Special Interests

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Just wanted some Aspie's points of views here. I've wondered this for quite some time, how do Aspies develop their Special Interests? Is it much like a normal interest an NT would have but more in depth? What gets you interested in certain Special Interests?

I think it's a way of dealing, me for example I had abuse to deal with... I'd much rather live another person's life. Which is why I'm particularly interested in people's personalities as a part of my special interest in music, while a lot of people who are into the same thing as me aren't. I'm not saying abuse is the only thing people need to cope with, only that by creating an in interest you engage in by yourself, you disengage yourself from your environment.

It starts as mild curiosity about a subject. Now I can have 20 subjects a day that I become mildly curious about, but only one subject out of thousands becomes a special interest (refereed to afterwards as SI). The curiosity for a SI grows rather than being satisfied the more I read or learn about the subject. At this point I would refer to it as a potential SI, this will happen every few months or year. As my curiosity about the subject is still not satisfied, I start to work on the subject, design things, draw things, and interact with it, if at this point this just continues to increase my interest in the subject and not satisfy my interest it has become a SI. It is also likely to have started to consume a large part of my thought process, and I start to think about it every day for a few hours. As it reaches this point I am unsettled if I do not spend at least 1-2 hours on the subject a day.

It is not really a conscious choice, but it develops over time. I hope this helps you.

My special interests are a big part of my personality and I'd be lost without them.

Special interest development fascinates me. I hope more research on SIs is done in the future. Many Aspies, myself included, will tell you that the SI picks THEM, we do not pick IT. They just seem to find us, and it's an instant, often unexplainable captivation. And the younger I was when an SI started, the less I'm able to explain my fascination for it. I have lots of topics that could be considered SIs, but I only consider about 4-5 of them true SIs due to their intensity.

Once an intense SI has found its way into my life, the first phase is a short period of increasing excitement and obsessional thinking about the new subject. I'll get what I call "excited panic attacks," which are pretty much what they sound like- I'll have a panic attack from excitement about the new SI, and in order to stop the panic attack symptoms, I have to engage in the SI. This tends to happen the most for movie/TV show SIs. Then, I slowly begin to search for and print out pictures of my new SIs. And do Internet research and/or read books. By this time, I'll also casually mention it to my mom, and then casually drop the subject here and there in conversations with people I'm close with. By this time, I know deep down that it's going to be an SI, but out of guilt and loyalty to my other SIs, I don't admit this at first.

Slowly, the intensity will grow enough and last long enough that I feel the subject is worthy of being deemed a true SI, and once it's "official," the next phase, which usually lasts 1-3 years, is what I call the "rambling phase." This is the "most Aspie" time, where I literally will talk about the SI and nothing else if given the chance, and I will try to bring up the SI in conversation whenever I can. The SI dominates my thoughts during this time, and if allowed, my brain will re-visit the topic whenever able.

After the rambling phase has ended, the SI will become a permanent fixture in my life, along with my other SIs. They stay with me for life, as do their passion and intensity, but post-rambling phase, I only will ramble about them when they are brought up in conversation somehow. I no longer have the obsessive need to talk about them every chance I get, but I still delight in talking about them when relevant. However, every so often, whether by reminder, nostalgia, or something else, I will have a resurgence of the rambling phase for a particular SI. Only, the resurgence of passion only lasts from a few days to a month before it goes back to the permanent fixture.

I have no clue why I get interested in something, I just do. Even the interests that I’ve had for years I have no explanation for why they started or what keeps them around. They are definitely useful as an escape from whatever is bothering me but most of the time they are just filling a need to learn more about something. For me something can captivate me for a few intense hours or end up lasting years.

Mine start off as small curiosities which develop toward obsession. Right now one of mine is my Rubik's Cube. I literally never leave home without it. I solve it at least 10-15 times a day. My wife rolls her eyes when I start talking about Cube related stuff, as I tend to just go on and on about it. I'm the same way with music and bands.

I'd say it's like NT's interests in that it's something that sparks our interest...
...only when our interest is sparked we hyper-focus and absorb everything we possibly can about a subject.

For example...
My first major special interest was Geology at the age of 7 years old - it was sparked off by a school trip to somewhere near a bunch of quartz mines, the first time I saw amethyst I was obsessed - everyone collected the odd pretty quartz, amethyst and pirite to take home...I took home half the mine, I was fascinated with how these rocks came to be so pretty, and even won an award from teachers who were 'impressed' (creeped out) by how much I had taken an interest. Then upon getting home I collected loads of books on the subject, constantly took out library books on the subject, got involved in local geology clubs, had every flat surface of my room absolutely covered in every type of rock imaginable, found a great gemstone dealer, and a good few years later (this special interest lasted 10 years) I had every geography/geology teacher in the area begging me to come to the school in which they worked, one even offered me a job.

It can be such a small spark of interest in a subject that can cultivate this mental obsession.

Last edited by Bloodheart on 27 Apr 2012, 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, with me it can start out like normal curiosity. But eventually I'll find that I return to a particular interest over and over again, and I'm not sure why. It answers some need inside me.

It's a little like developing a crush on a person. There's some almost archetypal force or process going on that latches hold of me and takes me on this journey that seems meant to be. I won't realize it at first, but if you've ever had that experience of a crush, there's one day you look at the person and there's this shift, almost like "they've changed something in the matrix" and you do a double-take and realize "I really LIKE - maybe LOVE - this person!" That's how the realization feels that I have a new special interest.

I suppose that in order to develop a special interest, one has to have pretty strong curiosity to begin with. That combined with a tendency to focus intensely, and to enjoy being in a learning flow. But the subject seems to choose me in a sense, or there's a sense of attraction that pulls me in. Information gathering can be a kind of flow experience in itself. When it has a focus, as I said, it's a bit like being in love.

It's funny, because there are times when I know that an obsession is fading a bit, or changing course, and I'm aware I'll be taking a rest from it for a while. (My special interests can go underground for a while and then resurface, months or even years later.) I've said to myself at one of those times recently, "I wonder what my next new obsession will be." I noticed that I looked forward to finding that something new, and the feeling of, in a sense, falling in love with it.

I tend to be obsessed with patterns, mathematical or otherwise. I have to be careful driving because I can be badly distracted by repeating parts of the passing scenery: Telephone poles, mile markers, clouds...Because of this most of my Special Interests tend to be offshoots of this obsession: crystallography, recursive patterns--fractals, ect. , M.C. Escher/tessellations...So, I guess I really have only had one special interest for most of my life that has different branches to be explored. I don't remember when this obsession developed, I just remember always being distracted by these things, to the point where it can be very hard to concentrate on anything else.

I should add that I'm technically not dx with Aspergers but rather HFA, so maybe my experience doesn't apply...

For me, things have to be "right." When I grow interested in something then I continue with it until it is right. That often requires intense study (because not every topic is simple) and may take many years or a whole life. Result: a classic special interest.

During my childhood, I was very influenced by events that were happening around me. For example, my first obsession, that I can remember, happened when I was watching the movie Titanic (James Cameron). From that moment on I did a lot of research about the ship, and I didn't know a thing! Then I became an expert on how she sinked, how she hit the iceberg and break in two. The second great obsession (great, because I'm sure I've had more little ones): began around 1 pm September 11th 2001. I was watching the whole thing from Portugal. My mother has an architecture book thats is 3D and things rise when you turn the pages. I'd never seen that building in the book, but there it was: the World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2 in size comparison with other tall structures. I stared the model until the real one collapsed. After that, I became expert on skyscrapers: Tour Eiffel, WTC, Sears Tower, Petronas Towers, etc... and that still lasts 'till today!
My current obsession: coins. Euro coins to be precise. It started as a simple collection of current coins of euro from all issuing countries. Then I realized there were more euro coins not available for trade: collector coins. I was astonished on the immense number of coins already issued that I didn't even know they existed. Of course I couldn't afford an entire collection of gold and silver coins, specially when there are coins not available for public or coins with a face value on 100.000 Euro that cost 1 million and something euro. So, I started my own digital collection with pictures of all euro coins and I'm still working on it. Meanwhile, I've been working on PowerPoint projects about multiple things: SI Units, The 88 Constellations, the Standard Model of Particles, the Extended Periodic Table, countries of the world and their flags and even the Tesseract (4th dimensional cube).

All these things came to me with school's field trips, museums and even in my class of Physics and Chemistry...

I think these things appear to some Aspies in sudden inspiration sources.

I'm interested in acquiring and listening to symphonies by unsung composers. This, of course, started out by me acquiring and listening to music by the popular composers (Mahler, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Dvorak, etc.) Just in the past month I've digitally acquired music by unpopular composers such as Herzogenberg, Borresen, Rufinatscha and many others. I guess it all started when I was "Amadeus" when I was 18, and that was years ago.

For me, it's the feeling I get when I absorb myself in it. Not everything makes me feel so good when I study it, so the things I end up obsessed with are the ones that just feel so elementally interesting. So I end up obsessively absorbing myself in musical theatre, or Toronto Island, or Nancy Drew, or tornadoes, to name a few. Some of them are passing obsessions. I've been obsessed with Broadway and musical theatre since I was 6, but the other ones come and go. Sometimes I get re-obsessed with something several times over the years.

I don't know why they're so transfixing. They just are.

I think that I start out with something getting my attention and liking it right away, and the liking moves quickly, within minutes, into really really really liking. Then, I have to pursue pursue pursue.

I've been drawing since I was 2 or 3 so I don't remember how I got into it. All I know is when I was child it was the only thing I did that I was good at. Everything in the world was difficult compared to it. I still like to draw but not as intensely as before.

My interest in science fiction started as just a curiosity. After getting into Doctor Who I opened up to other shows and then started getting into all of it. I loved the back stories of alien species and the science in it kept me interested. I've always had a knack for remembering facts and once I got into science I had an abundance to of knowledge to gain. From science fiction I got into literature because for some reason I want to write my own sci-fi and that's what I'm doing.

My special interests always become a part of me and every part of my day is about them. Even when I have to do boring grown up stuff it's still on my mind. Everything unrelated to it become research, even socialising.

Most of my new interests have been subjects I've always liked a little bit but never really did much about it. I've always love aeroplanes but only recently started to learn more about them when I got interested in the air force, which was encouraged by Stargate SG-1.

And yeah, it is a feeling, one of excitement and to me, stimulation. It's hard to explain but it's almost like a high.

P.S Dots: I love tornadoes too. When I was 12 I bought a pet tornado and then tried to replicate it by using dish washing liquid. You basically swirled around a glass with chemicals in it and a funnel would form.
I like volcanoes too. I like the destructive forces of nature. I absolutely love solar storms. Well, all the data of a solar storm.

My special interests have to be practical these days, probably why I don't do as much art as I used to. I need to do them for a goal. I watch sci-fi to help me write. I write with the goal of getting published in mind and moving onto the next book.