Do You Ever Feel Like Movies/TV Shows Depict Aspergers Far M

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Do you ever feel like less of an Aspie when you watch movies/Tv shows that depict people with Autism? Almost ever depiction of it I have seen is way more severe than I am. It makes me feel like I'm faking it or something.

Most TV shows have drunk the Kool Aid and bought into the Rain Man stereotype. If not that, the bought into Sheldon, from the Big Bang Theory stereotype. Screw Hollyweird! They’ve been listening to Jenny McCarthy and Autism $peaks and sucked up their propaganda.

Watching Rain Man as a child kind of scared me because I had so much in common with Dustin Hoffman's character. But made me feel thankful later that I didn't have such an extreme case of Autism. Savant-ism is pretty scary actually but has crazy advantages at the same time.

And I believe very strongly that "A Beautiful Mind" with Russell Crowe was more about a person with Asperger's Syndrome than Schizophrenia. Because during the 30s and 40s when John Nash was at Princeton, Autism was often diagnosed as schizophrenia.
In fact I've read that psychiatrists say Schizophrenia was often used as a wastebasket when they couldn't identify the mental illness properly.

Psychiatric Science has advanced considerably since then.

So seeing these two movies made me feel like I had a very mild case of Autism but still a very serious problem. It's quite a contradicting feeling isn't it?

Usually it's the opposite for me. Like I'm beyond hope. Here's the story of someone who's seriously f****d up, but still not as much as I am. What's the point of even getting out of bed.

I thought the same! I could only see autism in that character, apart from him hallucinationg a friend. I very much liked that film first time i saw it.

Graham Nash hallucinated a lot more than that one friend and his little daughter. He had delusions of being involved in whole nonexistent espionage campaign. Both the real Nash, and the character in the movie were clearly psychotic. Though the character as portrayed in the movie, and probably the real Nash, probably also had some autistic characteristics.

Absurd.

First off you're an "aspie", so if the character you're watching is id'd as being "autistic" then by definition they are more severe than you. "Autistic" usually mean "low functioning" unless otherwise specified. So unless the character is ID'd as being "high functioning autistic", or "mildly autistic", or "aspergers", they wouldn't be comparable to you by definition.

Second when TV shows do have an aspie character the character is rarely ID'd as such. Brick (in "The Middle") and Sheldon Leonard are never called "aspie" though both are clearly that.

There are rare shows in which characters are actually identified on the show as having aspergers. But even those shows are unrealistic because the characters invariably have each and every one of the text book laundery list of aspie traits (real aspies rarely have more than three out of seven of "Asperger characteristics"). So aspie characters ID'd as such come off as more severe than real aspies because they have every diagnostic bell and whistle (fear of being touched, meltdowns, obsessive interests, sensory issues, etc. Real aspies have some of each of those traits, but few have each and every one).

Well explained.

There was an Arthur episode that talked about Asperger's and has a character supposedly with Asperger's. He's made an appearance now and then but he seems more like some one with LF autism than Asperger's. The main character's BFF (Buster) and little sister (D.W.) seem more like people with Asperger's.

Another stereotype every fictional autistic character seems to have, aside from being male is they are all math prodigies. Whenever I see that, I usually just end up changing the channel. And why are they always obsessed with trains? Those two characters I mentioned that aren't Asperger's in the show, but really seem like it have obsessions. Buster is obsessed with aliens and D.W. is obsessed with her favorite TV show. But the character who has an actual diagnosis on the show is obsessed with you guessed it...trains.

The children's show "Arthur" came to mind when I saw this thread, the episode where Carl was introduced. He sounds more like a child with a severe case of autism, and was rather like a child version of Rain Man.

^THIS^

I would say he is moderate, rather than severe, but I’ve only seen what is available on YouTube.

Actually it was John Forbes Nash Jr. not Graham, and John Nash has maintained throughout his life right up until the day he died that he never actually saw in front of his eyes anything depicted in the movie. Particularly imaginary friends and scenarios of espionage as real Schizophrenics do.

As I mentioned above, I believe Mr. Nash's grossly incorrect diagnosis as Schizophrenia was actually Asperger's Syndrome and the scenarios we saw in the movie was actually his overactive imagination being displayed in typical Hollywood style. And as we all know, Autistics have very vivid and very real feeling imaginations.

I believe very strongly (and so did John Nash) that he didn't see any of that crap and he simply had a very good imagination.

But I think we're getting off topic here and I believe the original question was, "Do I feel like less of an Aspie when you watch movies and TV?"

The answer is yes sometimes I do when I think of characters like Rain Man and John Forbes Nash Jr. But I am glad that my Autism is less extreme than theirs. As bad as my situation feels I guess I can be thankful for that.

Graham Nash

- that was the folk rocker who was married Joni Mitchel and teamed up with Crosby, Stills, and Young.

Not the same Nash.

Caught only the tail end of a PBS doc about the John Nash actual life story that came out on the heels of the Russell Crowe movie.
So I don't know much about his real life story. But the movie portrays a schzo and not an aspie, even if he were an aspie in real life and not psychotic.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 30 Oct 2017, 7:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Me too. Characters depicted as on the autism spectrum usually have some sort of savant ability or useful skill, usually with math, technology, physics, etc, which I don't. It just kind of rubs in my face how useless I am.

I'm technically diagnosed with Asperger's, but I seem to not be as high functioning as many other Aspies.

Interesting. You quoted me and then said Graham Nash so I assumed you simply got the name wrong.

These two individuals Graham Nash and John Forbes Nash Jr. seem to have very similar problems and commonalities. Both were perceived to have Schizophrenia, one did and one did not or perhaps both are not who knows. But both also exhibit very strong Autistic traits. Interesting...

I've done some research on this Graham Nash person and there seem to be many similarities between your and my character. The last name of course too.