"Stereotyped and restricted" interests

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These statements make no sense to me. I assume the spirit of the criteria is to assist with diagnosis.



I don't understand why you're pointing out that stereotyped interests are not the only diagnostic criteria to be met for diagnosis. That statement makes no sense in reference to what I said, which is just that the stereotyped interests are under the "repetitive behavior" criteria. I also do not recall stating that one only needs stereotyped interests to meet the criteria for any ASD.

Here's what I mean by repetitive: One of my interests was one game. I spent all my time reading the rules, stacking and lining up the pieces, looking over the supplemental materials. I actually spent very little time actually playing the game (I didn't really care about finding other people to play). I am not saying NTs never do this, nor am I saying that this is enough to diagnose me with AS or autism or PDD-NOS. All I am saying is that I do not think that it means "stereotypical interests" in the sense of something like "trains" or whatever. I do not believe the word "stereotype" is used in that context in the criteria.

Because people think the stereotyped interest is only seen in ASDs and having a repetitive interest must mean someone has an ASD. I was negating that.

Anyway, I get what you are saying and that can be taken as one type of repetitive interest. Another might be the interest that becomes a focal point in one's life, like the kid who is obsessed with dinosaurs. It's repetitive because the child keeps referring to the interest over and over. You could liken it to an obsession of sorts.

Spirit of the criteria refers to inferring what is not written into the criteria but is related to it and could be taken into account when diagnosing someone.

I'm more like this too. When I get obsessed with something, I can't stop thinking/reading/watching/searching (about) it exactly for that feeling of immersion and happiness. I don't talk about them much at all. I'm not very good at reproducing information out of my memory, and even worse at expressing it.

Here's a question

I rock back and forth to music, it's a compulsive thing, I can choose
to stop, but I get extremely agitated when requested to do so
or if I can't do it, and in those moments when I can't do it
all I think and care about is rocking.
and I do it many times a day

Is this self stimulatory behavior or ritualistic type of behavior?

I'm thinking it can be both, I also rock when extremely excited or happy or pace when I'm nervous, I'm THOSE are self stimulatory behaviors but I'm having a hard time seperating what's a stim and what's a ritualistic behavior

Both of this. Oh well, I don't get so excited since I'm 38, I guess... I try to talk about my interests with others, and though sometimes I succeed, most of the time I'm the one who listens to someone who is really 'stereotypically' knowledgeable on a specific subject.

Textbook example time!

If you go by what this

is supposed to describe then you get this for AS:



Edit: Wait, I forgot the other thing!

In short "abnormal intensity" means someone with a special interest is someone

* who won't talk about anything but their special interest
* who tries but cannot uphold a conversation about other topics including people's wants/needs because their special interest gets in the way
* who can talk about others things but experiences great difficulty to discuss those things without going back to their special interest

and/or someone

* who cannot or can but has difficulty to keep to a "typical" schedule of taking care of themselves and their lives because their special interest "gets in the way" of for example eating meals regularly/at normal times, taking care of their health/hygiene, keeping their place clean and tidy, remembering appointments...

= having trouble doing whatever things are considered "necessary" or "normal" because they can't stop thinking about/doing their special interest

Now I forgot about "abnormal focus" before.

It is supposed to describe a narrow interest though someone else will probably explain that better than me. I just forgot time and should not be here anymore.

My interests aren't restricted in the sense that I'm not open minded, but I only like to take on one thing at a time.

I can get interested in almost anything, but I do focus on SAID thing narrowly until I move onto the next thing.

Yeah, I agree with all of this.