Everyone has Aspergers to a degree?

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Interesting question!

My answer is no: not everyone has Asperger syndrome to some degree. This is because Asperger syndrome is a variety of traits, that each have to be present with a certain severity.

To explain, think of the colour purple. Purple, like Asperger's syndrome, is made up of different 'traits' :red, green and blue. There are lots of different shades of purple, corresponding to these traits being present in different quantities...but pretty much everyone can agree what things are purple and what are not.

Then if you take the colour yellow...could you say that is purple to some degree? Surely not!! Its true, that like purple, it is made up of red, green and blue in certain amounts...but the point is that these underlying 'traits' come together to make something that is qualitatively entirely different.

Last edited by foxfield on 20 Mar 2012, 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Everybody has at least one or two or more traits of it but doesn't make them Aspie or anywhere near Aspie. Like I know one NT who follows routine and gets upset if it changes. I know another who has sensory issues on her skin and can't wear certain clothes because of it. And so on.

But then again, I have NT traits too, but that doesn't make me a non-Aspie (as much as I wish I was). I don't mind being touched, and I can express my feelings, and I don't have any trouble reading body language and other non-verbal cues. But that doesn't make me NT (unfortunately, lol).

Everybody forgets things from time to time but that doesn't mean everyone has Dementia.

I think what is true is that everything happens in degrees. Because it is a spectrum, it may mean that someone has Asperger's to a higher or lower degree. If you took it further, maybe the other end would be "absolute NT" or something. If you look at some of the online autism quizzes (OK, they may be not such a reliable source...) they divide people into categories. Because everyone only has certain traits to a certain degree.

Isn't that the great problem with Asperger's that people will not accept it as a real disorder because it is not "autism enough"? You can't think of people in black and white. Some people have extreme forms of autism, some have milder forms. To me it would make sense that way.

Everyone has everything to a degree. Everyone can do sports well to a certain degree. Or understand maths. I don't think this notion is not important, it just does not seem relevant. Because saying that "everyone has Asperger's to a degree" does not help anyone. It's an interesting thought though.