Do ALL Aspies Have a Special Interest?

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I honestly thought that everyone had hobbies.

I can't list all of mine here without crashing the system.

It would probably take me several days to write down a list of "in depth" interests I have and have. I can actually have several on the go at once and alternate between them (if I'm not too stressed or depressed).

My parents actively encouraged me to have interests.
They kept buying me books and equipment faster than I could keep up.
I was given a constant supply of things to have "special interests" on whether I asked for these things or not!

I kept telling them to stop, saying "That's enough! I'm happy now.", but they kept on buying my science toys and other hobby based things. I think they wanted the best for me, but in doing so almost "suffocated" all my free time with stuff and planned activities. I got so absorbed in the things they bought me that I'd hardly see anyone for days.

Now our house is filled with all sorts of paraphernalia and we can barely move. The garage is even worse. We've already donated a lot of our educational "junk" to schools and colleges that can make use of it. I'm selling a lot of the surplus stuff too.

My parents have their own in depth interests that they've had for years. So has most of my family. What's so strange about that?

Math
Psychology and the human mind
drama
architecture
interior design
camp
the Bible
veganism and vegan recipes
grammar
Clay Aiken
Physics and astrophysics
friendship bracelets
knitting

My current special interests are math (lifelong), physics (lifelong), advanced mathematical concepts and planes (rather new, but may turn lifelong), and knitting (my primary obsession. It comes and goes, but comes back stronger each time).

I've never derived inherent satisfaction from anything that could be viewed as a 'special interest'. Any1 else feel the same?

WOW, your parents sound NEAT! I wanted to learn german for a long time. The first book I got for german was like when I was in highschool. It was Berlitz, and I got to have little respect for berlitz. The teaching style was wrong, and the pronunciation info was WRONG!

I learned the word hobby to describe my special interest. I wondered what hobbies others had, as I didn't know their hobbies. EVERYONE knew MINE!! !! My big ones have been electronics, computers, and languages, but some would say I have other interests as well.

Just a few mind consuming activities of mine:

Cooking and Baking
Local Restaurants- Menus and Wine Selections now more than ever (but I have specific tastes, so I don't care about wine that I don't like)
Farmers Markets- The Farmers and Their Produce (types of heirloom veggies, livestock, cheese)
Organic Fair Trade Coffee

If I have the energy, time, and ingredients, I am a cooking perfectionist. I will go all over town for ingredients just to make a meal for myself, and then take a picture of it. I like to eat at competing restaurants and compare menu items, then go home and make something similar, but better than you can get at either restaurant. Coffee is a new one. I have a goal to try all the available varieties at the local health food store. I've thought about trying to sell recipes that I come up with on my own. I've thought about culinary school. Now that I am more open to non vegan and vegetarian food in my kitchen, I am trying lots of things that I had given up for years.

Edit:
The other day I finally had ingredients to make a pizza that I planned on making months ago: pear slices, brie, roma slices, fresh mushrooms, homemade wine sauce, and sharp white cheddar cheese.

My interests have varied for the last 16 years. I'll be really interested in one thing for a few years at a time.
When I was really young (like 3, 4, 5 years old) it was puzzles. I'm talking big puzzles, like 500-1000 pieces.
Then when I started school at like 6, 7 years it was spaceships and astronauts.
After that until I was about 11 or 12, it was airplane seating arrangements (go figure on that one, but my mom was never able to get me interested in any other aspects of airplanes )
Now for the last 3 years or so it's been computers

I've had a special interest for 25 years, but i've delved into other interests briefly... almost in preparation for losing my special interest, so i'd have another one ready to go!

Some things i've followed and become absorbed in, just for a month or two : learning the Chinese language, complete engine rebuilding, odds and probability.

Most of my interests stay constant, but I always add new interests.

Computers and technology for me. I really got a serious obsession when I got my first computer at age 15--especially after I learned a bit about programming.

What does change are the various particular interests within computers and technology. Today I might be obsessed with computer programming and next month it might be my phone and so forth.

In no particular order:

G.I. Joes (not just playing with them but organizing them into squads with organizational charts and so on)

Military novels (this is an ongoing one that also coincided with my G.I Joe obsession)

Sharks (not so much all of the in depth biological data, I've been fascinated, and sometimes terrified of them since my first viewing of Jaws. on a side not if you ever play the board game Apples to Apples with me the "Sharks" card is an instant winner )

Madden NFL (video game) similar in-depthness to the G.I. Joe phase in that I must have spreadsheets of my rosters in order to know what players I have. sounds silly, especially for someone my age haha.

ASDs (yeah, that seems to be a common one amongst us WPers)

for Christmas I got a couple of books on Astronomy and would like to get into that.

song lyrics (there was a time when the walls of my room were covered with lyrics that I had printed out, I still love lyrics as I think music & lyrics help me to communicate with others better)

writing (mostly what I would call Bad Poetry, started out pretty simplistic and evolved when I was in college to some more abstract stuff I guess. I don't write as much as I used to. I still carry around a small note pad and pen in case I suddenly feel "inspired"

there are probably others that this tired guy can't recall at the moment.

That's a good point. I'm sorry to hear about your experience learning German. Mine at times almost verged on the unbelievable. My parents insisted that everything I had was audio-visual. Some of it was more show than substance though.

Possibly the best educational video ever created, in my humble opinion, has to be "Hallo aus Berlin". I almost fell off of my chair the first time I watched it. I was thinking: "What the..."

It contained a bizarre and engaging mixture of: thumping "90s Pseudo-Europop" sing-alongs; a pair of 3D cartoon puppets doing anatomically impossible dance moves on psychedelically coloured backgrounds; vox-pops with random German people; and a culturally diverse gang of young people who actually went out and included a posse of "Take That" worshipping girls.

Some of the unintentional comedy in that show frankly verged on the surreal. The best line of the whole thing was: "Mark ist total gut!" said by one of the "Take That" worshipping girls: it practically had me "in-stitches" with laughter!

I don't know what's sadder, me staying in like a hermit to watch a show about people who actually went out, after school everyday; or me memorising all the lyrics and the actions to the songs. The even sadder thing is that when I feel depressed and alone, I listen to the accompanying aged song cassette. "Wann treffen wir uns?" just became another phase in my vocab list with absolutely no basis in reality whatsoever: I hardly actually went out with anyone at all. I was too busy learning German.

"Was machst du in deiner Freizeit?"

What was I supposed to say?
"Ich sehe (gern) Hallo aus Berlin"?!

It's one of those shows that really has to be seen to appreciated and is probably best not viewed early in the morning after a "hang-over". Not that I ever get to have any "hang-overs" you understand: I don't drink or go out (much).

Yes, I have a special interest. It keeps me going, otherwise...

I currently love business yay and im currently studying it at school so i get a grade for my obbsesion lol

Trains
Power Rangers
Human Body
Pokemon
Area 51
Degrassi
Disney Channel
That '70s Show
Smallville
Earthquake Faults
Personality Disorders
Forensic Science
Bipolar Disorder