Yo dawg, I heard you like special interests ...

Post Reply New Topic

Mine is pretty broad but specific I guess. Japanese culture, so things like anime and learning about the language and culture itself. My old special interests were guitar and drawing, so now I just play J-pop songs and draw in an anime style. I will also occasionally get obsessed with particular anime titles.

History and geography. Combining the two and looking at historic maps is amazing. Also interested in transportation, and I used to be interested in all the Japanese culture/language stuff.

I always have very specific fixations within my more broad special interests. Like, neuropsychiatry is one of my biggest special interests, but specifically, bipolar disorder is my biggest fascination. And within bipolar disorder, my fascination specifically narrows to bipolar I psychotic mania for symptoms and brain activity and lithium for pharmacology. Similarly, for Cedar Point, it narrows to roller coaster statistics, which narrows to the Magnum XL-200. And for I Love Lucy, the narrowing is not as neat and tidy and is harder to explain without writing many paragraphs. But in general, episodes #23-53 encompass most of my narrow fascination.

Uhm, I have both broad and specific interests. For example, I like psychology and the like, but what condition/illness I will be obsessed at the time changes. For the past several months, or about a year, it went from bipolar disorder to dissociative identity disorder to OCD to maladaptive daydreaming to schizotypal personality disorder to Asperger's syndrome/autism to sociopathy and back to Asperger's/autism again.

I'm mainly into scientifc topics, and that's quite broad, but I'm usually obsessed with astronomy, cosmology, psychology, quantum physics, oceanography and meteorology.

I like history too, as long as it has to do with North Korea or Axis Powers Hetalia. Hetalia is... a very funny show... that mainly takes place... in World War 2. I love the irony of that. Nothing's really funny about North Korea's history though , unless Hetalia makes North Korea a character... which I doubt, because South Korea didn't let the creator of the anime put South Korea (the character) in the anime.

I have no idea what broad category floriography (the meaning of flowers) goes into, so I guess that interest is pretty specific. I'm more into the meaning of rose colors too, so that's even more specific.

Because there are so many things related to Spongebob that you can research or really get your head into. For example:
- animation
- voice acting and voice actors (Tom Kenny was my focus at one point)
- Nickelodeon (has also been my focus for a while)
- the episodes themselves
- music
- merchandising
- books, comics, magazines and other literature
etc etc.

The fact that Spongebob is so ubiquitous makes it (him?) such a broad topic.

Since I was about 10 I've had a lot of specific interests, and a few have overlapped. It's usually been people who I want to kinda channel and become like, weirdly its always been men but it's not a crush, just, well, an obsession. I used to lose a lot of schoolfriends who got so fed up of hearing about the one thing.
I've had:
- Robbie Williams
-Johnny Depp
- Marilyn Manson
- Placebo
- Lord of the Rings (Gollum in particular)
- The Manic Street Preachers
- Body modifications (this is still kinda current)
- cats (again, still current)
- Serial killers and criminal psychology (another current one, and am looking to make this a career)

Mine changes frequently, though right now it is running. I've been doing the Couch-to-5K program and have been absolutely obsessed with the GPS data generated over my runs. I'll probably stop being so obsessed about it eventually, but hopefully the exercising habit is here to stay.

Also, I fixate on board games quite a bit, but unfortunately, it requires someone else to play with, so I can't get my fix as often as I like.

Music is my main obsession, nothing stimulates more. Psychology is number 2 on my list; the outsider that I am, I am obsessed with the mainstream nutcases that think I'm the nutcase.

Another person interested in North Korea! I usually feel like the only one.
Hetalia is awesome. Russia is my favorite

Making maps using google earth and GIMP is my new bestie.

Oh, OK, so yeah. My interest in my favourite 'topic', Echo & The Bunnymen is broad for a few reasons:
- I'm interested in both the live performances and the records. I think most fans like some of the records, and I don't know that many fans enthusiastic about the current gigs, but I've found them anyway. Funnily, critics in Israel (where I live) also tend to be fans of the 'new' Bunnymen (Siberia period, at least) over the old Bunnymen.
- I'm interested in not just the bio, but how they've told it. I often feel 'sucked in' when I read quotes.
- They changed how I listen to music, and I also recognise the style quite easily - before it was published that Will recorded with Eva Petersen, I heard the song I thought I heard Will play and told myself I might be off my head imagining it...
- I'm interested in the visual aspect of the band (that'll always come across badly.... I mostly mean Ian's stereotypical sunglasses and hair combo... his attempt to create a sort of detached personae.)
- I sort of make up my own myth around them, and create things about them etc.
- Also acquired related items - not on my own though, but through networking.

And to answer on a deeper level - I do think I'm like that with other interests also, I do always connect my interests to other subsequent interests without even noticing.

My interest is musical theatre, but within that, I focus specifically on one particular song from one particular musical. "Nobody's Side" from the musical Chess. I know which actress played the character who sings that song in every recording, know how long each version of the song is, and like lining them up in my head and on paper from shortest to longest. I also listen to the song repetitively when I need to calm down.

I love talking (well, monologuing) about who sings each version and how long that version is and that the London cast's version by Elaine Paige is the longest because they also include the scene before the song, and that Emma Kershaw's version is the shortest because the tempo is slightly faster so the song is over more quickly......... but no one ever wants to hear that stuff.

Somewhat broad, I suppose. I tend to become obsessed with some computer game I'm into and most of all some specific character from it.
Sometimes the same deal with a book, movie or tv show too, but it is rarer.
Despite thinking about my interest most of the time, I rarely share any of it since I'm afraid of being judged for it.

I'm still learning about the AS world and trying to narrow down specific interests is hard because I'm kind of interested in everything so can I say that my special interest is being curious?

I guess as an extension of that is that I love knowing how things work, whether it's machines or animals or NT's brains ( ) ... anything/everything.

My special interest is the bare feet, soles, and toes of females around my age. I've had this interest for over 20 years, but I was diagnosed with AS only two years ago.

Sorry but that is not an interest. That is a fetish. Just sayin.