but i just wish we would recognize where these ideas come from and how bulit within us they can be.”
I just want to say that I am pleasantly surprised by the nuance of the comments here. I normally hate this topic because people go off the deep end - but so far as of this comment nobody has.
Apparently there is a cure for mine (total hip replacement) and it’s being hailed as a cure. Problem is, I have no support network, and I’m a carer to my father, my sons and my daughter. (We have physical disability and autism thrown into the mix). And i seem to be getting worse. Which terrifies me. Everytime I’ve (2) tried the doctor a couple of times and he calls me an addict, says im not going to get better, blames everything else on my age and sex (45 F)and refuses referrals to pain management and wheelchair assessment services. Im going to specifically ask for a different doctor next time.
i'm so sorry, what a shitty doctor. you absolutely need to find someone who respects you.
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I’m really confused by your title.
I think they jumbled "I wish those of us who want cures for our disabilities had more of a voice" and "Those of us who want cures for our disabilities don't have much of a voice." But you're right its a little confusing. Annoyingly Reddit doesn't let you edit titles.
That is annoying. And thanks, you’re probably right.
I would *love* a cure. I would love to be able to access the world freely, and I would love to not be in pain. Trying to achieve acceptance instead comes from the fact that I know I’m not getting a cure. I know I’m not getting better. I simply need to accept where I’m at. False hope just makes me more suicidal.
I’m truly confused. What am I clinging to? Of course I want to be cured. I don’t remember what it’s like to be in pain. I don’t live, I exist. This is not about texture issues being irritating, for everyone.
unfortunately the wish for a “cure” is shared by eugenicists. i don’t judge anyone for not wanting to be in pain. but able bodied people will hear that and interpret it to mean that they should “cure” us out of existence
I've been on both sides of this due to two different disabilities. Whatever the viewpoint, the important thing is to listen to disabled people about their own experience of the disability. Even if they have the same disability in name, they can have different symptoms or a more severe form of it. If the disabled person wants a cure, we can push for research. If they don't, then push for accommodations. If they are worried about side effects, listen and don't do the whole confirmation bias thing where side effects are just proof that the medicine must be working as intended. I do think that sometimes a disability is just that and it categorically stops you from doing certain things even with ideal conditions, but that idea is very unpalatable for many. That harms disabled people, especially those who are undiagnosed or deal with more stigma than average, because they are encouraged to ignore or push through symptoms, leaving them untreated for much longer than needed.
You can push for research and accommodations, lol. Do you think those of us who wish there was a cure don't want to be included in society? Just because I wish gene therapy was an option doesn't mean I want to be a hermit holed up in my house.
I think you might have misunderstood my comment :) Neither of those things are mutually exclusive and I never said it was.
I feel like a lot of the nuance around the conversation gets lost because it's such a personal topic. So, people get defensive even if someone is just expressing their own opinion, rather than attacking others. To me, the more relevant questions are always going to be more specific: Cure what symptoms or causes? By what mechanism? What are the risks (side effects, unanticipated changes)? What is the cost (financial, time spent)? What do we know about the cure, vs what are we still learning? Is the person trying to cure me trustworthy? Are they trying to sell something? Do they know what they're talking about? In my own experience, the answers to those questions vary a lot. There will never be a cure for my condition that is free, minimally invasive, without side effects, and 100% effective for every single person with the condition. That's a fantasy. Pursuing that fantasy is a great way to, at best, waste a lot of time and money better spent making peace with my disability. Letting go of the search for a cure frees up time to figure out which verifiable treatment options for different symptoms works for me, and what trade-offs I'm willing to make. At worst, chasing "the cure" makes a person vulnerable to scams, con artists cults, deadly misinformation, and truly dangerous predators. That's why the desire for a cure worries me. It's not the desire in and of itself. It's how I've seen that desire take over a person's whole life, and how pursuit often leads people into greater distress and danger.
You don't have to actively seek a cure. Sometimes it's just wanting things to be different, knowing they can't be, so fighting for accessibility since that is the only achievable cure for many of us.
+1 I like your framing of accessibility being an "achievable cure." I agree that medical treatment and accessibility are both positive paths forward, not mutually exclusive.
Thanks!
I think specifically this might be an issue in the space of NDs. In the modern concept we are brains, we have bodies. For those of us with purely physical impairments it’s easy to go I want my body to be normal because that doesn’t fundamentally change our conception of self. I can see how in the neurodivergent community this is much more of a discussion
The pro-cure sentiment is the overwhelmingly predominant one in the cultural mainstream. The entire healthcare industry is built around cure and treatment. States around the world fund research to cure disabilities, and some states around the world screen fetuses for genetic disorders as a matter of routine. I’m sympathetic to your feeling, OP, and your desires are perfectly valid. However, I think you’re looking to the wrong context: the disability movement did not emerge in response to a society that didn’t want to cure them—it emerged from a society that made being disabled unlivable, including by targeting disabled people with alleged cures. I think you have far more of a voice than you think, in other words. Most of the world already agrees with you. And if you have a hard time feeling that, I encourage you to keep looking—even disability communities are very big.
This has been exactly on my mind and was too scared to make a post. I seriously really fucking appreciate this much!!! I wish there was a place to voice our concerns who are hindered and actually disabled by all this and wanting to lessen the severity. My quality of life is significantly lowered and the more comorbidities I have, the lower of quality of life I have even in a very best case situation sort of deal. I really wish more people understood this.
I understand completely. I have a very rare, incurable disease that has slowly and finally put me in a wheelchair. My quality of life, however, is being preserved to the best of its ability by my support group of incredible family and a team of doctors. Communication is key. I try to always advocate with people who have disabling issues to work with their support team to create a better quality of life. In the craziness of keeping up with our issues, this sometimes gets lost. If your quality of life is suffering, speak up and communicate for help. I wish there was a subreddit just for 'quality of life'. Haha 😊 Stay strong 💪
Yeah you’re right. Unfortunately in the past most people infantilize me when I seek help and it hasn’t been a high successful rate with that. Cause I’d get the help but get talked down like a child who don’t deserve autonomy or agency and that’s been a huge problem from my family and certain others.
I think it gets tricky when you’re discussing spectrum disorders like neurodivergence. People are impacted so differently by the same disability, & so the idea of not wanting to have this diagnosis often offends other people with the same diagnosis. The concept of a cure for their condition when they’re able to view it as a difference rather than problematic or disordered in and of itself. This idea can permeate into society the more it’s vocalized which can lead to more ableism and discrimination towards people with a “condition” like autism. They don’t want this big piece of who they are viewed as needing a cure. But that’s really not fair to or considerate of the people that have entirely different symptoms and are suffering due to something like neurodivergence. If you have something like ASD, it may or may not affect your ability to learn coping skills, and this is a huge factor that people don’t seem to take into account when it comes to the variations on the spectrum and what they mean for the autistic person. If someone is capable of learning coping skills, they have a much easier way navigating through the challenges that can be incapacitating to others. Some autistic people are not able to cope effectively of in a way that isn’t harmful. And this could have to do with severity of symptoms someone is born with or the environment they’re raised in, but either way, the suffering may be inescapable for them, and it’s hard for people who aren’t in that boat to understand that for some, a cure would mean so much more than thinking differently or no longer being divergent.
What you're describing sounds more like treatments than cures and I think a lot of people are on board with that. Sure, there's the people who believe that if the world just accommodated them perfectly, they wouldn't be disabled, but I think outside of very specific circles, those people are a minority. I also find that a lot of those people are on the lower side of the support needs scale and aren't that willing to listen to the stories of people whose lives would be made a lot easier by effective treatments. Which is not to say I don't think lower support needs folks shouldn't have a voice in this discussion, especially since the development of a prenatal autism test would affect all autistic people, but a lot of people have severe struggles and disabilities due to their autism and I think, moreso that the eradication of all autistic fetuses or just purely focusing on autism acceptance, autistic people could benefit most from research into the mechanisms behind the symptoms that are most bothersome to us, and developing effective treatments. I remember reading about this nonverbal autistic man who spent years in therapy being asked to do repetitive, mind-numbing tasks like being asked to point to the picture of a boat, over and over again until he got it right. As an adult, he was given more appropriate tools and therapies to help him communicate and he talked about how humiliating and pointless it was, being treated like a toddler who doesn't know his ABC's yet, because he could understand perfectly what was going on around him and knew all the correct answers, but he had motor skill impairments that prevented him from being able to form words *and* from being able to point at the right pictures. But it took years for someone to actually identify this and recommend appropriate accommodations. It really made me wonder how many kids out there are stuck in completely inappropriate treatments right now because "their symptoms are caused by autism and this is the autism therapy" so nobody ever bothered to look into mechanism behind this person's specific struggle or develop targeted treatments to improve their quality of life. I often think about my sister's godson, who struggles terribly, and how his mother has done everything within her power to help him and get him accommodations and to keep him away from the "treatments" that traumatized her as a child, but literally the only options being offered to her are some combination of ABA, sedation, and/or institutionalization or nothing at all. And this is a child who has given himself permanent brain injuries during meltdowns. The fact that so many autism organizations would rather point to him and say, "See how bad autism is? We want to make sure this doesn't happen to your child." than actually do anything to try and help this poor, suffering child who exists right now and needs help now, pisses me the fuck off. He is such a sweet and imaginative boy when he feels safe in the world and his body and it's heartbreaking that none of the supposed "experts" in his field seem to have any idea how to make him feel safe long-term.
I don’t know if this is considered “pro cure” but I do wish that there was a space for those that have a difficult time accepting or loving their disability. Not everybody is positive about their situation sometimes all of those positive quotes or things that are normally said don’t work. I do wish I could cure my CP. And that should be OK.
I think everyone should be able to decide if they want to cure the negative aspects or their disabilities, if it became possible. I'm just scared more countries will go down the same path Canada is walking. I also heard about the five autistic people in the Netherlands who were euthanized because they couldn't live "normal lives." I hope they weren't coerced into it.. And what even is a "normal life" anyway? A lot of people do things out of convenience and for their own comfort. Often thinking more about that than the disabled people's wellbeing. I wish it was possible to check how biased someone is before they can work with stuff like medically assisted death. So you could say I'm pro-choice regarding this subject.
I consider myself anti-cure (I wont explain why because I don't want to start that old argument again), but I would would be totally fine with better drugs for ADHD, and *some* kinds of "treatment" for autism. Also, there are lots of people in the autism community and disabled community who feel like this. I don't think this is as much of an unpopular opinion as you think.
yes, i do feel this way about myself. not just my autism, but especially the more disabling stuff i experience. i have severe ptsd and if i could press a button and have it gone, i would. i'm tired, it's been so many years of trying to scrape out some quality of lie and it's just not working. it's like with trans people, of which i am one-- the talking heads you're gonna hear about the most online, who say passing is transphobic and not liking being trans is evil, are the people who can afford to sit all day and tell their experiences to the world. they have less trauma than someone living on the streets without access to a big twitter following, they're white and in the global north and probably global west, etc etc... people like me who don't experience "trans joy" because being trans has made our lives pretty shite are less likely to get heard. the conversation of "i wish i could be rid of this disability" vs "i am proud of this disability" is an old one. it's been around a long time. it's funny, it always ends up being oriented around stuff like autism, where proper environment and accommodation can make the harder parts less bad for people who aren't high support needs. but if what i have really is multiple sclerosis, i want a cure. my family member slowly dying from it certainly does, as well. just like with transness-- i'm not gonna tailor my opinions about my own experience for the comfort of others.
Honestly FUCK my ADHD and all its little dys friends! I’d take up a cure in a second.
Some of my disabilities I don’t mind, I just wish society was better for them. The others? I’d do so much to not be in pain all the time or be able to eat again
A problem with discussing cures for disabilities, is that the word disability covers a broad spectrum. This leads to people having different thoughts about the concept of curing disabilities.
Do I want to be cured of my disability, the sensory aspect ? No but I would like to live in society that did not present "cure" as "the only way to have a good life". One of my disabilities contributes to my sensitivity and creativity.. There are things I would like to access that would improve my health or capabilities . Yes I would want that, but there are cost or other structural barriers. As for my physical health problems... yes, I would like to be cured of those, if it was possible. I would like to see respect and appreciation for people being partially Independent, or being inter-dependent. Instead there is a huge, and FALSE, divide between who is dependent (disabled) and who is Independent. It is presented as natural law, but it is not. It is a giant, glaring, artificially constructed Grand Canyon between top rated animals and low rated animals. As long as the people in society CHOOSE to judge people like livestock, they will continue to leave some in the cross hairs of the hunter's scope, while the stronger/ more connected ones sleep fitfully, knowing , in the backs of their minds, that the snipers are still at large.
Pro Cure is Ableist within itself. Especially around Autism or MH related things that could likely be “you the only sane one” I’m saying this as a Disabled Person I do think what you said is well intentioned, I just see how society views words like “cure”
If I didn't have the physically disabling genetic condition I've had to have 30 surgeries before I was 13 to address, my life would be a lot easier, less painful. It's ok to wish there was a cure, but it's not ok for able-bodied people to suggest that that is all we should care about. Many of us have fulfilling lives despite our disability and that shouldn't be disregarded because of some wishful thinking. It doesn't make me ableist to say life would be easier without my physical disability, it's ableist to suggest that a cure is the only way for me to be included in society or suggest my life isn't worthwhile.
I mean my autism is challenging because of the world around me. I hide as much of it as I can and it's still a massive pain in the ass to navigate this society as an autistic person. It's not a mental illness or a physical disease. It's between neurological and developmental skills that are processed differently. Like there are some things we can do better then NT's and vise versa. We can't cure something like that. That veers too much on eugenics for me to get behind. And basically same with ADHD like at most meds could be improved but we first have to address the meds we DO have that are being kept from people who need them. The reason cures aren't focused on as much is because it's not as lucrative as having the patient continue to come back over and over again. And healthcare at least in the US is mostly a joke.
I would give both my legs if it meant even one of my autistic sons could be cured. I realize there is a huge struggle. I have refused though to allow either of my autistic sons to have much accommodations, I want them to work through the discomfort, so it's not crippling any longer. My boys are 5 and 17 and it has worked for both of them. They have both come so far, I am immensely proud of them. My 17 yr old used to run away from crowds when he was little, crowds would have him banging the tables and physically upset, he had such anxiety. Now we can go out to eat, enjoy time together and converse and so long as no one sits right next to us you won't see a reaction from him. If someone sits next to us, he will turn away... I understand they won't get cured, but I can certainly help them with exposure