why do aspies have special interests?

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Some people have an obvious answer to this without knowing it themselves. You say you "need" to do it, as if you're controlled by something and are unable to use your own will. I don't know how or what this is. If someone could explain it it would be great, it is very interesting.

I'm much more collected and rational, I get something out of the interests that I surround myself with, unlike much else that happens in a day, or in a life. So all of the things that are already mentioned, plus more, gives my brain something that it likes, and I feel great because of it. But I have to initiate the act of doing something with my interest for it to happen, it's just my own choice and neurological tendencies, and sadly nothing else.

The real answer is that we don`t actually care about our interests so much. It`s just that they allow a place for our minds to shut off, and reach a different level of brain activity.

This is why a repetitive and predictable interest is so enjoyable, as it allows fro the most amount of disconnect.

My special interests give me emotional satisfaction and become my world. Everything I see - people, landmarks, objects, etc.......I manage to tie to the special interest. It is all-encompassing. Unfortunately, with the special interests (usually I only have one at a time), I experience a great deal of emotional pain related to them. So they are a double-edged sword.

One explanation is that maybe the underdevelopment of white matter connecting parts of the brain endemic to Aspergers causes a sort of "congestion" or build-up of neurons in parts of the brain that make them hyper developed and focused on certain narrow abilities or possibly even narrow interests.

I just made this up on the spot. I know 0 about neuroscience

Well, what I can tell you is the more I get of my special interest, the more of it I seem to need.

I have had my fair share of geeky special interests but interestingly the longest lasting one, which started when I was 9 and endures to this day (I'm 43) is band. My folks were delighted when I started doing band because they hoped it would help me be more social but my obsession was always about the music, outfits and choreography. The idea that it was a team activity totally went over my head. I think I only realised last year that people mainly belong to the band as a social thing, whereas I'm still probably stuck in some childhood musical fantasy.

The thing is I have a bit of a problem to do with my other main special interest (a particular area of science), in that my boyfriend hates it and thinks it is a complete waste of time and a false subject. I have to keep equipment related to this interest at my parents' house otherwise he nags me about it, and that means that I can only get to do certain things relating to the interest when I visit my parents. As you can imagine, this severely curtails what I am able to do and I am very frustrated. He also complains when I book myself onto workshops relating to this interest and quizzes me about what they cost, and asks me how the money could be better spent in life. Am I the only one having this problem?

Unless everyone knew he had AS. If people think that he can't lie they'll be less vigilant and he could actually have an easier time getting away with it than a NT.

That's how it went for me. I got away with every lie I told because my parents didn't expect me to lie at all.

My theory on this is that everyone has special interests (ever encounter an NT Civil War buff or sports nut?!) but balance them out with other social aspects of life. If you don't have the other social aspects of life, the special interests are all that's left, plus there's more time for them without the other stuff.

Blue EK - I went through a Big Foot phase, too - did you go hunting for tracks? I did ... oh, I just loved that!

Let's make this reasonment. Why every person in this world, not only aspies and autistics, but even NTs, and people of any cathegory have interests? Because it's something they like and that interests them, and also because is a pleasant hobby you can have when you're not studying/working. The only difference is that aspies/autistics hyperfocus on them so much that they can't focus on nothing else.

No, I don't think so. The opposite, at least for me. In the days in which I feel more introverted, and I don't want to socialize at all, I wouldn't talk to people at all, if it wasn't because of my interests.

You're right. I have actually experienced this. My main Special Interest for many many years was Sun Microsystems and when Oracle bought the company out (= killed it), I felt like my best friend had died. I didn't go insane but I almost did. I went into a very long, deep state of depression and began drinking very heavily. The drinking went on for about 2 years and the depression lasted longer. I spent some time in a psych hospital for depression and my relationship ended. I don't know if it was all due to my Special Interest dying overnight but it certainly was a main contributing factor.

I went through a period where I tried to find a new special interest but nothing lasted more than 3 weeks. I'd get REALLY into something (like Morse code, knot tying, etc), buy a heap of apps on the new interest, spend a lot of money, loose a lot of sleep reading/doing new interests and then, as I said, drop them pretty much on the 3 week mark.

Then AS and Myna birds came to the rescue. I didn't pick them to be my special interests. They sort of picked me. I stumbled into them or rather, they stumbled into my life and both have been going for a long while now.

Now, all of the familiar behaviors are back in my life again (sitting up all night until early hours of the morning studying, reading, writing, taking notes, waking up through the night/early morning and getting on the Internet to research my SI's, thinking about them 24/7, obsessing over them, thinking and reading about them when I should be working (naughty Aspie)) and I couldn't be happier. It totally relaxes and de-stresses me.

I'm a complete wreck without my Special Interests

I don't know, it's just another annoying part of having AS. I love my special interest, but I still rather I wasn't prone to getting this obsessed. It's not even objects or animals or facts or numbers that I'm obsessed with - it's bus-drivers. I mean, the real question is, why do some Aspies have special interests with people? That I'll never know.

i think they're an aggregation of inborn proclivities. when you combine my doggedness, with my perseverative tendencies, with my predilection for information and modules of information, with my intense focus, with my hermetic lifestyle that affords me plenty of extra time... you get my special interests. i don't think my special interests are a direct byproduct of my ASD (despite their apparent prominence), but rather an indirect consequence of its other core features.

personally, i just feel better if i have something to think about all the time, like Sonic, i like to research, i dont really know why i have special interests, i just always have

No way! It's not avoidance! Here's what happens: I get bit by a question that really affects me, then I just want to KNOW STUFF because my brain wants to answer the question and have a romp! It's the best!

Yep that's how it is for me. I really do care about my interests but I guess that's because they stem from wanting to know how to do things in my own life - most of the time (I will admit, sometimes I go off on some throwaway tangents of research).

I find the majority of people over simplify and miss out important details. I like to cover just about everything there is to cover and look at things from every possible angle that I can. I am a reflective learner who hates learning by rote memorisation alone (although I can do this if needed). I like to explore possible relationships and how they all work together.

My lecturers at college told me I had a tendency to spot things and make connections that other people missed. I hate leaving anything out and will spend hour upon hour exploring material that fascinates me in order to better understand it.

Then I also need to know how it relates to what I already know...I have to fit everything together!

Then again i am not sure if I have an ASD. I am however passionate (very much so) about the interests I do have and spend more time on my interests and hobbies than I do socialising. I love to learn, understand and explore. Lately, though, I don't have one particular interest as such (unless you include a liking for spending all day traveling around rural and coastal areas on public transport...usually the bus). Outside of travel, my brain seems to want to learn about anything and everything it finds remotely interesting so at the minute it is jumping from one thing to another after exploring fully whatever it has just read/learned/explored.

From learning to knit to reading about sharks or marine life to dinosaurs/fossils/evolution, to wanting to explore museums, to wanting to go kayaking and horse riding, to bodybuilding, human biology, to reading about paleo nutrition to wanting to learn pottery, sketching, painting to reading about parapsychology, psychology, to learning to sew...

I also have a particular interest in pondering the true nature of reality, not the subjective perceived reality that society and culture etc has brainwashed us to live by. This is causing an interest in anthropology to spring up.

Right now I have a documentary on about dinosaur sex whilst I ponder continuing on with my knitting (I am making a scarf in basic knit stitch). Earlier I was reading a book called "The shark that walks on land". It is very interesting.

Mostly though, I am just jumping from one thing to the next lately. Not that I don't have any concentration, I do, There is just so much to learn and so little time to do it all. Especially as I need my sleep (8 to 9 hours a night please) as well time to eat properly and exercise (I like to stay healthy). I spend a few hours pondering and learning about one thing then move on to the next before returning to learn more about the first thing some time later on.

I want to go back into formal education. I miss writing essays and studying. It was the love of my life, if only I could have made up my mind what degree I wanted. They all looked interesting in one way or another and I had equal grading across the board (mostly) academically so it was hard to chose something.

Bah humbug. I wanted to do more than one degree really.

When I was on antidepressants I got more fixated on just one thing for months on end. Off antidepressants I am back to being the queen of jumping from one thing to another (something I can also do when speaking which is why holding a conversation can be hard going with me...oh the tangents! Someone once called me little ms tangent actually!) I can pick up some odd hobbies all the same though. As a child I collected bank forms for example lol. Not usual for 5 year old little girls of the time.

I don't know what I am right now.

Just me I guess.