To cure or not to cure?

Whilst surfing the web the other day I suddenly remembered an article in the papers from about a year ago (an amazing thing memory, contains lots of interesting things as well as huge amounts of utter rubbish).  This particular article highlighted ‘new’ research into the possibility of the hormone oxytocin being used to treat and potentially ‘cure’ Aspergers. I use the word cure for lack of a better one. I am well aware that Aspergers is not an illness and so cannot technically be ‘cured’, but hey, who actually reads this crap anyway. Oxytocin is essentially a hormone that makes us social and plays an important role in the development of relationships (all scientific evidence can be found here if you are interested: www.researchautism.net. Someone apparently noticed that these are areas where Aspies are lacking and so thought that it might help and kudos to them for trying.

Anyway, as I was saying before I got distracted by that little bit of info, I suddenly decided to check out what was happening with that piece of research and stumbled upon their site. They were still looking for volunteers and that got me to thinking. Should I volunteer? There are good reasons why I should. It would help develop treatments for Aspergers, or at least to alleviate some of the more unpleasant aspects of it. I would not just be helping myself but others too. However, I also perceived some valid reasons why I wouldn’t, chiefly that the whole experience would involve a great deal of suffering and anxiety without providing known odds of success and more importantly whether or not success would be that much of a good thing. What they seem to be trying to achieve is a spray that provide fairly temporary effects. What good is being socially interested for short periods of time, when I will be petrified/anxious/bored most of the time. I could get myself into all kinds of unpleasant situations (I can see it as being similar to the effects of alcohol: overconfidence x stupidity = awkwardness, regret and trouble). If things start to get unbearable, then it may become an option, but, for the moment at least, I am happy the way I am.

The site that I am referring to can be found here:

http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/volunteers/default.asp