Is there anybody here who DOESN'T have a special interest?

Post Reply New Topic

I have to ask because I'm starting to think I'm the only one!

I love different things such as photography and fiction and music, but I don't have a special interest as such.

Apparently 5-15% of people with AS don't have a special interest but fit all the other criteria.

There must be someone out there!

I have obsessions with certain people (mostly men who I fancy).

But otherwise, I don't particularly have any special interests. I have general interests, but not special interests.

I didn't think I had one until I caught myself attempting to find someone I could claim was the Patron Saint of History Nerds from the 6th Century because I thought it would be fun.

Those are all special interests. Do you have any idea how many people don't read at all?

Photography is a very specialized interest, you have to really WANT to know about shutter speeds and composition and all that stuff, it doesn't just come out of thin air.

Most people like music, but not everybody is a walking music encyclopedia, who can recite artist, album, year, chart position, guest musicians, etc, right off the top of their head. Sometimes its a matter of degree. That's what qualifies an interest as 'obsessive'.

I do have "special" interests, but aren't sure if they are special because they're not that intense and the only reason I would talk about them endlessly is because I'm not into anything else!

Twenty years ago, all you could learn about photography was shutter speeds. Just experimenting with different types of photography and developing doesn't qualify photography as a special interest. And I'd love it if anyone who claims an interest in photography would take the time to learn some freaking composition, at least for the rest of us who might end up looking at the work.

As you say, it's the level of obsession. It's important to remember that people can have hobbies and know quite a bit about their hobbies.

What makes my interest so special is that I'll forsake eating, sleeping and human contact to delve into books upon books, ebooks upon ebooks, and websites upon websites to learn more. It's to the point where I watch National Geographic and History Channel specials and critique and add to the information being presented. History Channel is by far the worst... just so you know. Their "America: The Story Of Us" really annoys me. Genealogy is getting just as bad for me... but imagine being a history nerd and then learning that the streets you walked on in Germany were the exact streets your ancestors walked on 400 years before. How can you not want to spend every moment enveloped in that?

My dad was a huge genealogy buff, to the extent that he created one of the biggest cemetery records sites in Lancashire, England spanning tens of thousands of graves that he individually catalogued and classified...and he wasn't aspie lol (He simply didn't want to see all that incredible information disappear so made it available to all)

I do not have any real obsession like what i have heard about though, I like to pick out little bits of information about all kinds of interests whether it be medical, history, science, animals, dinosaurs, time, spirits...you could say with some accuracy that I actually have an obsession with information.

Johnny No. 5 need input...LOTS OF INPUT!! !

At this point in time, I do not think I do have a special interest.
I often question if my past ones count or not.

An example of one I considered a special interest would be Doctor Who. I collected every video, I read endless lists of collectables and fantasised about owning the props and costumes, I talked about Doctor Who, I read books on the making of it, joined fan clubs, went to conventions, wrote letters to the actors and even made things for them and mailed them, and watched and rewatched the stories endless times. I had stills, stamps, posters, autographs, all sorts. Apart from my cross stitch, it filled my entire days just about and my mother said I had a one track mind, as she has often said.

I had the same thing with Harry Potter, Disney and Antique Dolls.
why can't I have had more intellectual and useful interests? that would be my complaint, as some here seem to get engaged in such intelligent and academic things.

I have not very often, however, forgotten to eat, I always seem to remember my stomach. I did however mess up my degree because I was busy on the internet, roleplaying Harry Potter.

I have also had people obsessions where I collected and studied all I could about specific people, and talked only about them.
I think that got very annoying to 'friends' online, who pointed out to me that I always talked about such and such.

That's incredible! Good for your dad! Bravo!

My son doesn't seem to have a special interest really. Or perhaps he does, he just cycles through a few of them. He is not overly preoccupied with any one thing currently. He is 6 years old now.

Yup, I have one. I can't even imagine what life would be like without it. I'm guessing it'd be really boring.

I have a couple of long term interests that i think I will always have. The other random ones come and go. I will read and research think about or collect whatever the random thing is almost nonstop until I suddenly lose interest or feel I learned enough about it.

Without special interest I would not be able to function.

I did photography for 6 years and I learnt almost every technical piece of information I could as well as spending hours experimenting with different styles. I got so obsessed with it I didn't realise that getting into concerts for free, taking photos for magazines and bands, and getting backstage with bands, was such a big deal.

These are my special interests in order of intensity: Creative writing, science fiction, the air force, drawing, astronomy, physics and way way way down the bottom is photography.

Creative writing does involve a lot of things, from sci-fi to general film watching, to the CIA/A51 to the military, to maps/buildings/ that plant over there to physics/neuroscience/ astronomy. And it does involve a whole lotta reading.

I have like a top10 different interests... some I rank more highly then others. LIfe would be boring without those different interests so I can't say I have "a" special interest but rather I have special interest(s) (which I obsess over).

What's the fun of being an Aspie if you don't have a special interest?

I've always had special interests, since I was 18 months old. The only period of time where my special interests weren't textbook was between ages 6 and 11. This is because I didn't have the need to ramble on and give monologues about my special interests during this time. But the SIs have always been there, and I can't imagine them NOT being there. Life would be horribly boring for me.

i'd define a special interest as something you get into SO intensively that you get addicted and give up other important things in your life.

it can change. i change mine every 6-12 months depending on my priorities. sometimes its hard to get something i need to learn to cross that bridge into "special interest". but once the special interest overdrive starts, its pretty awesome and solves a lot of problems. thats a difference i notice between me and a lot of aspies -- i try to choose my special interests intentionally depending on my life goals.

i think most aspies have special interests.. if you get totally addicted beyond normality to something, then thats the special interest drive