Do you defy the stereotypes of autism portrayed on TV?

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For example, I have noticed that a lot of characters will adhere rigidly to a self-imposed, extremely detailed schedule. Examples: Sheldon Cooper and his bathroom schedule, Adam (from the movie Adam) eating mac and cheese literally every night. Whereas I can't even stick to a proper schedule for sleeping and waking, eat whatever I feel like whenever I'm hungry, and waste entire days doing whatever pops into mind.

I prefer defying those "rules" rather than sticking with them. Because we all have different, wonderful minds and they're not meant to fit a certain stereotype. We're awesome.

I agree. But writing for the silver screen hasn't quite caught up to the complexities of human personality, and it leads to some strange archetypes.

Think there are plenty of NT who are like that too.
Especially ones who have spent a long time in the military.
Sheldon is just basically anal retentive as I see it.
Same things can be done at different times and ways, but do not handle completely unexpected well.
I am okay with different dinner each night, but need to know in advance what it is.
And has to be something am used to eating.
If someone just plops a plate of food down in front of me unexpectedly, I can not eat it.

Not sure, but I do know my morning schedule is strictly adhered to at least: wake up at 6:10am, spend a few minutes in the bathroom, put pants on, take a quick nap, start the car and then go to work.

Good point.

I am rigid about some of my routines such as what I eat for breakfast and dinner, what dishes I'll eat out of, what TV show I watch while I eat, what websites I visit in what order and always reading before I go to bed ect . However, I'm not like Sheldon with specific times to eat and go to the bathroom ect. I wish I were a little more like that because Sheldon is really good with organization and time management. Since I have a messed up sleep schedule and go to bed and get up at different times on different days I eat and go potty at different times too, which I know isn't so healthy.

The positive stereotypes of ASD that they show on TV are the ones I defy. I defy the stereotype of being a genius, being good with math and computers, having an eidetic memory and as I mentioned before being super-organized! Actually I'm terrible with math and computers and very into fantasy fiction and imagination which is very unaspielike.

I definitely don't have an eidetic memory! When I was a child, I learned songs on the radio or lines from movies really quickly, but anything having to do with time I'm completely hopeless at. I disagree that fantasy fiction and imagination are "unaspielike", but then again, NTs will say we have no sense of humor and that is far from the truth as well. Personally, as an artist, I exercise my imagination nearly every day, and my favorite genre is satirical fiction.

I go to the bathroom whenever I need to go.

When I have a bath, it's usually at night, but it is not a vivid routine thing. Sometimes in the summer I will have a shower when I get in from work. That is quite common in most people.

I can be fussy with food, like I don't like to eat foods that stereotypically cause flatulence in people (even if I don't know if it reacts with me or not), but the times I have a meal is not a vivid routine thing either. I don't normally have breakfast, just juice really. I have to have lunch at a certain time at work, otherwise I just have lunch around midday (sometimes earlier if I'm really hungry, sometimes later if I have been out all morning and arrive home in mid-afternoon, it all depends on what I am doing on the day). I don't like to eat the same thing every day.

But I do know NTs that like to have the same thing on a certain day, like Mondays is egg and beans, Tuesdays is pasta, etc etc. I also know NTs that like to get up at a certain time each day, no earlier, no later, even if it's a day off.

I guess in a way I do. It's not that I don't have Aspie traits, it's more like my traits aren't what you expect for an Aspie. I like flexibility in the sense that it is my routine to be flexible and instead of having the same meal everyday, I like the idea of having something fairly unique daily unless I have a really big meal the night before that I enjoy and I want to make the most out of my leftovers. I guess that's ritual to some degree. Same thing with my interests, I'm not your stereotypical Aspie who is scientifically minded and not really into sports, I have a BA in history and minor in English and I enjoyed playing sports as a kid and still follow them today and even helped coach this winter.

My memory for facts and for stories is good actually just not photographic or savant level amazing. My short-term memory and memory for things I'm supposed to do is crap.

Actually, if I think about it more, Sheldon does watch science fiction shows and is basically into anything geeky which includes anime and comic books and also computers and technology. He has too many interests! How does he have time to pursue them all and still work as a theoretical physicist? I was never interested in anime or comic books either.

My mum said Sheldon's character doesn't ring true. She said he's a mix of low and high functioning characteristics that wouldn't combine in real life. I mentioned that I have some low and high functioning characteristics and she agreed but said that Sheldon just didn't seem like a complete , real person to her. *She knows he's just a character but some characters seem like real people and are more believable in their roles than him.

The way that Autistic people are played on TV her in Europe is not good. A few weeks ago they showed a crime thriller on German TV where the main murder suspect was an aspie, the guy acted like someone after a bad stroke, he slurred his speech, he limped and he had a really bad tick. My girlfriend looked at the image on TV, looked at me, and said "but you're not LIKE that!!"

As for me. I love repetition, love organization, have a very limited diet (by choice) and my skills with the ladies were not good until I finally realized where I was going wrong. The closest I come to a TV aspie is Dr Gill Grissom from CSI but as he left the series a long time ago maybe that doesn't count.

I'm not too sure to be honest.

The way I feel inside probably does fit the stereotype, but things I do probably doesn't.

Though I consider myself in many ways to be the antithesis od "aspie-typical"...
I guess I will be the one to say it:

"That's why it's called a spectrum."

I have a bit of a routine, but it's not as extreme as aspie characters on TV are often portrayed to have, nor am I as anal-retentive about it. Really, the only time I stick to a routine is when I have to go to work or school. On any other day, I'll just do whatever I feel like, which usually involves sleeping in, and sitting on the computer all day.

I'm probably the opposite of a structured person. Aside from clocking in at a job and managing my time there if I happen to have a job, I rarely if ever eat at the same times, sleep at the same times, or plan beforehand what I'm going to do during my day unless something has come up (doctor's appointment, family get together, etc.). Some days I'll pick up and start learning a new instrument, other days I'll decide I want to start studying ecology, reading about Japanese culture, whatever.

When it comes to food I'll eat pretty much anything, barring something that was prepared terribly, unless I'm trying to be polite. You could give me haggis, deniguan (filipino for "blood pudding"), sushi, steak tartarre, durian, fermented cabbage, cassava, or whatever else. I don't know why, but for some reason I don't have any ethnically predisposed food preference. It doesn't make any difference to me whether it's a salted cricket or a burger.

Being a savant is kind of overrated. I was called a savant by my psychologist before I went to college, but at the same time other areas of my life were really stunted. Wouldn't have even been able to come onto a site like this and relate to anyone or make myself decently well understood until I was nearly thirty. When you're extremely good at handling large amounts of data quickly, you fall way way behind when it comes to forming and understanding impressions, expressing your emotions, and generally coming into emotional maturity. Emotionally speaking I was still at the same level as a lot of high schoolers around the time I was 27-28.

It's like "so I can read tons of books and keep up with as much different stuff as Sheldon from big bang theory, that still doesn't get me a job, make people like me, help with anxiety and depression, it doesn't keep me company". The truth is some of the smartest savant friends I've met or had as friends, have also been some of the most depressed people I've met. We'll end up reading over a thousand pages of material in a day and forget to even eat, shower, call someone we needed to or do something we needed to do, some days. It seems like there's a point where data retention and usage, and level of concentration, can really become too excessive and it just messes with your life. Like I said in another thread it's to the point where I get bad anxiety attacks just from concentrating alone. I went to a neurologist and he did an MRI and told me I'd need to set timers for reminding myself and cut back on the stuff I concentrate on, because it might get to the point where some of my brain becomes inflammatory and I get seizures or worse. Some days my brain will get so worked up and so stuck on the fast track that I'll suddenly lose the ability to concentrate, and I'll try desperately to go to sleep on those days while I think I can practically hear my heart beating and random images, letters, numbers, and words will flash through my head nauseatingly fast.

From what I understand, there are many savants like myself who not only have symptoms because of their talents kind of backfiring on them, but they are more prone to co-morbids too.