Opra? Autism? What about us?

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I just saw an episode of Opra where she talked about Autism but what about Aspergers? I get the feeling nobody's talking about Aspergers and not just on talk shows, I might just not be keeping up on Aspergers but I constantly see things for Autism and not Aspergers.

Oh, great. Then we can have wonderful things like hate sites, misrepresentation, and idiots trying to "cure" us. Sorry, but I'm a bit skeptical about the value of public attention.

Yes things tend to get very misrepresented, especially on chat shows. So it's mostly good that it isn't being discussed.

It's probably that Aspergers is not as "extreme" as full-on autism, so it wouldn't make for very good TV viewing, especially since people with Aspergers seem mostly okay, just a little awkward. Also for autism they can get autistic children and work the "cute" sympathy angle whereas Aspergers has more of an effect when you are older (I would think) so they can't do that.

I do see some stuff about Aspergers though! And what with House (he's just a jerk though right? ha ha) some people will probably want to look up stuff about it maybe.

edit: repetitionnnn

'Twas an episode of "House" that inspired me to look up Asperger and then find myself! Only show I am addicted to. Go House!

I would actually prefer that Oprah not do a show about AS, as she would probably dress it up somehow to make it more interesting for ratings.

NT's think in order to raise money (under the guise of awareness) they need to make autism as extreme as possible. If they show people on the spectrum as competent and successful then HOW are they going to scare people with the 1 in 150 numbers. It seems intellectually dishonest though to only show one segment of the autism community - and claim that IS representative of everyone. Especially considering they do not have any adults - which would also contradict their message that this is something "new" brought about by vaccines.

However, I wouldn't be terribly alarmed over a special on Discovery that takes the Aspergean condition more as a curiosity than as an affliction. This is really more what the aspie actually is, in spite of this condition being debilitative for some. Crazy as it may sound, I'd rather be looked at as a bug under a microscope than anything else.