nature of your special interests

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I was wondering for those of you with special interests

1. Do you pursue them by accumulating info on a topic; collecting items related to topic; talking to people re: topic; reading the same books/watching the same movies again and again but not collecting more info about book movie; thinking or fantasizing constantly about topic or what combination of these methods? Do they involve routines of going to a particular website, watching a particular show etc?

2. How intense is your interest? Is it to the exclusion of all other things? Do you find it difficult to have conversations about other things?

3, Are your special interests personal or impersonal?

I'm not sure if I have special interests or not. I perseverate on topics and have since I was a child but my interests are not quite like the interests described in books on AS, namely that interests are usually: impersonal and involve either collecting info or collecting items related to the topic. My interests were often things that I would think about or replay the same fantasy about over and over again. The fantasies and thoughts would be based on some accumulated info on the topic but I wouldn't need to research and accumulate new data necessarily. IU would ask people questions about the topic incessantly as well. Also some of my most obsessive and longest lasting interests have been very personal (i.e. an interest in a culture where I would imagine myself as a member of that culture). They usually involve a routine of going on a particular website related to the topic or watching a show related to the topic. Mine have been very intense where I think about them non-stop and find it hard to talk about other things. As a very young child I would spend most of my time in these fantasies and would not be interested in toys or t.v or anything but whatever the interest was but as I got older and now I am able to/want to do other things (school work, watch cartoons...as an adult ....Are these special interests?

Anyways I'm curious about the special interests of others with ASD's and how similar or different from mine they are.

My special interests are the Scottish rock band Travis, Italian classiucal pianist Ludovico Einaudi and, to a lesser extant, political science, I used to be much more into politics but I've recently begun to phase out of it, so I'm excluding poli from my answers.

1. Do you pursue them by accumulating info on a topic; collecting items related to topic; talking to people re: topic; reading the same books/watching the same movies again and again but not collecting more info about book movie; thinking or fantasizing constantly about topic or what combination of these methods? Do they involve routines of going to a particular website, watching a particular show etc?

No, my special interest is an activitely, not a subject (listening to music)

2. How intense is your interest? Is it to the exclusion of all other things? Do you find it difficult to have conversations about other things?

it's passionate, but it's not something you can have conversations about, you do it, you don't talk about it, however if you were to meet me you would probably find I'm listening to one of those two artists and I'll probably ask you if you know them or if you like it or what your favorite song is or if you want me to make you a CD compilation

3, Are your special interests personal or impersonal?

It's intensely personal, it's not rote or routine, I've occasionally been euphoric listening.

This is a very interesting topic.

1. Do you pursue them by accumulating info on a topic; collecting items related to topic; talking to people re: topic; reading the same books/watching the same movies again and again but not collecting more info about book movie; thinking or fantasizing constantly about topic or what combination of these methods? Do they involve routines of going to a particular website, watching a particular show etc?
Well, I am first and foremost a storyteller (film and writing). This is a result of my constant need for some sort of available creative output and writing, especially, helps a lot with my interests because I can write about them. I do enjoy reading and watching lots of movies but it's hard to find good books and good movies that are exactly about my interests. My general interests are broad: fantasy, science fiction, steampunk/dieselpunk, historical fiction, etc. Any kind of "punk" really, or Disney. But my true interests are so specific that my own creations have become my strongest interests. In other words, I devote most of my time to writing. And when I write, all I am basically doing is viualizing the scenes in my head like a movie (with the coverage shots and everything) and I "adapt" that into writing.

2. How intense is your interest? Is it to the exclusion of all other things? Do you find it difficult to have conversations about other things?
No, not really. Of course I do other things than write, but not much. As for all of my interests, besides school, my life is only interests. Hehehe.

3. Are your special interests personal or impersonal?
They are very personal. As stated, my strongest iterests are my characters from my writings. They all somewhat represent me and my personality and my struggles and interests. When I write as my characters, I feel like I am going through their adventures with them. It takes me away from reality. I've always had that craving to get away from the real world, and writing is just one of the easier ways.

My main special interst is politics/economics/history; minor interests - psychology; computers; animals (animals were my special interest as a child).

1. Do you pursue them by accumulating info on a topic; collecting items related to topic; talking to people re: topic; reading the same books/watching the same movies again and again but not collecting more info about book movie; thinking or fantasizing constantly about topic or what combination of these methods? Do they involve routines of going to a particular website, watching a particular show etc?

I guess I do some combination of accumulating info via books and internet, as well as fantasizing. I very rarely talk to people about them though, and I don't read the same material over and over. Not that I won't re-read or re-watch, etc., but there's not any kind of routine to it.

2. How intense is your interest? Is it to the exclusion of all other things? Do you find it difficult to have conversations about other things?

I put it aside for work, but often I find myself anxious for the work day to end so that I can get back to it. I've also not been sleeping as much as I should because I stay up late pursuing it and then jump out of bed as soon as I wake up to get back to it. As I said above, I don't really talk to other people about it though. I actually have a very difficult time sharing my interests.

3, Are your special interests personal or impersonal?

I actually have both. I do collect things, and while I'd have a very hard time letting those collections go, I don't spend much time perusing them. Mostly, I just collect them and set them aside. But I also do what you describe and have an entire fantasy world built around certain interests. Those I would consider quite personal.

1. Do you pursue them by accumulating info on a topic; collecting items related to topic; talking to people re: topic; reading the same books/watching the same movies again and again but not collecting more info about book movie; thinking or fantasizing constantly about topic or what combination of these methods? Do they involve routines of going to a particular website, watching a particular show etc?

I do a little of each, but by far the biggest way I pursue my interests is by thinking and fantasizing about them. My interests have always involved TV shows or movies, so I take my favorite characters and daydream about them having new adventures and relationships than what they had in the originals. It's basically fanfiction, except my ideas never actually get put down on paper.

2. How intense is your interest? Is it to the exclusion of all other things? Do you find it difficult to have conversations about other things?

It depends. A few years ago, my interests in Hellsing and Trinity Blood were so intense that I didn't allow myself to watch any other anime shows or read any other manga because it felt like I was "cheating" on them. I also didn't talk much about anything else.

Since then I've learned to relax about things like that. Nowadays I'm able to watch and talk about things besides my interests, for example I sometimes watch shows that my parents like to watch and discuss it with them on commercial breaks and after the show is over. But talking about my own interests is still my favorite thing to do.

3, Are your special interests personal or impersonal?

My interests are very personal to me. The characters from whatever shows/movies I'm obsessed with who come to reside in my imaginary world are more than just characters to me; they are my imaginary friends and I love them as though they were real people. As such, I tend to become extremely attached to them.

1. Most of my special interests throughout the years have been mostly composed of accumulating information about a topic. The only big exception is with I Love Lucy, my biggest special interest. With Lucy, I collect both information and objects. My Lucy collection is almost as big as my encyclopedic knowledge for the show. A lot of my special interests are TV shows or movies, so for those SIs, yes, I watch the same episodes/movie over and over again for a routine. I love reciting quotes/dialogue from memory. It calms me and gets me excited. And all of my special interests from age 11 1/2 onwards have been the type where I monologue about the interest to people I'm close with whenever I can.

2. When I was 11 1/2 to 13, I was at my "most Aspie" when it came to my SIs. This was the time when I would literally go up to anybody and start rambling about Cedar Point and their roller coaster statistics. Around age 13 1/2, I learned to ramble only to people I'm closest with, unless somebody brings up the interest in conversation, in which case I will ramble anyway. So, no, I don't find it difficult now to have conversations about other things, because I feel I'm a pretty well-rounded individual and easy to talk to. But I WILL talk about my special interests with acquaintances and people I'm not close to if I'm given a chance to bring it up in conversation somehow.

As far as my SIs being to the total exclusion of everything else, I guess it depends what situations you mean. When left to my own devices, I will spend time doing SI-related things by myself at all times, and I will also talk about my SIs whenever I'm able. But I never had a problem with my SIs getting in the way of being able to get important things done, like schoolwork.

3. I don't really know what you mean by "personal/impersonal." I mean, all of my SIs mean the world to me and are crucial for my well-being and identity, but I don't connect on an emotional level with many of them. Like, nothing about I Love Lucy makes me say, "Hey, this is just like my life!"

1. I like information gathering, but I also like integrating the things I learn into the way I approach my existence. I don't really like to bother gathering information I probably won't use.

2. I can have a conversation about anything interesting, whether it is about my current specific SIs or not. Unfortunately, I don't find too many things interesting, and I cannot talk about things that don't interest me very well.

3. Don't know.

Thank you for all the thorough and detailed replies so far!

IdahoRose, my interests are very much like yours. They are very personal and involve imaginary worlds and imaginary friends who I love like real people. Some of my interests have involved fiction and for a lot of those I did write fanfic in my head. My more scientific interests (they were all related to biology until the recent psychology interest) also sometimes involved imaginary worlds though..........when I was a child I had an imaginary world where I was an octopus and was surrounded by other cephalopods and sea creatures.........I was a very strange child

"ZeroGravitas", in regards to:

Are your special interests personal or impersonal?I don't know what this means.


Well my interests are personal because they often involve me as a character in an imaginary world.......the ones that have been fiction related and some other ones. Right now I have an interest in ASD's and bio psychology related to ASD's. The bio psychology part is accumulating info and I delight in doing this but the ASD's part is related to me because I think about how the info I learn relates to me....that's a different kind of personal than the imaginary worlds but either way I consider it personal. AS special interests are described as impersonal ( collecting facts, info about topic) but mine are often highly personal.....or have a component that is anyways

Ah. I wasn't sure which meaning you meant.

And I still don't quite understand. I immerse myself in my interests, mine involve me learning and playing with information. I don't recall ever having an interest with a high component of fantasizing myself within it.

The closest I can think of to this experience, is when I am strongly interested in an algorithmic system such as physics or information theory or programming, during which I will find myself thinking in terms of vectors and probabilities and bits and such.

But, I don't really think of it as an AS thing. Many people who delve deeply into a subject find themselves thinking in terms of their study. A programmer sees things in terms of programming, etc. Most science departments in universities are full of people who have begun thinking of things using the concepts of their fields: awkward mannerisms on telephones become race conditions, social awkwardness becomes impedance, cognitive biases become bugs in the human operating system, etc.

Their field of study has simply given them a different vocabulary of metaphors and analogies than that of the rest of the population.

This happens outside of the sciences as well. I've known several people who were able to instantly correlate any event with an analogous event from a work of fiction they enjoy.

I think this may be what you mean.

This is interesting, I just found this thread:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt53913.html

Most seem to have denied being "rote memorizers without necessarily having genuine understanding of the broader topic," and actually find it offensive to suggest such.

ETA: The DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria only states regarding interests: