ASD geneology, Nordic origin?

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I always felt Aspergers originated in Scandinavia and is a Nordic thing... I don't know why. When I went to Norway I felt at home, quite culture, smart people, serious and get to the point etc. And Germans are known to be hard working (Like aspies) and maybe cold (not like it's a bad thing) and are serious etc. My Germans friends I met when I went to Frankfurt definitely all seemed like they were on the spectrum, but maybe it's just a cultural thing? And Germany infact is a Nordic country.. what are your toughts? And when I went to completely non Nordic places like spain/Italy they were the opposite of an aspie.


What do you think?

I imagine there are stats a plentiful for origin and ASDs. Have you looked?


I'm Norwegian and Swedish myself.

I have AS and I am of Mediterranean European, Middle Eastern, and North African descent.

I'm pretty sure AS goes back further than that, since autism is found everywhere at about the same rate. I think it goes back farther than groups of people--in fact, probably farther back than humans in the first place.

We could probably tell how far back it goes by checking to see whether apes have autistic-like disorders, and then monkeys, and go on until we found a species that didn't have autism; and the most recent common ancestor of humans and that species would tell us about where autism started being a phenomenon.

It might be genetic, or it might just be a function of the complexity of the nervous system in a social species--that, if the nervous system went off-course in development in a certain way, and it was complex enough, you would get autism. My prediction... we'll probably find the sensory aspects of autism in pretty much all mammals, or at least mammals as complex, or more so, than cats; the social aspects of it may be harder to detect, especially since most nonhuman animals don't use language, and those that do use very simple language, if it can be called language at all.

There's a neurological disorder in cats called "twitchy cat syndrome"--it's basically a cat that's easily overstimulated by pretty much anything, especially touch, and will have the cat equivalent of meltdowns and in severe cases self-injury in the form of over-grooming or biting. Sound like sensory overload to you? Does to me. So, at least the sensory aspects of it can be seen in cats, and in other similarly-complex mammals.

I don't think it has anything to do with it, I am of Norwegian(amongst a bunch of other things) heritage tho fwiw.

Even if there is a wider distance between people and more frequent social isolation in Scandinavian society, it does not fit Autistic/Aspergers persons. We are still different and odd outsiders.

AS here.
Danish heritage.

I myself am from east England which is Nordic (Danish). I have blonde hair and dark blue eyes like grey and high cheekbones etc. And I indeed am gifted with Aspergers.

EDIT: Everyone of Scandinavian descent is only Scandinavian by descent and have not been born and raised/living in Scandinavia are the only ones diagnosed, while the ones in Scandinavia aren't because maybe... they blend in? while the ones of Scandinavian extraction but living in a non Scandinavian country are the only ones diagnosed? There isn't much folk on here born and raised in Scandinavia..


Think I'm getting on to something here.

The autistic side of my family has its roots in Northern Italy.

My wife is an NT and Finnish. I've met many of her cousins and there aren't any who I suspect to be Aspies.

I have AS and I'm of Ukrainian decent (4th generation).

I could believe it. My ancestry is almost entirely Irish, English and Scottish, with some Cherokee mixed in. I look Nordic. I have high cheekbones, very pale pinkish white skin that does not tan at all, and pale blue/grey eyes. Slightly aquiline nose, large forehead. I was born blonde...my hair is darker now, more of a light brown, but it has a translucent quality that can make it seem like it is lighter. I've also been told many times that I look just like Kirsten Dunst, who is definitely Nordic.

What's odd is that I look more Nordic than anyone else in my family, except maybe one of my cousins. My mom for instance was born blonde and has blue eyes, but she has a darker more ruddy complexion and is almost a head shorter than me. I have lots of relatives who look very Irish or Germanic, but not necessarily Nordic, with a slightly darker complexion, or more freckles or reddish hair, or brown eyes, or a broader nose, etc. I have a few relatives who look Jewish, and I suspect we do have some Jewish ancestry from way back that was covered up with some name changes. A few relatives show the Cherokee ancestry more. Some relatives just look more...I don't know what to call it, mixed I guess, or something I can't identify.

I look different somehow...I can definitely see the family resemblances and features that I share with everyone so it's not like I could wonder if I was adopted, or a changeling. But it's like all those features came together in me to represent something different.

I have some Swedish ancestry from my maternal grandmother, and some German ancestry from my paternal grandmother. I am one quarter French Canadian, one quarter Ukrainian, one eighth German, and a bunch of other things, including Swedish, First Nations, Irish, and many others I can't remember. I have AS/HFA (not quite sure which one I was originally diagnosed with, but they are essentially one and the same now).

My paternal grandmother strikes me as having some aspie traits, though I am not sure whether or not she is, or if it's just a result of her partially-"German" upbringing. My dad is definitely an aspie though, albeit an undiagnosed one.

The Greys originally hailed from Iceland, or Norway as it was then, what is now modern Denmark. Grey is actually a modern day corruption of the Norsk name Gyreaw. Gyreaw means Gyreaw in Norsk. It's almost impossible to translate really, it basically means a sort of wooden bucket with two holes in it. Underwear, wooden underwear which is the only way to deal with the harsh Norsk summer. You simply take off your underwear, set it on fire and huddle round it for warmth

You may be onto something.

I'm English, Irish, Welsh and probably Scottish so I probably have some Scandinavian in me and yeah I know what you mean. It does seem like aspies and Nordics are similar in many ways.