"There is no known cure for Neurotypical Syndrome." | Hacker News Reader

"There is no known cure for Neurotypical Syndrome."

isnt.autistics.org

54 pointsasciilifeform29 comments

My brain is a jewel. I am in awe of the mind that I have. I and my experience of life is not inferior, and may be superior, to the NT experience of life.

Amen. Too many people try to victimize their situation by labeling themselves with a disorder rather than embrace their unique condition and work with it, especially when it comes to neurological "disorders"

Can't focus? I must be ADHD.

Lacking social abilities? I must have Aspergers.

Fear of your own thoughts? I'm OCD.

Haven't learned how to manage worry? Generalized Anxiety.

Can't manage your emotions? Bipolar or manic.

I'm not saying there aren't legitimate (serious) cases of people with neurological conditions, but in my own personal experience, things like "Generalized Anxiety" and "ADHD" are the result of years of habits and personal choices that have become automatic and subconscious behavioral tendencies. However, they can be unlearned and they can be worked around.

The person who taught my abnormal psych course (not quite professor at the time, but very nearly at that point) said that in order to qualify to be diagnosed with any mental disorder, one must meet the qualifications laid out in the DSM and it must materially and negatively impact your life.

We're all paranoid, narcissistic, phobic, etc. to one extent or another, but it's only if it's a problem that you should be diagnosed.

News reports, being written as they are by non-psychologists and people who have not taken this class, tend to miss this.

(I'm not a psychologist either, but I feel pretty comfortable with sharing this information; it's pretty basic stuff.)

Keep in mind also, the legal drug pushers spend incredible amounts of money in order to get people to self-associate with these disorders. They define them, market them, and sell the antidote.

...and the antidote helps. That's kind of important.

Some drugs help certain symptoms, but this usually comes with side-effects, which may help sell more drugs or create other, worse problems. The drug companies sometimes even admit that they don't know how the drugs work -- how can you be so sure you're fixing the brain, if nobody yet knows exactly how the brain works?

These disorders and syndromes have some purpose that is not fully understood today ... I believe the point of the Neurotypical page is to open eyes that some atypicalities should not necessarily be seen as negative.

how can you be so sure you're fixing the brain, if nobody yet knows exactly how the brain works

Because it helps me function better, I will keep taking it. Nobody said it's going to 'fix' my brain. I'm OK with just treating the symptoms if all-said I'm doing better than without the drugs.

My brain is a jewel.

I agree with the idea that all human beings are precious and all deserve to be treated with dignity.

But is the statement here that everyone's brain is as good as everyone else's brain, or do the various jewels differ in rarity and differ in appropriateness for particular settings?

There are different qualities of jewels and brains. But there are no brains which are not totally awesome.

All brains are awesome. But not all people are any more awesome than average.

99% of people are not in the top percentile.

I think the point is that people with autistic spectrum "disorders" are often, in many ways, far more totally awesome than average.

Awesome!

Every strength is also a weakness, and (almost) every weakness is also a strength.

I couldn't agree more...

When I first read this article --- and that was quite a while ago --- it was fuel for the fire of my false identity. I considered myself a hacker, a nerd, a geek, a genius --- I didn't care for "normal" people, and didn't care about their opinions of me. In fact, being a loner just solidified my geek cred.

Being a false identity, this made me miserable and greatly impaired me --- and as I have discovered my naturally gregarious self, my happiness and performance have skyrocketed. Now, the intent of this article is a defense of people with non-neurotypical neural patterns, and I think there is a lot of merit in that. But I worry about somebody misapplying the message as I did (and suffering therefore). So please, if you feel this article fueling a fire within you, I beseech you to take a few steps back. Creating a business that does something great for humanity does not require geek cred.

Those interested in the concept of neurodiversity might want to check out Create Your Own Economy (http://www.amazon.com/Create-Your-Own-Economy-Prosperity/dp/...). The title is slightly misleading in that that book is more about the autism spectrum, neurodiversity, and a bit about how it might impact the way business are run and how they define their audience (I am guessing the last part will be of special interest to this community).

Tyler Cowen also has a very interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education - http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i41/41cowenautism.htm

Just a remark; the site is joke (quite to the point, IMHO). The author(s?) state it clearly:

The articles on this website describe the neurotypical - "normal" - person as if they are diseased. This is not because the authors of this site think NTs are diseased. This is to illustrate the way that, by selecting and twisting the facts, medical researchers can portray autistics, who have a difference with positive as well as negative attributes, as defective individuals and genetic mistakes.

Just a remark; the site is joke

Not quite. The site is "ha ha only serious"; it's intended to convey a real and important message.

More like "ha ha only serious p.s. screw you." Check out the quiz. =(

This kind of gives it away:

"Tragically, as many as 9625 out of every 10,000 individuals may be neurotypical."

Take a look at the infection rates for HSV-1. 80%–90% of the general public affected doesn't mean it's not a disease.

How about the name of the disease? Neurotypical? Doesn't take too long to figure that one out.

I thought aspies didn't do jokes? (I'm joking :-)

Not a bad article. But the article summary on HN is pretty much a lie; I'm pretty sure you can cure NS with various techniques, including blunt-force-trauma to the cranial region.

> blunt-force-trauma to the cranial region

All you'd get is a stupider NS sufferer.

The adverse social effects of NS victims could be mitigated by cranial trauma in four ways:

* Temporary cessation of harmful behavior due to incapacitation

* Operant conditioning

* Permanent reduction in the sophistication and scope of harmful behavior the individual may engage in due to reduction in mental capacity via physical damage to the brain

* Permanent cessation of harmful behavior due to termination of life processes

This reminds me of the wonderful article http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200303/rauch (Caring for your Introvert) and the whole discussion of "what is normal, exactly?".

patting yourself on the back for engaging in behaviors inimical to your continued survival seems stupid. I realize that people with mental disorders don't like being kept around basically as pets (I know this is highly offensive, but examine the emotional structures of families with a disabled member), but this response seems like a baseless self esteem pump.

"Understanding Neurotypicality" is an even better essay; the original page is gone: but somebody copied the text here: http://asperger.tribe.net/thread/8725f112-ca77-4a8a-be19-38f...

I went to the online test http://isnt.autistics.org/ntscreening.html

But instead of filling it in, I submitted it blank, to see if it would still work without an email address (which I'd prefer not to give).

It returned 404 Not Found http://isnt.autistics.org/cgi-exec/test/test.cgi

But, somehow, I think that my actions may be sufficient for some sort of diagnosis...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com