10 Oct 2012, 5:34 pm
10 Oct 2012, 5:50 pm
10 Oct 2012, 5:58 pm
10 Oct 2012, 6:40 pm
11 Oct 2012, 1:09 am
daydreamer84 wrote:
Are you enjoying reading those fantasy novels just as an interest (not necessarily a special one)? Are you enjoying other activities but just not as obsessively as before? If so I think that's perfectly fine.......and it's also still possible you'll find something else years later that just catches you and you'll become obsessed with it again. It could just be a lull.....but I think if you keep trying to search for a new SI that won't work........you should just let it come to you if it's going to and otherwise enjoy various things to a certain degree (at-least that way you get to do MORE things....there's always a trade-off).
Jinks wrote:
I don't know anything about medication, but I have found that my special interests have changed in intensity and breadth as I have got older. As a teenager I was heavily obsessed with specific interests and usually one thing at a time. My longest special interest (a particular video game) was a specific obsession of about six years. However, since my early twenties, I have found that I am less obsessed with specific things and have a wider range of interests - instead of being interested in only one specific thing, I am interested in four or five. The level of obsession is less and I do not think I would characterise any one of them as obsessive, though taken together they would be as I still enjoy all of these things and spend all of my time with them. I find that this works better for me because I have a larger breadth of experience, knowledge and skills. There is also a better chance of being able to communicate with someone about something that interests me, as having five interests instead of one means five times the chance of them being interested in one too.
Maybe in your obsessive search for "the one special thing" you are missing out on other things that you enjoy, just because you are not enjoying them to the same depth as your previous special interest? Are you sure that depth of experience is necessary for you to take enjoyment in something?
Maybe in your obsessive search for "the one special thing" you are missing out on other things that you enjoy, just because you are not enjoying them to the same depth as your previous special interest? Are you sure that depth of experience is necessary for you to take enjoyment in something?
Jinks, thank you for sharing your experience with me. It's very encouraging to know that there's someone else who went through the transition from being obsessed with one or two things to enjoying a variety of hings.
You are both right... I still do have interests even if they aren't obsessive, and I do feel like I am missing out on my enjoyment of them because of my obsessive search for my "next big thing". I still love Johnny Depp movies even though I'm not obsessed with them like I used to be, and I enjoy all sorts of other movies and TV shows to varying degrees (mostly animation and cult classics). I guess it really shouldn't matter that I'm not obsessive like I used to be - I should just enjoy whatever I want to and quit worrying about whether or not it qualifies as a special interest.
That's my real problem - I worry way too much for my own good.
11 Oct 2012, 7:27 am
IdahoRose wrote:
Jinks, thank you for sharing your experience with me. It's very encouraging to know that there's someone else who went through the transition from being obsessed with one or two things to enjoying a variety of hings.
I also went through that transition but I still do get the obsessive special interests within my general love of everything
IdahoRose wrote:
You are both right... I still do have interests even if they aren't obsessive, and I do feel like I am missing out on my enjoyment of them because of my obsessive search for my "next big thing". I still love Johnny Depp movies even though I'm not obsessed with them like I used to be, and I enjoy all sorts of other movies and TV shows to varying degrees (mostly animation and cult classics). I guess it really shouldn't matter that I'm not obsessive like I used to be -
I felt like that until I came off the meds and realized what life could really be like as an aspie
IdahoRose wrote:
I should just enjoy whatever I want to and quit worrying about whether or not it qualifies as a special interest.
That's my real problem - I worry way too much for my own good.
That's my real problem - I worry way too much for my own good.
if your worring then that's anxiety not paranoia, please see my post about risipridone having a common side effect of anxiety (up to 20% of patients)
what you are describing is what happened to me on rispiridone, I'm now taking amphetamines and all the worrying (well 99% of it) is gone
daydreamer84
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Age: 39
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Posts: 5,001
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11 Oct 2012, 4:13 pm
IdahoRose wrote:
daydreamer84 wrote:
Are you enjoying reading those fantasy novels just as an interest (not necessarily a special one)? Are you enjoying other activities but just not as obsessively as before? If so I think that's perfectly fine.......and it's also still possible you'll find something else years later that just catches you and you'll become obsessed with it again. It could just be a lull.....but I think if you keep trying to search for a new SI that won't work........you should just let it come to you if it's going to and otherwise enjoy various things to a certain degree (at-least that way you get to do MORE things....there's always a trade-off).
You are both right... I still do have interests even if they aren't obsessive, and I do feel like I am missing out on my enjoyment of them because of my obsessive search for my "next big thing". I still love Johnny Depp movies even though I'm not obsessed with them like I used to be, and I enjoy all sorts of other movies and TV shows to varying degrees (mostly animation and cult classics). I guess it really shouldn't matter that I'm not obsessive like I used to be - I should just enjoy whatever I want to and quit worrying about whether or not it qualifies as a special interest.
That's my real problem - I worry way too much for my own good.
Well that's a common problem with ASD too...I think. We perseverate on negative things...things we're upset or worried about too (not just topics we're interested in......SI's). Sometimes my mind becomes like a stuck record and I keep repeating something I'm worried about in my head again and again like a stuck record...like why aren't I able to blah blah blah?.Negative obsessions suck. That's one of the not-fun parts of ASD,
Also just out of curiosity are you still reading A Name In The Wind? The last thing I read from you was when you were trying to get into these books. Are you enjoying reading fantasy as one of your interests?
11 Oct 2012, 4:26 pm
poopylungstuffing
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Age: 49
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Location: Snapdragon Ridge
11 Oct 2012, 4:59 pm
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