"Trendy" to have AS.

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People who think it's trendy to have AS reminds me of this Robot Chicken [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RNH1z86g3s[/youtube] Hmm....

The only thing trendy about that Sheldon character is, in real life the actor who plays him is gay.

So we have one semi-outcast playing a smart, over-the-top, asexual oddball, who just also happens to be accepted in his small group of friends. (Honestly is that possible? Aspies actually spending time together as friends without getting on each other's nerves?) This show has lots of one-upmanship but no actual bullying. Still Big Bang Theory is a comedy supposedly of brainy, nerdy types. Whoop-de-doo.

Being gay isn't trendy either.



Hey now, I actually did that while I was in high school. The thing being that at the time the AS label was still being introduced as a possible and neither of us were diagnosed with anything. As it turns out, while I lost touch with him I knew his sister through housemates (but didn't realize it until she brought him up) and she said he was diagnosed back in 2003, I think.

Mostly, though, we either gamed or talked about games, so.

I met some autistic people recently, adults in their 20s/30s/40s/50s/60s. I got along really well with them. We eggschanged emails and are keeping in touch with each other in my area.

<OT>That's why I want to emigrate as soon as I have the opportunity. I always loved being overseas for that exact reason. It seems the effect isn't as big in other European countries, though, which I guess is caused by smaller cultural differences. When I stayed for extended periods of time (just a few weeks at a time, but I lived with American families, in many ways it felt more like home than Norway) in the US, people just thought Norwegian culture was more different from the American one that they thought, if they were informed enough. The less informed assumed I was French Canadian, due to my accent (which sounds nothing like French) and weird behavior (no offense, I'm as ignorant about Canada as they probably were...). In any way, being a foreigner gave me a sort of free pass, and when I told them I was Scandinavian, not Canadian, I was treated even more nicely.

So I guess I'll leave Europe permanently at some point. It'll be either the US or Asia. Won't happen the next three years though, I have to finish my degree, and social services who cover my education (cheaper than putting me on permanent disability) won't cover exchange programs, even when the Norwegian university pays the fees... Beyond me, but I guess I can wait.</OT>

On the trendy thing, I think the reason for those TV characters is that most people know an aspie, without knowing it. And if they don't, at least they know someone with BAP. So despite the low general knowledge of autism, everyone can recognize someone they know in those characters. The reason for the increase in diagnoses is primarily increased knowledge, I highly doubt more people have AS than before, but the condition was drastically underdiagnosed. And it still probably is - I know several people who I'm rather sure have AS, and their lives suffer significantly from their problems. But as long as they don't seek therapy of any kind, there's no way they'll be discovered, as they're well beyond school age. When they went to school, teachers hadn't even heard of the diagnosis, or they thought only younger kids had it. Also, even if they went to a therapist, that therapist would be very liable to diagnose them with a psychiatric disorder, unless the therapist happens to be a neuropsychologist, which is rare. That's my impression, at least - I went to psychiatrists and psychologists for years, and they're too used to think in traditional, psychiatric terms. Like automatically thinking sleep disorders are comorbids of psychiatric conditions, not the other way around. Or automatically labeling aspie social traits as social phobia, or worse, schizoid personality disorder, even though the patient seeks social interaction. Executive dysfunction and intense interests can also be linked to schizophrenia, and if the patient is also scared because he or she suddenly started to occasionally think verbally instead of visually, he or she could even complain about "hearing voices". I'm also rather sure quite a few people with AD(H)D either really have AS or possibly both. But then I guess symptoms overlap somewhat. So the lack of proper differential diagnosis is very noticeable, though of course the problem could be smaller in other countries. I know at least one person with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, who I suspect of having AS. I got to know him after his alleged psychotic phases though, so of course I might have thought differently if I saw him back them - or perhaps been even more sure that he's misdiagnosed. He functions well, though, with a full job, so a rediagnosis would probably not help him too much.

So I think the increase in diagnosis of ASDs is also caused by improved differential diagnosis, in addition to better screening at schools. It is by no means a "fashion diagnosis" - actually I dislike that term, because I don't believe that's a common problem. When a kid is diagnosed with a disorder of any kind, the schools are suddenly required to give heaps of extra support, a requirement they too often ignore. So a kid with ADHD, an ASD, or any kind of disability, is a pain in the behind for schools. And for the authorities. So no kind of diagnosis is fashionable from the side of schools, authorities and healthcare. Especially when hospitals and institutions are covered by yearly governmental budgets, with little or no increase per patient - I guess private healthcare leads to an increased tendency toward overdiagnosis, but then welfare models with yearly funding often causes the opposite problem, which is just as bad, if not even worse. That's ignoring the problem of universal coverage, though - but Scandinavian welfare isn't the only model to achieve that, and probably not the best, either.

I don't really watch Big Bang Theory, but the clips I saw of Sheldon just portrayed him as quirky, highly intelligent, hard working and an a**hole. Not saying people with AS or ASD are not like this but by that standard one of my old teachers would have AS, he had all those characteristics but nothing about him seemed autistic. Didn't the creator of the show deny he had AS and was merely quirky and eccentric as well? I don't care either way, he's a fictional made up character that has no personal life beyond what we see on the television.

I don't really like the idea of making ASD trendy because too many people will try to behave a certain way, maybe even suppressing other traits. Just be yourself and if you can make that cool and chique then by all means knock yourself out!

The creator of the show denies that he has AS because that would limit their freedom when they write scripts. The actor, however, said something along the lines of "I don't think he could have more AS traits", and that he thinks of him as an aspie, and that it affects his acting.

Sheldon isn't just being portrayed as quirky, and I wouldn't say he's portrayed as an a**hole at all - he's usually oblivious to the fact that he's perceived as one. His intentions are good, but he views a lot of social conventions as irrational (to which I agree, hehe). Sometimes, however, he gets a compulsive need to follow generally accepted conventions, usually with worse results than just ignoring them. I'd say he's portrayed as a severely disabled savant.

Edit: Sentence structure.

To a certain degree, "Aspergers" overlaps with some traits of garden-variety introversion and/or just general geekiness.

It doesn't help that ASD characters are often portrayed as "quirky geniuses," or as having "special powers (seriously, if I see one more fictional autistic kid who has "psychic abilities," I'm going to explode)."

With the aforesaid in mind, I can easily see why labeling yourself as "Aspergers" might appeal to certain individuals, especially since some wish to see it as "just a difference" as opposed to a disability. Is this a widespread problem? Probably not, and the general public has always been somewhat ignorant about mental health issues anyway; hence, ADHD and OCD have entered the common vernacular as synonymous for "forgetfulness" and double-checking the locks before going to bed.

However, it's my experience that anyone trying to be "cool" by saying they have Aspergers quickly realizes that pretending to have a mental disorder doesn't bring extra popularity or benefits, and they return to their regularly scheduled programing. As far as society is concerned, it will never be "cool" to be disabled.

Exactly.

ha ha ha, I swear the blond b***h pudding chick is totally my sister when shes in a bad mood.

Mr. Bean was so ahead of his time.

I read this book once called Companion to Owls by Jane Lindskold. The main character is a mostly nonverbal autistic woman (she only speaks in quotes from literature) who has a toy two-headed dragon that apparently talks to her. I am not sure whether the author actually intended her to be autistic or not. I know she was very good at reading even subtle facial expressions and body language as the author describes her perceiving and reacting to those. It also turns out that the reason the dragon speaks to her is because she has a kind of psychometric ability to speak to inanimate objects, which people want to kidnap her to exploit.

I assure you I did not share this information in an attempt to gather empirical data as to whether it is indeed possible to make you explode. After all, you may already be aware of the book.

If someone asks me wif shieldon is an aspie, I usually say that yeah, he could be. But he's also an a**hole, which isn't always an aspie trait.

Also most interpretations of Sherlock Holmes on tv have some (if varying degrees of) Aspie traits.

I read this whole thread not one mention of Abed (youtube), the best Aspie on tv!

Anyone who thinks that Sheldon is an accurate representation of Aspergers is completely ignorant of Aspergers and their opinion should be disregarded immediately. Sure, he's no doubt Autistic, but what NT's fail to grasp is that he's only a shade of a color on a rainbow and what they fail more to grasp is that you shouldn't believe everything you see on TV.

Personally, I have yet to meet someone who tries to use Aspergers or Autism as a tool to be cooler.

Exactly. And if nobody wants to be gay or chooses to be gay, why can't that thought apply to Aspies as well?

Just because one psychotherapist says tv writers and producers have been spotlighting one or two characters with Aspie-like traits does not make Aspieness a trend.

(And why would a psychotherapist try to minimize AS by saying it's becoming trendy?)

And if an actor pretends to be an Aspie for the camera, does the script also show his character being bullied on a regular basis?

If the answer is No, then the character is not an Aspie.

I dont get why some people would want to be an aspie so much. If they like sensory overloads and having meltdowns then by all means not to mention being treated like an outsider to the general public.One just doesnt become an aspie one is born one can people not get that?