Full blown autism how is it related to Aspergers?

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I am just wondering do we have much in common with those will straight Autism for lack of a better word.

Also would Aspies be good at helping people with Autism.

The reason I ask is I have a relative with Autism and I was wondering how similar his thinking process is to mine and would I understand him better then other people?

I wonder if you might be the best person to answer this question?

I think it must depend on many factors

You would probably understand him a little better than most people since while his problems may be more severe right now, they are still similar. You might have a slightly easier time with some of your symptoms, but you still experience them more than NT's. I mean, if you both have sensory issues, not many people understand that except people who have them. If you struggle with socializing, it's something you two share that most people don't. It doesn't mean you'll be the best of friends or anything, but many mentor relationships are built on foundations like these.
My son has "straight" Autism. He is only 2 so his functioning may improve, but his main issues are severe language and communication problems, very visuals oriented rather than auditory, difficulty with social cues, difficulty engaging others, frustration and impatience when he doesn't know how to make himself understood, sensory issues which make him enjoy stimming a lot. He's too young to be making friends, but I guarantee this will be an issue for him. Looking at these symptoms, is there anything you can relate to? If so you can probably relate to him better than I can, because I have never experienced any of these problems (well I guess sometimes all of us get misunderstood, but this is rare, for him it is common)

Totally depends. Some Aspies have more in common with a person with classic autism than they do with other Aspies. Diagnostically, there's not that much difference except in early speech development, and even then Aspies tend to have communication problems. In adulthood, which specific diagnosis you have may not even matter.

But just because you're closer to his neurotype than NTs are doesn't mean you'll be able to communicate automatically. You have to work at it just like with anybody, and you have to be careful that you're not misreading each other.

Yes, I know he's interested in people, he just has difficulty expressing it. He shows it in different ways but when you know him like I do, you start to see how he wants to socialize, it's just he isn't quite sure how. And he does smile a bit when we shower him with affection, so I see the enjoyment even if his expression of it is a bit muted. I know he loves us very much and that his difficulties with socializing are not because of a lack of desire. It was reading things like "lack of communication is caused by a lack of interest in people and therefore no desire to communicate" that made me give up on professionals opinions and start to search for the opinions of people who actually have Autism, because my son clearly enjoys our company.
I don't know if it qualifies as a special interest, but he is really interested in numbers and letters and can play with them for hours, and we strongly encourage it and we are able to bond over reading and looking at the numbers together. As he gets older I will make sure to encourage any special interests he might develop.

What's full blown autism?

I mean, you couldn't tell much difference between someone with run-of-the-mill AS or AD by the time they're adults.

-Pretty much all with AD gain adequate speech by adulthood, so that's out
-it's been shown that people with AS experience sensory symptoms and a desire for routine (both were thought to just be in AD)
-it's been shown that people with AS can have early language difficulties (delay and lack of pronouns; both stereotypical autism symptoms)
-you couldn't tell any difference between a person with an IQ of 50, 70, 100, and 120 if they all lack social speech (only really matters at school)

The main point being that those with AS "might" lecture on and on about their interest in a social setting instead of not really bothering with social stuff in those with AD (not always the case though).

When they look pretty much the same, barring a few little details here and there, you can say they're close enough (plus the familial pattern).

It's a spectrum, true, but there is a visible difference between a verbally gifted, weird kid with only mild delays in her areas of weaknesses and a mostly nonverbal kid who wears diapers and doesn't respond consistently enough for his IQ to be tested.

(The first description is me at 10, the second is a friend of mine at the same age.)

We're not as different as people think, but there are functioning differences in the autistic spectrum.

You're describing two extremes there, both of which aren't the most common.

The most common of the spectrum are those in the middle, where things look pretty close.