Does anyone have lots of interests but...

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Does anyone have lots of interests but not really stay with them?
I was officially diagnosed asperger's but my 'special interests' are not stuck to just one or just a few they kind of stay around for a bit then I go to a new interest for bit then it goes back to them a while later but again only for a short while. (few days or weeks).
The only thing I can never stop thinking about is sound recording (for the past 4 years) I can't go a day without thinking about sound recording but that's my chosen career too.
I never become a proper expert in them except sound recording! I can get excited about getting a book (or item) on the subject but most of the time never get on with reading them all (I plan to read them all now and be expert like in them..lol)

My interest I've gone back and forth to:
- Entomology: mainly butterflies and moths and breeding and preserving them!
- old books: always books with tables and facts especially old England topography books oldest book is 290 years old! - 1721!
- nature
- british stamps: can't have any incomplete sets
- British coins: particular George IV 1940's farthing with the robin bird on the back (have about 15)
- trains: freight engines / red royal mail post ones
- hornby train sets: only like red royal mail post ones and freight and fascinated by the wheels
- all types of wild grasses
- old keys
- photography: love my 1971 Olympus OM1n 35mm camera and it's nice and shiny
- science subjects
- growing my own vegetables (when I was about 10yrs old)
- train spotting mainly interested in the train numbers
- BBC television memorabilia: I have a BBC employee badge from the 1940's and old BBC television sound effects LP's! (I've also worked for BBC television, don't think I would have got it without Asperger's!! !)
- And most recently old batteries, and have always collected everything you could think of.
When I go back to one I can't stop thinking about it or making a collection of it or buying something to do with it.

With me it seems more about collecting/having them instead of learning everything there is to know about them. I usually remember a few small details facts about them. Anyone else do this?

I don't think I jump between interests as quickly as you do, though I would say that my 'special interests' are of lesser intensity than those of most people with AS and that I often go between several at once. My interests basically amount to subjects I just enjoy reading about, rather than things that I get obsessive urges to research, or things that dominate my thoughts and conversation.

ADHD? I didn't read the whole thing but that's what avoids me from completing a task...

Yes. This has been me for the past three years or so. I get interested in things temporarily, then go off to something else... then that gets boring, and I find something else interesting... Some interests have lasted longer than others. For instance, my interest in the Holocaust lasted longer than my interest in plane crashes. However, I feel that I am in the early stages of a more long-term interest: linguistics. It has been interesting to me since I was a very small child (I picked up on some Swiss German from neighbors); however, in the past year or so I have been studying it more seriously and now I am attempting to learn two new languages. My goal is to know several.
But I digress (as people with AS usually do when it comes to their interests...)
I find that I am interested in a wide variety of things academics-related (sciences: psychology, biology, some physics; literature; linguistics; history; philosophy; etc.) as well as art-related (such as music.)

At the diagnosis he said he didn't think I had ADHD. mind I research about things I find interesting a lot. I've become a sort of expert on Asperger's I read tony Attwood's guide now I'm reading two others on the subject. Actually it might be the fact that I have finished in education and have time, I had a lot of anxiety and stress in classroom situations and when I got back home I just stayed in front of the tv. Maybe my obsessive tv interest is the one that turned into sound recording! Think that's the interest that never turned off ever!! xD I'm just trying to make sense of everything since my recent diagnosis. xD

Which one? I'm reading one right now, just for the fun of it.

Ive had those interest to I self taught italian that lasted for ages but not long enough to learn it all, I labelled everything in the house with it's Italian name. I still remember a few words and phrases. I met an italian and said my pronunciation was very good xD also Turkish a 2 years back.

I've been thinking about getting back to philosophy again, dam! But not before I finish reading about aspergers and a book on space! Im currently doing xD

Have you read 'Sophies world' by jostein gaarder, it's very good!

Last edited by jonnysound on 07 Jun 2011, 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

On a totally unrelated note I am just curious if any has a Leo anywhere in your astrological chart?

I read:
"The Complete Guide to Asperger's syndrome" by Tony Attwood
That's really good

Now I'm on:
"Pretending to be Normal" by Liane Holliday Willey
Which ive been told is really good, it is so far.

Then I'm going to read:
"Asperger Syndrome and Long-Term Relationships" by Ashley Stanford

Virgo

That is rather a side side note.

I have Jupiter in Leo.

The OP sounds a lot like me... ADHD central baby

I also have a relatively wide variety of interests, hobbies, obsessions, whatever. Some stay around for a while others not, and there are some I lose interest in and after some time pick up again. I'm not very good at my special interests either, I think that if I would purposely work on them harder I would lose some of the fascination and pleasure I get out of them. Although I'm proud of some of my unique abilities and achievements, they aren't that significant in comparison.

Strange as it is, despite my field of interest has always been natural-science and machines (ok, aside form sports and baking pastry), I picked up an obsessive interest of learning and practicing English.

My suspected inattentive type ADHD and memory problem with retaining and recalling kind of blocks me from having savant like skills, I suppose.

I'm gonna have to vote for ADHD too. You sound a lot like me, actually. I have lots of intense interests, but I have trouble staying on task. My longest standing interests are listening to music, drawing, and playing video games. Since about January, I've been obsessing over Asperger's and autism. What I decide to do kind of cycles through my list of current hobbies. When I get on task and can be free of interruptions, though, I can sit there doing whatever it is for hours, barely stopping for breaks.

I usually have one interest until I have exhausted the subject and know all there is to know.

When I am finished, I often forget large parts of what I have learned.

For about three years , I was an expert on tropical fish, but now have absolutely no interest in the subject.