Fed up with ANY Media representation.

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I've had enough of any media representation of Aspergers. All they ever focus on is the Aspergers, and not the person with it.
It makes us look like we try desperately to fit in or what not or make us looks like victims and get people to feel sorry for us.
I hate being pitied.

I also just wish they'd stop using Aspergers as an excuse for violence or whatnot.
I'm tired of all media representation and I just wish people would leave me and aspergers the eff alone.

I'd really like to see someone with aspergers in a tv show, where it isn't announced he has aspergers at all. People just treat him like a human being, good or bad. You're right when you say they focus on the aspergers, i'd like them to focus on the person instead.

I haven't seen the show, "House," but from the descriptions it sounds like your kind of show.

I think there have been, many many of them. But because they don't SAY it, people say "oh, it's not confirmed so you have no proof and you're just reading into it".

Exactly.

I don't like these shows where all the adults do the talking on behalf of their little boys, as if the boys couldn't speak for themselves (which they clearly can, but just aren't allowed to by the supposedly more knowledgeable adults and professionals).

One comment from an AS boy on one of these shows really got me:
"I don't have Aspergers, they made a mistake."

He acted just like a relative of mine.
This relative says exactly the same thing about me.

And do you know what.
I agree with that lad.
I think they've really made a very grave mistake.
They've written that kid off and not given him a proper chance to express his creativity.

I know the real reason why he's acting up (I've been through it myself) and rebelling against the special school he's been placed in. He's sick and tired of being treated like an incapable victim, and not being treated like a capable individual, that's why.

I'm sorry, but scenes like that make me feel very angry.

Also, they have either been:

A) Very lucky

B) Not formally assessed


Perhaps, some AS differences were just tolerated as quirks in some backgrounds.

Perhaps, many of them were accepted for who they were because they were talented in their given fields.

As a result, some of these older people haven't had to deal with the enforced socialisation and other non-sense that us younger folks have had to deal with.

Representations in the media will never be perfect. They have to simplify things so that the audience can understand. Of course, some are just blatantly wrong, like when parents bring their child on a show and talk about how terrible and hopeless his life will be.

Just like me. I have recently been arguing with my parents and teachers a lot about being put in a special program. I completely deny the fact I have it now because of the label.

What I also hate is when they show the most severely autistic person they can get and make it seem like we're all like that.

It makes me so angry others have to go through what I went through over 10 years ago. Professionals and parents never learn. I'm filled with burning hatred when I think of other kids being victimized and abused because of their AS diagnosis, having their right to an individual personality taken from them.

My chances to ever enter society were destroyed because of the AS diagnosis and special class/program I was put in. The hatred I feel towards society is paralyzing. I only wish people harm.

I wish there was a way to destroy the diagnosis Asperger's Syndrome and erase it from existence. It's a useless diagnosis and to those who don't agree, I'm sure they would find another way to have their pathetic need of being pitied and patronized satisfied.

One reason for the stereotypical image in the media is that most people are scared of what they don't understand. Stereotyping people as retards makes normal people feel safe and like they know where they have you. Instead of responding to your actions based on who you are, they will just recite some book about asperger's and explain why you are the way you are. If you like a certain type of food they will say it's because you have AS. It's a way for people to control others, a form of apartheid. What they don't know is that psychologically, this concentration camp mentality is directly damaging to the self image and mental well being of the diagnosed child. It's a form of drawn out, mental rape. They steal something from you and deny you your rights. A violation of your existence.

Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to start mass diagnosing AS, because of Gillberg and his influence on psychiatry here. A lot of other countries seem to be going the same way now. There's an asperger boom all over the western world and people have started to obsess with the clinical aspects of the diagnosis. So many young people will be harmed by this and have their self image destroyed the same way it would be destroyed if they were a black kid in a white apartheid society. What's different in Sweden today is that AS in adults isn't the same kind of absolute law, which it was in the 90's during the great asperger boom and mass-diagnosing frenzy. Kids still suffer here and many parts of the country still treat AS kids like Star of David marked jews ready for deportation to the special class, but many adults as well as swedish media have begun questioning Gillberg and the diagnosis. There's a lot of skepticism which didn't exist here in the 90's. Too bad most other countries are going through the stereotyping phase as we speak.

Swedish media has questioned the ridiculous number of AS diagnosed people in this country, as well as brought up the idea that an AS diagnosis is a gamble which marks some while others are lucky and can go free. There are a few very passionate anti-diagnostic psychiatrists who people actually listen to and here and there you can hear people whispering about how they doubt the validity of an AS diagnosis. Sweden was completely, fanatically opressed by diagnostics zealots, led by Gillberg, in the 90's and AS was really like a religion. People thought it was the answer to everything and government backed authorities led massive mass diagnostic programs where everything and everyone were diagnosed as AS. If someone had violent behaviour, it was just rewritten to "poor ability to interpret body language". It's good that the media finally reacted to this and started opposing the psychiatric opression. The swedish media really despises how the psychiatry has been run. As a 13 year old, I fantasized about killing Gillberg after having tortured him for hours, days or weeks. He was the incarnation of Satan to me.

I am amazed that you think people read your agenda let alone are swayed to admire and wish to emulate your behaviour.

Merle

I feel sorry for you for being so ignorant as well as 15 years behind in development in terms of seeing the effect of mass-diagnosis on a community.
You also have no idea what I think.

+1

Wow, that's a constructive comment. Did you have a meltdown or something which made you unable to write the rest?

It's my way of saying I agree. Not with you obviously.

If I were having a meltdown, I wouldn't be typing here. Maybe you should go study meltdown 101.

In terms of AS science you live in a third world country. It's kind of like the same thing as when India discovered David Hasselhoff a few years ago. Instead of wrongly assuming you're right, you should learn from someone who experienced asperger programs in the mid 90's.
The media here, as well as people within the psychiatry, have started to question the need for a diagnosis like AS. Instead they argue "let people be people". But of course you know better than someone with almost two decades of real life experience in how a diagnosis can affect an entire society and nation since you probably discovered AS just a few years ago.

There's been a very good representation of someone with AS where it's not stated that he has such.

The TV series, Mr. Bean.

The person who defined AS what it is today calls him a perfect example. Whilst you're meant to laugh at him..., he gets along beside society quite well.