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NTs With Special Interests

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zen_mistress
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12 Apr 2010, 8:33 pm

PunkyKat wrote:
Impossible. Tiger Woods may love golf but I truely doubt he loves it to the point of true obsession. Does his wife feel neglected because Tiger spends ALL of his time playing golf or doing golf related things? Has his wife considered dumping him becuase he is more devoted to golf than he is to her? Does Tiger Woods talk of nothing but golf and is it all that he thinks about? Do people avoid interacting with him because all he talks about is golf? When it appears NT's have a special intrest, it's usualy with something considered socialy acceptable to be "obsessed" with such as sports, celebrites, reality TV shows or Japanese cartoons. There are other people to talk about it with who are equaly "obsessed" so they aren't veiwed as weird except maybe by people like us. It's impossible for an NT to have a true special intrest and be a true NT.

Does your daughter talk of nothing else to the point of annoying the crap out of everyone around her? Does she turn down the opertunity to socoilize, or even eat in order to do something related to her special intrests?


My uncle appears more or less NT with his social give and take and sociability (except for lots and lot of monologuing) but he seems obsessed with political systems. Interestingly, so is my dad. Because my uncle is in a family where AS seems to run that is why I would say he has traits. I think it is also likely with people on this board- parents, brothers and sisters may have one or two traits from beng in an AS family.

I think Tiger Woods is a dfferent case because for him, golfing is a passion, not a special interest. There is a difference. He has had room in his life for other pursuits, as we have seen n the media recently... :?


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Hiker
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15 Apr 2010, 12:32 pm

A "rage to learn" is characteristic of giftedness (check out Ellen Winner for one). If it's athletic giftedness, the person will be passionately focused on a sport; if it's musical, on an instrument or instruments or on reading scores; etc. Intellectually gifted people characteristically have the kind of thing you describe -- a revolving focus on topics it's possible to be intellectually immersed in. This is one reason differential dx between "just gifted" and "gifted with AS" is so very, very difficult.

('Course I'd argue giftedness is a neurological diversity too, so "gifted but not on the spectrum" can still be meaningfully described as "not neurotypical" because it too creates special needs...but anyway.)



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26 Jan 2014, 12:49 am

My stepfather, who is about as NT as they get, seems to have intense interests in the piano and bicycling. My 14-year-old half-sister (also NT as all get out) is also super into her cell phone. :roll:


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