Has anyone been called Rain Man before like me?

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Rain. Rain. Go away. Don't ever come again any other day. Enough of this Rain Man stuff. Rain Man doesn't define autism.

Spoilers Alert:
As dated as that version of Autism is at the end Rain Man's brother accepts and advocates for him, we are still struggling to gain acceptance.

The film "diagnosed" him as autistic. Only in the last year have media representations gotten to defining its characters with Autistic traits as Autistic on any sort of regular bases.

Is it really better now that almost every autism representation is a genius?

That seemingly very autistic representation is a savant such as "Rain Man" is not the fault people who created and acted in the movies.

The movie was really well acted.

The film has been credited with gaining recognition for "high functioning" autism. Very possibly without "Rain Man" a lot of you would never have been diagnosed or suspect an ASD

I embrace my inner "Rain Man".

No, I have never been called Rain Man

I was familiar with Rain Man since about the time it came out, and I have never identified with him at all.

RainMan is not high functioning by today's criteria. He was seen as high functioning at the time before the DSM IV diagnoses of HFA and AS officially existed.

I know that. I just thought it was ironic; Ran MAN and I’m a woman.

Not me on either count. I have no "inner Rain Man" because I have very little in common with what was portrayed in that movie. His functioning actually seemed very low to me. He had very, very impaired social functioning.

And that too is why it wasn't this movie that made me suspect my own ASD, again precisely because I saw nothing of him in myself when I saw that movie.

My own suspicions came around a whopping 18 years later because of a completely different series of events. (And no, not "Sheldon," I'm nothing like him, either.)

He is not high functioning by today's standards but his getting upset by changes in routines, taking things literally and stiff gait is me to a much much higher degree. I have learned to grudgingly accept changes in routines and I have learned to not take some things literally but it is still my natural inclination.

Apparently Rain Man had all those mathematical skills, but wasn't aware that he was autistic. When he was asked if he was autistic he said he didn't think so.

I think it's important that those of us affected by ASD in some form or another, be aware of the influence of Hollywood as it exists on the public persona. The stereotypes, movies like Rain Man and name-calling that can happen as a result of Hollywood's attempts to explain the inexplicable are something we all need to be aware of. The more we network about such movies and public perceptions, the less we appear as handicapped in the eyes of the NTs we must endure.

For me, to see another man depicted somewhat accurately but granted with a Hollywood twist of course, with another type of extreme form of ASD, was reassuring that my situation could be worse. As worse as my situation is, it has not been easy not by any stretch of the imagination so I could find some comfort that I could be Savant instead of Aspie.

Just imagine what a Savant's life could be like? FAR more debilitating. As Aspies, at least most of us can live on our own and some here have even started families I've read. Even those milestones that are considering mundane and common are still beyond my grasp, but at least I can live on my own and have SOME independence. Although to be fair, I haven't really mastered this altogether and it has been excruciating at times.

Here's a bit more on Rain Man's Savant-ism for everyone to peruse.
https://spectrumnews.org/features/deep- ... nd-autism/