Aspies in the media that AREN'T a***holes?

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Often on tv you get an insensitive jerk who, instead of having trouble with showing empathy, actually DOES NOT CARE. There are so many diagnosed jerks at my school too. I think the reason why it took me 12 years to get diagnosed is that I'm not an a***hole, and apparently everyone where I live thinks Aspies=a***holes. Are there any shows or movies where the aspies are actually NICE?

It is really sad when someone lacks empathy. I've even seen people here say that they just "pretend" to have empathy. Which is also sad.
It is not hard to understand tragedy for me. I admit I have my moments of not showing much empathy but overall I have shown a great deal. I think some people use aspergers (and other things) as an excuse for not having empathy - not everyone but I have heard a few people say "I don't have empathy because I'm a real aspie. "

I don't know of any movies or shows like you'Relog looking for but am interested to find some too.

People with Asperger's Syndrome have less empathy than others, and sometimes have trouble picking up on other people's emotions, however, they are by no means completely devoid of it. It really irks me when people fail to grasp that simple distinction.

The actor that plays Spencer Reid in Criminal minds has said that his character has Aspergers. He's far from being an a***hole.

I've done some scriptwriting and the problem with the media is that for a character to be "clear" to your average audience, you need to exaggerate traits. A character who has some maybe unpleasant Aspie traits but is in fact rather nice and maybe even more functional and intelligent in some ways than NTs might be lost on NT audiences.

What about fictional characters, that could arguably be Aspies, but are lovable because they are kinda a***holes? I don't think House, Sherlock Holmes or Sheldon (from the big bang theory) would be half any entertaining if they weren't disengaging with other characters. And those characters have still been shown to care.

Its a shame but alot of telly is based on stereotypes, usually with some sort of quirk or exageration, because thats waht people like-stuff they already know with the tiniest change to make it seem brand new. I'm not completely condeming this, its my guilty pleasure Like Criminal Minds-its a crime show BUt they catch criminals by getting into their heads. . . Or CSi-catch criminals by looking at forensic science. . . I could go on, I love this stuff

In order to get an official diagnosis, your condition has to be limiting or disabling you somehow. It is possible that you are well adjusted, at least as an aspie and therefore had a hard time getting diagnosed or recognized. Personally I am constantly using adapted behavior to survive in neurotypical interactions, so it's been somewhat hard for me to get a diagnosis. I took a few aspie tests that were positive indicators of aspergers, but the adaptions I've formed have the function of a wall for me. I've adapted so well, though still not quite good enough, that most people expect me to be neurotypical and arrive at neurotypical conclusions and understand things the way they do. After taking the aspie tests, I went to a psychiatrist, a social worker, and my regular doc and they responded as follows...

psychiatrist ~ "many tests must be done, I'll test you for everything else first, and get you nice and drugged up in the mean time"

social worker ~ "you are socially stunted because your personality is underdeveloped"

reg. doc. ~ "you are too smart, don't have a problem with eye contact and you talk too much"

The problem here being that I have too much of an interest in medicine and read too much. Since doctors like to have discussions based on the exchange information and I do too, I seem like an introvert to them. They are interesting minds and are full of knowledge and my thirst for info, good discussion, and my inherent trust of doctors for most things is makes them easily approachable, not to mention their bedside manner... we get along, they don't see how terrifying it is to walk up to someone I don't know and get a date or make a friend. That is where I "scream," "reek," and "seeth" aspie from my very core and I can only imagine that the people I've met are saying to themselves "wow I just a met a talking chihuahua!"

On top of self correcting, I was self medicating with nutraceuticals to reduce anxieties and asocial behavior and realizing that so many of them had been been indicated for the treatment of aspergers, I started looking into aspergers...

Hey! I think you just solved the mystery for me as to why it took so damned long to get a doctor to take me seriously! You mean all this time all I had to do was be an a***hole?!

Many people who find out about me having Asperger's say, "you don't seem like that much of an as*hole to me". I hate how a lot of people think that Asperger's automatically means being an a-hole.

In that situation, I would be very tempted to act like an Ass-pie and say "Thanks, for someone who isn't on the spectrum, you seem relatively honest and only slightly manipulative."

Mozart and the whale?

Adam?

My mom is one of those people who thinks AS means being an as*hole. She thinks lot of people with it are jerks because of their condition makes them not understand what they are saying wrong so they think 'too bad" when they see they had hurt someone's feelings. Uh that sounds like she got AS mixed up with as*hole. An as*hole would act that way. An aspie who isn't one would be upset and be concerned about what they did wrong and why that person is upset. They would not think "too bad" and not care. If they do, they are just being an as*hole. Nothing to do with AS.

Well put. That is basically the story of my diagnosis; it took seven years before they even started suspecting AS and another two before I was given my final diagnosis. It has been hard not getting all bitter over this, because I lost so many years completely zombiefied on antidepressivies. At least they got it right in the end.

Ah, but this thread was about fictional aspieas that aren´t a***holes, right?
Hmm... There´s a swedish film titled I Rymden Finns Inga Känslor (In Space There Are No Feelings) which tells the story of a teenage aspie. Although the protagonist is very exaggerated (he has all, and I mean ALL, AS traits to the fullest) he is quite sympathetic.
I don´t think you´ll be able to find it outside of Sweden though.

That's not quite true. Empathy cannot not be quantified in autistic people as autistic people do not have balanced empathy like most people. Empathy is a collective term for cognitive and affective empathy, were autistic people tend to have less of the former and more of the latter. For all I know the distinction between the forms of empathy was created for dealing with autistic people, and possibly narsists and psychopaths, who follow the opposite pattern.