We each have a limited capacity for the duration of social contact. I use the metaphor of filling a ‘social bucket’. Some typical individuals have a large social bucket that can take some time to fill, while the person with Asperger’s syndrome has a small bucket, or cup, that reaches capacity relatively quickly. Conventional social occasions can last too long for someone with Asperger’s syndrome, especially as social success is achieved by intellectual effort rather than natural intuition. Socializing is exhausting.
