Have you ever been this invested in your special interest?

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I was laying down on my bed and was thinking of my special interest of Psychology. When I was in College I did a research paper over the 2 week holiday period even when the teacher advised us to take a break. I'd also ask her questions daily (which as you know became an issue) (the questions were I found X article have you heard of Y topic etc.) and I was thinking I was so invested I was balling in tears when I had to miss a day of school to go to a doctor check up!! !! !

Sure while not in College there's Google/Wiki etc. to research Psychology but IMO it's not the same since you aren't invested in College on the path to get your degrees (IMO research whatever to your hearts content unless YOU ARE IN COLLEGE you are NOT becoming a lawyer,doctor,Psychologist etc.) My mom got an email from my old friend that said she hated college missed family etc. While yes I'd miss family MY MAIN PRIORITY IS GETTING MY DEGREE! NOT MISSING FAMILY!

Looking on it though it's not NORMAL to cry over having to miss a day of class or be so invested you do work over the 2 week holiday (but I rather be invested than do cram sessions which IMO ARE STUPID!) Have you ever been THIS invested in your special interest? and is it wrong? (Duh it is from NT's point of view but how about fellow WP members does this behavior sound similar to you in anyway or am I even weird for an Aspie??)

No, it' not weird. I'm a film and animation student and I was distraught today when I was too ill to come into college to finish off work (on a day that I wasn't meant to come in). I'm still angry that I have this stupid flu! Then again, my tutors have high standards and expect us to be working all the time so it is especially not weird in my case because everyone has to go through this in my class.

When I was young I was obsessed with the Girl Scouts...silly...I know... concidering what a geeky outsider I was among the actual troop I was in...
I had to miss one meeting because my aunts husband committed suicide, and I got really freaked out/upset when I realized that I had missed my scout meeting that night..totally eclipsing the feelings I was supposed to be having concerning the death of my uncle.
That was the only meeting I had missed, and it was towards the end of the year and I was set to receive an award for perfect attendance....gads I was hysterical....talk about insensitive...

When I was in primary school, the time of my violin lesson was changed so it happened to coincide with History class, which was my favourite subject, and I cried a lot because I didn't want to miss it (my mum called the school to change the time, so I didn't have to miss History). But that was when I was a kid, so maybe that doesn't help you...

My current main interest is languages (I am studying Russian, Spanish, and Italian), and I am very dedicated to my language studies, a lot more than I am to my actual schoolwork (I am always forgetting to bring my exercise books to school, but I always remember to bring my language books, even though I rarely get the chance to look at them while I'm at school). I don't study languages at school, but I will be studying my three languages at college because I want to be a translator. I would definitely still be studying languages during a 2-week break or whatever, because I like being able to just learn languages all day without having to worry about homework and other things.

When I'm studying I make no distinction between holiday and non-holiday.

And no, by that I do not mean everyday is a holiday but the opposite!

Wow glad to get some replies. I was so focused on Psychology I didn't want to do my other class work which is why Psychology class was an A and the others B's and C's. Glad to know I'm not the only one although my meltdown of missing class was when I was an adult LOL! I don't remember doing something like that when I was a kid. Also glad to know it doesn't matter holiday or no holiday and that some of you would do your work over a 2 week holiday time. (IMO it was to get ahead and have a paper done for the following semester LOL!)

I can totally top that dude...and with one of my interests that isn't my top one: entertainment/cultural history.

Several years ago I was friends with this guy, and his teacher gave him a take-home quiz about movie studios that he had to fill out and turn in upon his next class.

Prepare yourself for this....I was so stimulated by the thing that I did his homework for him.

He didn't pay me or anything....I just did it cause it looked so interesting.

However, he was afraid that his teacher would notice it wasn't his handwriting, and I was afraid he'd get kicked out of college for it.

Yes that's right people....I feared my then friend getting kicked out of college by my hand...cause I got excited over his homework.

Not drugs, alcohol, theft, etc....doing his homework. I kid you not.

And that's not even my #1 special interest...

However, in regards to #1, well...I own a business that caters to that interest...and we're doing pretty well already

When I was in a band at school I was really really annoyed when the other badn members did not turn up and band practice got cancelled.

There was another insident when we had been making nature documentry's in science. We had a substitute teacher and she would not let us carry on, sadly the documentry was never finished.

In the cummer holidays i missed education so much that I ended up reading big wikkipedia articles of somthing I knew nothing about like the Chaos Theory (Which now I know about) now im trying to find out about quntum mechanics.

that's probably why a 'special' interest is so special ...
it's not just an interest (because interest is already something that takes your attention and which you really like),
it's something that takes you (or drags you?) into it very obsessively.

it can be very possitive, people whithout autism easily stop with something they are doing, lots of other things are just as important.
but it can be a problem if it's too obsessive (and you forget other important things)

When I was a kid, my mom agreed to take me horseback riding on Saturday if I kept the kitchen clean all week. If there was some reason we couldn't go I would get extremely upset. I could not cope well with missing horseback riding. I expected to go every weekend, I rode the same horse every time and talked about "my" horse at the stables and how great horseback riding was all week. I think my mom was secretly hoping, once I saw how difficult horseback riding was, how uncomfortable it is, and the odor of horses, my horse interest would recede some. It didn't happen. My horse obsession didn't subside until around the age of 13, when alternative music replaced it.

Oh yes. I used to get in trouble in Bio, Chem and Physics because I would drap the teacher off-topic into some obscure conversation about the subject. I don't even remember just how many classes I "wasted" for the other students because I kept the teacher off-topic for the entire class. Hated, absolutely hated missing those classes. Hell, I remember when we disected frogs in Bio that we were just looking at the digestive and circulatory systems and I continued and disected its head and eyes too to keep seeing more. Just... so fascinating, so wondrous to see so much. Think that was one of the only times my Bio teacher was annoyed with me. Apparently I freaked out my lab partner doing that. Not that I cared or even noticed lol. I do the same things at work, I'll be focused on studying and end up missing stuff like meetings or suspenses.

Done it with my psychologist too. For the first couple of months with her we would get off-topic going into some random subject, normally philosophy, religion, humanity or psychology for the entire session. Unfortunately, she learned to keep me on subject so now it's much more difficult to get that incredibly stimulating conversation now. I really miss that too. Though, now I'm working alot more effectively on me I guess.

Actually, I have the opposite sort of. Evenw hen my special interest is the exact same as what I'm studying in education right now, the stress of college issues will lessen my interest in the topic (temporarily).

My junior year of high school, I spent every day after school in the biology lab. I was upset the day I had to miss school because I was in the hospital with pancreatitis, and the very next day after I got out of the hospital, I was back in school. I was going through a lot that year, and so I channeled it all into biology, especially genetics.
Part of it was also that I had this really amazing teacher, too. I'd never have survived that year without him.