Question about special interests

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Is it rare for aspies to not have these sometimes? I like reading about pretty much anything, but I cant seem to find any one subject that i can really get into.

Then acquiring knowledge is your special interest

Haha, Yea I suppose it is, yet another thing I've never thought of before. This site answers so many questions for me I love it. ^^

I haven't really had an all-encompassing special interest that lasted for any length of time since I was maybe 7 or so (dinosaurs from sometime before I started preschool through first grade, and snakes before that). I think depression may have caused me to not be able to pursue special interests. For the longest time, I didn't have any main interest, other than obsessively reading about certain topics for a couple of days.

Recently, I seem to have more energy to actually pursue interests again. Right now, my "special interest" seems to be classic gaming, but I'm still shifting my focus like every week it seems like (for example, for about a week it was all about emulators, primarily an SNES one, now I'm on actual consoles again, but some days I'm more obsessed with Sega Genesis or Atari 2600 or N64 etc. It's weird). I just bought a bunch of games and hardware, and spent a lot of time getting things out of storage and making room for all my systems, so I hope this interest doesn't fade anytime soon.

When I was a small boy I used to be into human anatomy/medicine and a bit later on I became interested in history such as from the time of the Basques in Britain (people who built stonehenge and other stone circles) to the fall of the House of Wessex in 1066. I found most interesting, from about 10 years old onwards. From the year 1983 I became interested in chemistry and specialised a little after into Organic chemistry which I found easy some of the topics I found qutiee easy such as Infra red spectroscopy mechanism in organic chemistry I found quite simple. I like watching Star Trek:TNG and am a bit of a trekkie. I liked a lot of science fiction on the telly during the 1970's and 1980's. I also used to watch Tomorrow's World which used ot be on Thursdays on BBC1 at 7.00pm during the 1970's. I always had some interest in science to a varying degree from curiosity to being able to do some quite avanced stuff with almost no effort as though I could do it instinctively.

There is much variability in the spectrum. It would be more rare for someone to have every single trait I believe, but I'm not an expert.

I mostly commented to make a comment about your Sonic Riders Tails Avatar. :heart:

I'm one of those people who love to learn and I guess you would say my special interest is ambiguous.
Before I left college, I was trying to get a second degree in Mathematics, though I didn't get very far.

There are some things that I will discuss much more intensely than others:

All things Psychology, Speech Language Pathology, areas of Linguistics. I love to listen and question people on Mathematics and Physics.

Anymore, I just keep my thoughts to myself because I lack a lot of the confidence that it takes to discuss any of this.

That sounds to me like a state where you are between two special intererst. Like you have ended one or it faded out well enough to not feel you have one. And in a finding a new process. You will feel and know the day when you will get hit by something new to grow in you. At least thats my experience....

According to Tony Attwoods, book 5 to 15% of people with aspergers don't have a special interest. But he really doesn't get into whats behind the percentage. Are they aspies who never had a special interest? or does it include those who may be in between special interest? and who did he ask? or did he not ask and its his estimate?

I mean, I would have said I don't have special interest if asked. But those who know me might disagree.