Interest constancy over the course of life

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Note; the poll is not for neurotypicals.

Hello

I have encountered a strong and strange loss of interest in many things that meant the world to me, but since my mental state as an entirety doesn't seem to match with any mental disorder or condition such as depression I have came to the belief that what I'm experiencing is simply a developmental stage, probably predominantly caused by genetics. I'm interested in hearing if this could have something to do with an Asperger's typical course of life, as I have the diagnosis and so has my brother, who, to my great surprise, seems to suffer from the very same issues. Let me describe how we got to this point:

In the early spring of 2011 I woke up and turned the computer on, as usual. But when I opened the music making software and got down to business like I had been doing for the past years, I didn't come up with anything. Such a loss of inspiration is normal and frequent, but this time it never came back. I soon detected other changes: it was not only the inspiration to create that was gone, but also the general affect considering all forms of art and entertainment that used to mean the world to me - including music. And then I noticed that not even things such as travelling or engagement in important missions produced significant pleasure anymore. I directed my attention at other aspects of life such as work and study with success, and lately I have found myself finding meaning in things I never saw before, especially the beauty of nature. I also tried alcohol and found it to be enjoyable and have since started to do science. Nevertheless, there's a constant feeling of lack of content or meaning in life and the general enjoyment level is much lower compared to what it used to be.

I hadn't talked to my brother for 11 months, but we recently returned to frequent communication and to the great surprise of the both of us, he shares my experiences. With similar schedule, the inspiration and the affect had been lost - and before I said anything, he told me that all he has left is physics, beauty of nature and intoxicants. The similarity is very strong. Before talking to my brother, I thought I have a mental disorder. But since our lives have been very different since the day we were born - and no, we are no identical twins, we have age difference of two years - I figured it must be developmental and predominantly genetic. That's the current hypothesis, and I'm testing it by comparing it to your experiences.

Here's a quote about a person's experience who apparently suffers from some sort of chronic anhedonia. It represents my state of mind with amazing accuracy:

"One of her darkest moments was when she sat down to listen to Elgar's Enigma variations. To her horror, she felt unmoved by the music she had always loved."

DISCLAIMER: I have accepted the situation and do not fight back. I work, study and do not make plans for the near future that would require getting back the lost affect. The purpose of this topic is only to try to understand the possible developmental reasons behind these changes in states of mind.

So, I'm interested in whether this phenomenon could be related to Asperger syndrome or not. Thank you.

:)

It sounds like you're depressed.

Sorry, I didn't take your poll....I have one very strong interest that I've had all of my life, and I always have several subsidiary interests that change over time.

You need to listen more :) heh, well, depression has been excluded with very careful consideration. By me and by professionals. And would my brother be depressed too? Gotten depressed at the same time with me even though we lived separately and led very different lives? No way.

Perhaps I didn't express clearly enough what the poll is about. If you constantly feel that you have the ability to get interested in things, i.e. you are either interested in something all the time or are able to find a new interest after one goes away, then you would vote for "no changes".