About your interests (if any) and talking about them

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Further questions:

1) To those who have interests (special or otherwise) but do not desire to talk about them: (a) Did you ever, at any point in your life, desire to talk about them? (b) If you once desired to talk about them but no longer do, why not? (For example, were you bullied out of talking about them? Or were you subjected to ABA therapy which led you to fear letting people know that you really enjoyed something lest the thing you enjoyed be held hostage to make you do things you didn't want to do?)

1) To those who do NOT have interests (special or otherwise): (a) Did you ever, at any point in your life, have interests? (b) If you once had interests but no longer do, are you aware of any particular reason why? (For example, were you bullied out of them?)

I'm a person who does have interests, including special interests, and I enjoy talking about them with other interested people (if I can find them).

I put mine as special interest because I have had two lifelong hobbies which are my life. I mean... Especially the first main one... I would not be able to know what to do without it. I would have nothing to think about. Nothing to dream about. No way of relaxing my mind or going i to the depths of my mind without this hobby? Would that be a special interest? Or just a hobby?

I enjoy talking about cats (and pets) to fellow pet lovers.

"Other"
I had special interests when I was younger, and would have loved to talk about them. The main one was intended for children which would not be acceptable among the "macho" guys at school, so I couldn't bring it up. My friends harassed me enough anyway. Then around early adulthood the SIs disappeared altogether. I think something broke because my regular interests bore me sometimes now too.

I hope no one else has to lose their SI.

I have had a few shifts in the main hobby over the years but I have still retained the hobby. Just explored different aspects of it to find out where I fit in the best.

I like talking about them.

I try to keep it to people who are interested.

Unless it's something that's important. Trouble is, I think things are important when other people don't or maybe I lack 'context'.

I can talk freely about tennis, and my favorite players, on the tennis court and also put my interest into play (pun fully intended) on court in an active sense.

I don't enjoy talking about my interests/special interests because I don't enjoy talking in general. It used to be different when I was a child but I guess social rejection took its toll on me.

I checked the have special interest but don’t want to talk about it option, as that fits me most closely. I like to observe. If there were some people talking about a special interest of mine, I would be listening and loving it, trying to add more to my own knowledge and understanding (well, depending whether their conversation was accurate and the environment was ok) but I would not enjoy sharing my thoughts about it. When I am especially interested in something or excited about something I have found it is better for me to keep my mouth shut. I might manage a sentence or two that is ok, but it won’t be long before I’m either misrepresenting myself or the topic, or I’m just saying something inappropriate or weird. I used to think I needed to talk more and share more, but having tried, I realise it’s generally just not a good idea. No one gains anything and I spend the next weeks agonising over it, whilst the distance between me and others widens. On the other hand if someone asks me a direct question about the topic, then I will love to answer it. But it would need to have come from them and not me.

I'd love to talk about my interests more, and I enjoy it when I do get the chance (mostly in specialised online forums rather than IRL.) I realised quite young that rambling monologues about my specialisms, however enthusiastic, generally didn't go down well; so I do self-censor a lot. And I always feel a bit deflated afterwards if/when I realise that there were no new ideas to chew over because the other person couldn't or wouldn't contribute anything. It's not unusual that when I'm pacing around ruminating, I'm explaining some aspect of an interest in great depth to an imaginary audience in my head - a form of wish-fulfilment, I guess, because I don't get to talk about them as much, or in as much depth, as I'd like.

Whether my interests are "special interests", is a tougher question. I'm inclined to believe that they're not really (and have answered the poll accordingly.) My obsessiveness and sometimes compulsiveness around them, the intense hyper-focus, and that they seem resistant to being determined by social norms are just aspects of my character that apply to many different aspects of my life. It's the way that I relate to the world in general that is "atypical" if anything, not the interests, however unorthodox they might be. Few of the people who I can share them with are autistic that I'm aware of. I engage with them to soothe my mind, fill my time, and satisfy my curiosity just as I believe anyone does their hobbies - it's just that being autistic leaves my mind with greater need of a "sanctuary" than most people, so I instinctively immerse myself more deeply.

My "hobby behaviour" may or may not be a useful diagnostic sign of autism; but I labour for employers and get my household chores done in atypical ways that reflect my traits too, and no-one deems these "special" behaviours.

Is interesting, as with me, I find anyone who does not share my special interests as being odd... (Well, not odd but I am intregued how they can go through life without wanting to enjoy the same interests that I do if that makes sense).

For example. There are two types of people in this world. Those who like trains and those who don't. It is along those lines that I think, but not quite as extreme... You get the idea. But would that be a hobby or a special interest?

Umm. Wheels these days are made from metal and chemically blackened. I believe they are an alloy of steel? The chassis blocks are mazak. I can find out about the wheels. I have made my own wheels from resin but they were de-comissioned and found better use in my Signal and Telegraph department of my model railway and re-emerged in the form of guide wheels for the signal and point control wires.. (Fishing line).
Plastic wheels... There are two types of plastics. Thermo setting and thermo plastics. Plastic wheels will normally be made from thermo setting plastics because they retain their shape better. Thermo plastics tend to be softer and can be melted down to reform if needed, whilw thermo setting plastics can only be set once. The colour of the plastic... I was fascinated by this when I was in college and I visited a factory... They used little balls which were melted in the vacuum forming machines. They were using thermo plastics. The ones which can be reformed. Now if they wanted a clear plastic they would just use the clear balls. If they wanted a coloured plastic, they only had to add five or six coloured balls and the whole plastic took on the colour of the coloured balls. I assume the coloured balls cost more then the clear balls? It was fascinating to know that though.
These days most models are made in China. Two larger factories make them. I would have to look them up, but basically one factory would make products for some companies in rhe Bachmann group and the other factory was making them for the Hornby group of companies along with others, however I believe the Hornby group had to change to the other factory because the one large factory went into bankrupsy... But in China many smaller factories set up also. The issues companies had were staff that were either not skilled enough to know or they were not bothered (I believe it was the skills were the issue) as with mazak as a material, it has to have the right mix of metals to make it stable, and one of the issues they have is if someone mixes a small amount of lead into the mixture (Usually by accident as a lot of metals would be formed by recycling scrap) was that the mazak casting may look perfect... But as it ages the molecules start to expand if they are contaminated, and the metal starts to break up. This has been known about for many years. Certainly before WW2. But about ten years ago many manufacturers of model railways found some of the mazak castings were having this issue... And so, sometimes after a year or two, or even after 30+ years certain models chassis blocks were starting to break up. A few Palitoy models under the Mainline brand had issues but not many, but recently Heljan, Hornby and Bachmann in the UK have all had had certain models which have sucomb to the chassis rot issues and sadly, as many issues may take years to come to light, we may in future years find many more.
I have been considering making my own chassis blocks and wheels. I do have a few tools to work with softer materials. I could do with selling more of my surplus 00 gauge collection to raise funds to buy more equipment.

Enjoy talking about them, but don't know anybody else with similar interests.