Would you take a magic pill to permanently transform into an NT?

[Full Steam]

Twisted ASD moment... Give the NT's the red pill and they become like us... Sorry I had to throw that in there... There would suddenly be a lot of freaked out individuals roaming our planet... Imagine suddenly going from NT to suddenly everything over stimulated and not really even knowing how to explain it.

That would be great.

I'd get a job as a councillor "calm down its just a clothing label ya big baby."

It would be like a zombie apocalypse as NTs started melting down all over the place without the mental strength and skills to handle them.

 

[Chance]

That would be great.

I'd get a job as a councillor "calm down its just a clothing label ya big baby."

It would be like a zombie apocalypse as NTs started melting down all over the place without the mental strength and skills to handle them.

If they could live a month (or even one bad day) in our shoes... They might have a whole different view on how blessed they are to not have to fight the battles we face every freaking day.

 

[Lia]

if it meant that I'd still be me but with better social skills and less sensory issues then I don't see why not.

 

[SunnyDay16]

I don't think I would.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

What other pills have you got?

 

[Beguiling Orbit]

Update: Still not a single "yes" vote. It's like the beginning of a movement!

 

[OlLiE]

how would i feel:

beeeeh beeeeh beeeehhh
welcome to the herd, now run along

 

[Ragnahawk]

This question obviously only applies to members who are on the autistic spectrum.

Many people on the autistic spectrum like myself must wonder what it would be like to be NT, how would it actually feel? Well what if a full so called "cure" suddenly became available? In fact it could almost be like a Matrix scenario. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed as you are now. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and you wake up a true NT. Okay, it might not be this simple, but perhaps one day in the future autistic people will have the option to receive a treatment that makes them a true NT in every respect, a few experts claim to be close to achieving this now, although I'm very sceptical and it may not be a full transformation.

Remember that even though being NT might have it's advantages, you could also lose some of your intelligence. You might not be as good at or as interested in a particular special interest any more, but what if this is an important part of your job? Perhaps you would feel like taking up a number of interests instead without taking any of them to obsess. Maybe if you're currently out of a job being an NT could make obtaining work easier, but while still unemployed you could find your welfare benefits cut. You would most probably become much better in social situations, your confidence would increase and if you were single it may even greatly increase your chances of finding a partner. What's more if you suffered from anxiety before this could be greatly relieved as well as any sensory issues and if the fear of change used to upset you it probably wouldn't have close to as much impact now. In fact you might be really happy not to have to cope with many autistic traits any more, but how would your dramatic change affect other people around you? How would your family feel? Perhaps you already have a partner who loves you exactly the way you are? Even if you truly believed that becoming an NT would be greatly beneficial to your life, would you take the chance? Perhaps you'd still prefer to stay the way you are?

PS: I only found a similar thread way back in 2015 without a poll here and obviously since then a lot of members have changed, I apologise if this has also been asked more recently.

The experts that claim they are close to changing someone into an NT sounds like autism speaks. - There is a very dangerous trend of people using a title (like experts) only to obtain glory or achievements (or even gain money). Can people with such a weak motivation achieve great things or are they a ticking bomb waiting for the first tiny bump in their plans to explode? I think that people like that only get away with small achievements. I have to wonder who these experts are...

 

[Ragnahawk]

Becoming an NT would not be a solution to all of my problems. Why not just continue to move forwards and see if I can succeed. If I still lose I win in that I can write about it so someone else can win.

 

[Nervous Rex]

I would be afraid to take the pill. I have so much sunk cost into learning how to deal with the world in the way that I do, I don't want all that effort to go to waste and have to learn everything all over. I also would be afraid that all my marketable skills would disappear.

If the pill was temporary I might take it during a vacation, just to see how the other side lives. It would be interesting to be able to read faces, understand others, feel emotions at a moderate level, make small talk, and actually know how to socialize (I'm putting a lot into this fantasy pill, but hey, it's my fantasy). But then I'm sure I wouldn't "feel like me" and would want to go back to the strengths and weaknesses I know.

On a serious note, research has identified some micromolecular differences between NT and ND brains, affecting gene expression. But if a pill normalized those, you'd still have the same brain structure and neural pathways, right? My guess is that even if that were the sole explanation and taking a pill eliminated that difference, it would still take at least as long as growing up from infant to adult for the ND brain to relearn how to be NT.

 

[megacomic]

Haha No. I may struggle socially but I excell in many other areas because of my hyperfocus. I can literally do anything I put my mind to at the cost of being socially awkward.

 

[DiegoB]

I would take it, it should not be forgotten that mental illnesses are not nice. I speak from experience: I have had a deep depression for not being able to relate as I wanted ... it's good to be a little intelligent but ... I do not know. Maybe I would take it at age 30 when I have already made my life and do not need more of the advantages of being an Aspie.

 

[Bella Pines]

Hell no. Neither am I inclined to crawl around the floor and bleat like a sheep.

 

[Progster]

Update: Still not a single "yes" vote. It's like the beginning of a movement!View attachment 42452

Perhaps someone should send these results (and the whole thread!) to Autism Speaks, then they might finally get the message.

 

[pjcnet]

Perhaps someone should send these results (and the whole thread!) to Autism Speaks, then they might finally get the message.

Excellent idea, lets actually do it, we only need to send an email to them with a link.

PS: I expected a lot less "Yes" results, but I didn't think it would be this low (there is just 1 "Yes" vote now which is still only just over 2%, with 37 "No" votes and 9 "Not sure" at the time of writing).

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Excellent idea, lets actually do it, we only need to send an email to them with a link.

PS: I expected a lot less "Yes" results, but I didn't think it would be this low.

Organisations only 'see' what their sources of funding allow them to.

Anything that threatens that will be hard for them to publically support.

 

[WereBear]

Autism Speaks had a lot of money poured into it and a mission to "cure" people of autism. Which is looking more impossible every day, as it is a complex set of genetics that does re-wire our brains. It likes having the goal of turning a Prius into a commercial dishwasher.

 

[Pondering]

I totally understand why many aspies would not want a 'cure'. I would choose the cure just because having Asperger's has locked many doors of opportunity to me. I really don't think a cure would make me 'normal' because my personality is anything but normal anyway. I feel that Asperger's really prevents me from being able to sympathize with other people when I desperately want to, and I hate seeing people's pain when I suspect that they believe that I don't care, and when they truly need an emotionally supportive friend. I can't be that emotionally supportive friend. And I know it's not my fault. But it still makes me feel bad. Because if I had NT capabilities, I wouldn't unintentionally emotionally hurt the people involved in my life so often. I feel so deeply and so intensely, and none of it ever naturally appears on my face. I wish people could enjoy my positive reactions to words and events. Also, I'm passionate about music, but I lack the motor skills to play the simplest instruments. Although, I must admit, if I was NT, I probably wouldn't have found this site and met all these amazing people.

 

[the_tortoise]

Do you think it is an ASC trait to take you as they find you, regardless of what anyone has said to them about you, and a NT trait to change their attitude towards you depending on the last person who's spoken to them about you? Or would you say these are individual differences, not necessarily distinguishable by neurotypicality and neurodiversity?

Individual differences, influenced more by experience than anything else (which skews things in favor of neurodiverse people, but as a sort of side effect rather than because of being neurodiverse. Neurotypical people who have significant experiences of being unfairly judged would be just as likely as neurodiverse people to take others as they find them, I think.)

 

[Riley]

I thought our situation was more like X-Men: The Last Stand. But, hey, that's just how I see it.

Honestly, even though I claim I'd take the cure in a heartbeat...I'm never entirely sure.