• Question: will you be able to ever change add and Asperger's

    Asked by 866nepk28 to Ed, Kerrianne, Nina, Oli, yoyehudi on 14 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 14 Nov 2017:

      I think that “cures” for these conditions are a long way off, and in fact, I’m not sure that we should be trying too hard to cure them anyway, as that would suggest that they are completely negative conditions. In both cases, many people exhibit some of the “symptoms” or personality traits associated with these conditions, and they form part of those people’s personalities – they make them who they are. This can be a positive thing!

      Personally I think that society (that’s you, me, everyone else) needs to do a better job of accommodating people who are a little different from average, and not make such differences a purely medical matter.

    • Photo: Ed Bracey

      Ed Bracey answered on 14 Nov 2017:

      There was a great show on the BBC about this recently with one of my childhood heroes, Chris Packham, who has Aspergers.
      Totally worth a watch!
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09b1zbb/ad/chris-packham-aspergers-and-me
      It covers some of the techniques that some people are trying to use to make people with Asperger’s “normal”.
      But I strongly disagree with what they’re doing. No-one’s normal!
      So I fully agree with Theo!
      Society should change and become more understanding, not people with Aspergers.

    • Photo: Oli Wilson

      Oli Wilson answered on 15 Nov 2017:

      I think the points the others have made about Asperger’s also apply well to ADD (and ADHD, which ADD is a form of) – change shouldn’t just be the responsibility of the person with the condition, because it’s also up to the rest of us to make situations as helpful as possible to other people. I actually think many schools are very good at this, and the things they put in place for students with SEN are often excellent – universities, jobs and the rest of the world is going to have to go quickly to catch up!
      But to answer your question, ADHD can actually be changed already – the NHS website has useful pages on treating it (with drugs and therapy), as well as helping people to live well with ADHD. (You can see them here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/treatment/ and https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/living-with/) This is probably important while the rest of the world is sorting itself out to make it a friendlier place for people with a different kind of normal 🙂

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