#cureautism

Autistic people who have extreme behaviors and can’t be left alone for more than a few seconds.

Autistic people who need diapers.

Autistic people who can’t feed or clothe themselves.

Autistic people who are very aggressive or very self-injurious.

Autistic people with comorbid conditions that complicate their behaviors.

Where is their choice? When do they get a say in their lives? Who listens to them. Clearly not YOU, caregivers.

Caregivers wanting to get rid of autism want to get rid of the “burden” of having to take care of somebody. If they have complex comorbid conditions, they will still be there and they will still feel miserable. You’re not going to cure their pain by curing autism.

What the world needs is better, more affordable respite care for autistic people who need it.

Create better in-home care for autistic people who need 2 to 1 and 3 to 1 support.

Create better in-home care for autistic people with complex medical needs that require nursing care.

Autistic people who have their needs met have less behavior issues and are more open to learning more understandable communication methods like typing on iPads, ASL, PECS boards, facilitated communication and just pointing to yes or no.

This book details the association between the sunlight and Autism. It lists down sunlight’s impact on a human brain development, regulation and critical functioning. It explains how sunlight can be used to reduce the severity of Autistic symptoms. These include disturbed sleep, tantrums, self-harm, repetitive and other stereotypical Autistic behaviours.

Time to crowd the bullshit out with autistic voices...

[Gif of the 12th Doctor (Doctor Who) making a funny face as he dramatically pulls the main lever in the TARDIS.]

Saying you want to #cureautism means you ignore autistic voices.

Saying you want to #cureautism means you support erasure.

Saying you want to #cureautism makes you sound like every eugenicist in history. How about we #cureableism instead?

Saying you want to #cureautism makes you a very nasty, gross person who doesn't love their child.

Saying you want to #cureautism means you think autistic lives aren't worth living.

Saying you want to #cureautism means you want to destroy another human being and replace them with somebody else. 

[Autism does not cause people to suffer. Rejection causes suffering. Lack of supports and accommodations cause suffering. An absence of love and acceptance causes suffering. The intolerant majority causes Autistic people to suffer. --facebook.com/ParentingAutisticChildrenWithLoveAcceptance]

[Autism is NOT a disease. Don’t try to cure us, try to understand us.]

[At its heart, the neurodiversity movement is about fighting for respect and dignity for all neurodivergent people, including autistic people, in a society that does neither of those things. --Naomi from Respectfully Connected.]

In a perfect world, there would be no harm in wishing for a cure. If one were found, those who wanted it could access it, and those who didn't would be accepted and have that choice respected.

But we don't live in a perfect world. If a cure for autism were found it would be forced onto unwilling people. To fix the undesirables of society. This already more or less happens, except that the methods don't actually cure anything. ABA, shock therapy, we see things used to violently suppress minorities, to traumatize them into conforming. This is the kind of thing you're unknowingly promoting with your cure rhetoric.

This person was going on about Tumblr and the "special snowflakes," the way that the world hates Tumblr and views the people on here as overly sensitive, special sjw types. That mental illness is romanticized and that no one should embrace their disorder.

Trying to deligitimize the argument against cures, trying to paint an entire group of people with broad strokes based on personal experience. Completely ignoring the reason behind these arguments. People don't want a cure because that won't change the way you're treated. You're horrible experiences won't be erased. You'll still carry that trauma.

People will still hate autistic people, but now they'll have a "justifiable" way to express it. They're "helping" autistic people because no one would /want/ to be autistic right? If you do there's something wrong with you and that's all the more reason to cure you!

The argument against a cure is an argument for destigmatization. Focusing your energy on a cure won't prevent others from going through the pain that you did. But teaching people about autism, about neurodivergence and just difference in general, our society will gradually move towards being more accepting, more compassionate. There will always be bigots but if we show them that they are the odd ones out, reprimand people for their shitty behavior, make /them/ feel ashamed for their behavior instead of putting the blame on minorities, and we'll start to see this shit less and less.