Special interests

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I'm curious what everyones special interests and how do you define a special interest

For a diagnosis, I believe they are more interested in the intensity of the interest than what the interest is. It is intense if it is one of the following:
1. You work on it too long, to the point of neglecting other important tasks.
2. You keep taking about it, even when someone doesn't seem interested.

Maybe others can add more reasons to this list.

It isn't always a long term interest, it can keep changing over time.

For me, building electronics as a hobby has been my most intense special interest.

I experience my special interestes as something that brings me great joy. They give me a high as if I'm flirting with a beautiful woman or something. I use them to soothe my self when I'm anxious. Also I get a big high when I talk about them to somebody. For the moment they don't bring me any economic benefit whatsoever.

In the 2000s I became hugely interested in Napoleonic era cavalry and wrote 6 articles on the subject, 3 published online and 3 in print journals. I think that qualified as a 'special interest'. Some of the articles have since been cited in books.

^ bolding mine.

That's what I use to know if an interest is just some random thing I'm kind of into v/s a special interest. If a thing starts to be so consuming to me that other areas of my life suffer or get neglected, then yeah, it's likely become a special interest.

Over the last few years mine have included; homeless populations in places like Slab City, and the 'mole people' in NY and Las Vegas, dispersed camping, hiking, the missing 411 phenomena, minecraft, writing intentionally crappy short stories, and knitting. I've had times where genealogy, religions, jewelry making, cats (specifically the russian blue), tiny houses, and drawing have been more favored. Most of these seem to come and go and resurface later without ever lasting more than 6 months at a shot.

I have to watch it with this stuff or I'll do absolutely nothing else in a day but go all in sometimes. Given that I don't work anymore and live alone, it can be hard to keep myself in check when I'm on full blown obsess mode.

That's really cool. Right on

My special interests have lasted less than a year, but more than three months. Otherwise, they are just hyperfixations —because I also have ADHD.

Currently, I feel like I don't have any special interests at this moment. Some days ago I was interested in Taxonomy, but it was momentarily.

The special interest that I remember the most was Alaskan Malamutes. I remember it the most because it was different from the others.

The others I have had were electronics, chemistry (water electrolysis), computers (coding and OS), and languages.

The outdoors, literature, humor, and politics.

I define special interests as sustained fixations, as opposed to the more fleeting ones you might associate with ADHD.

Mine are motorsports, military topics, history, prehistoric life and pharmacology.

My longest (and still current) special interests are:

1) Spellings of female first names (alternate spellings). I once sat at my computer to see how many possible phonetic spellings there were for Carolyn. Though I didn't type every single one out (there's a way to project all possible spellings without actually typing every one out), I calculated over 1,500 ways. Don't believe me?

Kerrowlynne

Kearollinn

Carroelin

Kyrrollyn

2) Racial ambiguity, racial mixes, "she's really dark, but wait...the woman next to her is even DARKER," what someone would look like if one parent was half Asian, Half white, and the other parent half black, half East Indian, etc., etc., etc.

My other current special interests are not lifelong, and I've had some pretty big ones in the past that were pretty big, such as wood chipper deaths and schizophrenia/mental patients.

A current one I have going now, and I have no idea how long it'll last, is eye contact in autism. I was diagnosed last year, and even for a few months prior to the diagnosis, I got really fascinated by eye contact struggles in autism. There's like 10 distinct reasons why some Autists struggle with eye contact.

For me it was dogs. For the first 16 years of my life, all I thought or talked about was dogs. I was an expert on dog issues among people who knew me. Once my teacher asked, after a history lesson, "any questions?" I raised my hand and said "do dogs have dreams?"

None of my interests since have been quite as intense, but I still tend to be somewhat obsessive in my interests.

Most of mine achieve some kind of useful result, though I think that may be simply because I figured out years ago that it was probably wise to stick to useful activities. Not that I particularly see economic benefit as the only worthwhile end result - e.g. I might record a song with no thought of trying to sell it, but simply in the hope of creating something of beauty that I might feel proud of. I used to know a guy (definitely eccentric, possibly Aspie) who made model train sets. He was unable to make money out of it, though he clearly had a talent for the process. When people asked him why he didn't try to monetise it, he said it would compromise his freedom to pursue the thing in the way he wanted, that it would spoil the fun. I think there's a lot of truth in that. It must get rather dull to be controlled by the question "is this maximising the financial returns on my invested time?" Nonetheless, a lot of my energies go into doing things that try to make my everyday life easier and more efficient, and I suppose they count as economically-driven. I get very bored with menial work and I'm always trying to find ways of getting it done quicker.

I occasionally break character and find myself doing something that has no useful end purpose, and I clearly get a lot out of the process itself. I think I'd feel lost without something fascinating to do. And although many of my activities appear to have a practical purpose, I often lose interest in the result when I've achieved it. I seem to get a lot out of the "trailblazing" - finding out how to do this or that - but once I've discovered the method, tested it a couple of times and written it up, I might never go that way again.

Just wanted to add (I can't find the "edit" function to my post that's several above this one), that what makes an interest "special" in the autistic sense is that you THINK a LOT about it. You don't necessarily TALK a lot about it, but your mind frequently drifts towards it while you're doing just about anything. But talking about it during inappropriate times is a tip-off, like the time I initiated a discussion about flicker fusion rates while the family was in the living room after another family member passed away. Or talking about it so much that people complain or make fun of you.

Def.
To be honest I'm not even sure I have special interests anymore. I last remember being that obsessed with something about 10 years ago at age 20, and every year prior to that. But it seems to have more or less died off as I've gotten older.

Cool! what are some of the things you have built?

I love mixed media art. i use a lot of textures from random objects, i make molds and use polymer clay. i've used cd, dvd cases as canvases. it's like there's no rules really. it's a great way to express my feelings and thoughts