Nts and their interests

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Here I was thinking we are the ones who were 'sposed to have 'narrow interests'...

After going back and reading the whole thread, the replies have been pretty much spot on.

There are 'secular interests' and there are 'personal interests' and I find NTs more absorbed with the former and Aspies with the latter...

Look, I don't care if Nicole Kidman gave Jimmy Kimmel a lap dance on national TV and now Keith Urban is screwing Jennifer Lopez in retaliation...I....don't...care!

So, the Maroons won the National League Premiership for the 14th time in a row? woop de do!...tell me when a different team wins it, okay? boring...

The things that occupy small minds are indeed....small.

No idea. I'm glad you used the word average, as that cleared a gap in my understanding. It implies that an NT can have interests of 'Aspie' intensity/focus, just that the average NT won't.

It's the meticulous nature of this all as to why I can't make up my mind either. I have a history of rituals/routines, stimming, literal interpretation, poor social skills, tactile sensitivity, executive struggles etc. At the same time, I don't really feel as if I have difficulty with facial expressions or tone, abstract concepts, auditory/visual sensory processing etc. I also love people more than my interests, and that's probably the biggest game-changer for me. I crave physical affection, e.g. I always mash myself up against my friends in bed and hug them tightly when I get the chance. The traits that I do have I also feel are too mild (particularly at this age) to warrant any ASD diagnosis. I definitely do have things 'out of place' (I don't say that lightly), so it remains a mystery as to why, and that's stressful.

If I had an alternative choice, my 'diagnosis' on my profile would not be 'Not sure if I have it or not' but rather, 'I don't know'.



I don't care for gossip unless it's directly related to myself or a situation I could take advantage of. The thing is, it usually is both of those two things, as I would have had no other reason to hear about it. I have found it entertaining to conduct my own 'analyses' of others in the past based on how they would respond differently when not directly confronted with their subject of speech. In other words, if they spoke about my 'behind my back' differently to my face, it would generally make me spiteful, and I'd take advantage of the knowledge I had formed in my mind as a result of their decision (though I won't say how).

I suppose you could say though, that I only really enjoy gossip for the personal value that it has to me, in that I can manipulate situations to learn more about others, and how I am connecting with them etc. If someone I really like gossips about me negatively, it generally makes me sad or spiteful.

Narrow interests are only one of the criteria's for Asperger's. NT's do not experience many of the sensory issues that those with Asperger's do. They also are able to read others and communicate better then those with Asperger's. Some Nt's do have very narrow interest, but this is a common behavior.

To me NTs do not have any interests at all. Not really. They may like this or that, but they just get passionate about it. They don't really care. At least the ones I do don't. Like say if my mom likes a particular singer, she is not a very good fan. If she liked history, or royalty, she is not a very good follower.

In my case, I'm as up to date as possible. Reading, every time a new album comes out, if possibly I preorder it. I just love royalty, I learned almost everyone's geneaology back to the Plantaganets(for England, for example). I'm so into the anniversaries right now, that I check every single day to see if the second proplica is available for preorder. The second I saw the Sailor Venus Zero figures, 'this is mine!'. The second I saw the Cutie Moon rod, they said preorders start next month, but I'm checking just in case. One never knows.

I always say I'm an excellent fan.lolWith me, if you sing, if you act and I like it, you've probably got a fan for life. El Chavo was filmed before I was born. If my favorite character was still alive, what I wouldn't give to meet that guy! Not to mention I'd buy every piece of merchandise with his image on it. I even named my dog afte him. He might not be too happy about it, but I think of it as an homage. I'm even thinking about the world cup this weekend, my dad's looking forward to it. I'm thinking I should cut the power as soon as it starts, just like it happened to him on one episode!! ! I wonder if my dad will throw the tv on the ground and step on it.

NT brains are pre-programmed to get into things that other people are interested in. I can force myself to take interest in other people's interests for a time just to socialize, but after a while I get drained if the topic never comes back to something I enjoy. It ends up not being particularly worthwhile.

NT's have similar interests as people with ASD.

What varies, perhaps, is both the intensity of the interest, the specificity of the interest, and the esoteric-ness of the interest.

People with ASDs are often interested in how the machinery is run, starting from the beginning of the creation of the machinery; whereas NT's might only be interested in how the machinery is run, at that present moment.

I've known NT's with pretty odd interests, actually.

True. They usually like what other people. Maybe that's why their interests change so much. It's about what's popular.




You know, that's true, now that I think about it. If I'm interested in something, I want to learn EVERYTHING. Not only today, but the background, everything. I mean, how did it get here? Who invented it and why? What was this person like, their childhood, experiences? What inspired them? How'd they figure it out? How much has this affected how we live today, and what would it be like without it? What are the plans and likelihood for it that we might perfect for the future? And, of course, how does the original invention differ from today? I mean, like the telephones people used when they were first invented differ very much from the ones we use today. Probably not just in how they look, either. Probably in how they actually work, even if the basic concept remains the same? Well, what can I say, other than I spend a lot of time learning about my special interests.

I know for a fact that the main reason I live in this place is because some idiot invented the air conditioner, and that made it easier for people to tolerate this climate, and could move here. Now, with all the waste heat and everything the place has only gotten worse with time, increasing the need for the a/c. Now you can't live without it. If that had never been invented the chances that this place would even be a small town are close to nil. We'd also probably have a bit less pollution. Those things use up GOBS of energy, plus the refrigerants with the CFCs, not to mention the waste heat. It's a bit of a love/hate thing. You just can't live without the wretched thing. Unless you come with ways to conserve water, like tough skin, spines, not sweating, more concentrated urine, etc. In other words, unless you become a xerophyte. That's why it became a special interest of mine, I think. Unfortunately, it's part of daily life. And it's good to be informed. I mean, energy is something you use every day. It's important to know what type and where it comes from, not to mention the effects it has on the environment. Ignorance is never bliss, imo.

Some NTs do have very intense interests. My friend S is NT and she's very socially adroit and empathetic, she's very motherly. She gets intense interests in particular people and finds out everything about them and will not stop talking about them and has been told by other friends besides me that she does this to an annoying extent. She makes jokes about it. When she's a fan of something, a book series or a singer, for example, she researches and learns tons about it and gets really passionate. She's definitely a good fan. Although her interests are not really esoteric, they are sometimes geeky. Some of the things she gets obsessed with are comic books or fantasy series or video games. I gave her the AQ test to take, just for fun, at one time and she scored 9, a lot lower than most Nts even score. She's very good at reading emotions and intentions and adjusting her behaviour, she has tried to help me with it a lot. My point is, overall she doesn't have many autistic traits but she does have passionate, intense interests and although relatively mainstream, they can be geeky.

Also, she has another friend C , who is also very socially adroit and has lots of friends but has an intense interest in costume design. They (S and C) go to comic cons together and design costumes for them but C is more obsessed with it than S and C is obsessed with styles of clothing worn in different time periods in history and researches it all the time.

Of course the nueromainstream peaple have passions and interests. For us it harder to transition out of it and we are less inclined to want to transition out of it. We are more inclined to have narrower detailed interests and not care as much or even understand the "big picture" .

The railroad train schedulals or baseball statistics are used as examples. An Autistic's special interest could be literally about any topic or topics.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 13 Jun 2014, 8:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I can't stand football. As a man that's just not acceptable. Sadly, I've spent more of my life talking about the subject than I've spent talking about the things I love to try and fit in. It doesn't work though... I try to be polite and ask who is playing, who they support, what they think the score will be etc but somehow that's not good enough - they know I'm just going through the motions.

I've been on a train on a Saturday and listened to groups of men gassing endlessly about fantasy football teams and goal averages and... all sort of other stats that I can't remember. Then the train passes through Clapham Junction and they yell abuse at the boring anorak trainspotters on the platform. How is their stuff any better than Pokemon or Dungeons and Dragons?

Sports have been a general public interest for a very long time, maybe even since humans exist.

I thought you mentioned in a thread that you lacked stimming?



Yes I do agree with this, I like collecting data. I've organised a lot of learning materials that I've never got around to learning. I just like categorising them.



Yes I agree, I know NTs who are very passionate about their interests.

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NTs seem to enjoy doing things other than their interests and spend plenty of time on things other their interests, such as socializing instead of doing the interest, but I just want to do my interest.

Some people on the spectrum think that interests are only exclusive to Aspies and NTs only like sitting around gossiping all day. Wrong. They do have interests. We all know that a lot of men like sport, and a lot of women like shopping. People may even get obsessed over these things. But even in the NT world there's a broader range of interests other than sports and shopping. I know people who are into fishing, or horse-riding, or painting, can play a musical instrument, enjoy collecting, travelling, dining out, films, parties, going to steam fairs, going to air shows or boat shows, love animals and owning a number of pets, building things, exercising at the gym, history, computers, acting, singing, dancing, reading.... the list goes on. Yes some may call these hobbies, but what I'm talking about is a lot of people use their hobbies as something they're interested in too, and not everybody in jobs are just doing it for the money. Some people go to university and want to do something they enjoy and study for it and try to get a job out of it because they happen to be interested in that subject, and it's not always a case of copying their friends or being talking into it. You will be surprised.

I lack what I would refer to as 'autistic stimming'.

When I was around 10/11/12 I had a variety of strange stims, and my mum cried because she didn't know what was wrong with me.

Currently I still have some strange stims, but I feel that they are caused by something else, rather than be 'autistic' stims. The same can essentially apply to all my other characteristics, hence why, if I could change my diagnosis to something other than autistic/neurotypical, I would. It would be 'I don't know'. I chose the closest thing to that.

Aren't those the same thing?