I kind have to agree with you on Sheldon there. I hated his character on that show, mostly because it’s heavily implied he has some form of autism, likely Aspergers Syndrome, which I have. But he portrays so badly.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Aspergers Syndrome is a form of high-functioning autism wherein a person struggles to understand other peoples emotions and social cues that comes easily to other people. We also have trouble understanding empathy and emotions especially early on in life, but it gets easier as we get older.

While there are different levels severity with it, most people with Aspergers syndrome are fully functioning, independent, capable people just like most others who don’t have autism, with the only difference being that we come across as a bit one-sided, robotic, quirky or in worst case scenarios, rude, in our social interactions.

You would think that description that Sheldon fits this description fairly well. However, I want to emphasise right here and now; the majority people with high-functioning autism are not that bad. I say “majority” because even though I have personally never met anyone who is as an awful a person as Sheldon Cooper, but I’m sure there are at least a few out there like him.

My problem with him is that he might give off the impression to other people that people who have high-functioning autism are stuck-up pricks who are a pain in the ass to deal with and are really no better than spoiled children. That is not true at all. Most of us try very hard throughout our lives to be mindful of others and fit in as best we can. We are not burdens on our families or friends, something Sheldon is. We do not want people to “put up” with us because we can’t help our occasional social faux-pas, we want them to want to be friends with us because we’re genuinely nice people to be around.

The character of Sheldon Cooper is a prick and it honestly really offended me with just how utterly unrealistic his depiction of a very real form of autism was. Someone like Sheldon Cooper would never even leave his parents house, much less move into a shared accommodation. It would simply be far too much for someone who is that severely autistic. I myself occasionally struggled in my old shared accommodation and my Aspergers was diagnosed as “mild”.