Anyone Here Never Had a Special Interest?

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I was reading an interesting academic article from 2012 about autistic special interests, and it claimed that 99 to 100% of aspies/high functioning autistics had at least one special interest. I found that to be a fascinating if slightly implausible statistic, and thought I'd see whether or not it was right. Has anyone here never had a special interest? I've had plenty over the years (which I won't go into detail about here because if I did, the post would be a mile long!)

I don't know that it's that implausible to have a 99% - 100% occurrence rate as it is one of the key diagnostic components to an autism spectrum disorder ("Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g, strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interest)").

This!

The statistic is also most likely based on people with a full clinical diagnoses so by definition we are going to basically all have a special interest.

Yeah, that's what I thought, it's in the diagnostic criteria. Special interests or being fixated with an object. I've never met someone with asperger's that hasn't at least had a special interest or a fixation with an object at one point in their lifetime.

not having one would be rediculous. unless your special interest would have something to do with not having one????

Isnt it true to anybody though? I mean, everybody I know have some sort of special interest to some degree.

I think maybe the difference is that with special interests in people with ASDs is that the focus of interest is limited to one interest, I find that Nts I know have an interest in things but they also have other interests in things, and none of the interests they have really border onto the obsessiveness of my interests

With myself I pick up a particular interest and focus on it intently without any interest in anything else for weeks/months, that's just me of course. for example people say they like harry potter but no one is willing to have hours long conversations about it like I would, although I don't understand why not harry potter is wonderful

Interestingly enough, the article I read was comparing AS interests to NT ones, and it was found generally that NTs had fewer interests than aspies did, as well as having more common or "mainstream" interests that had more to do with furthering social interaction than studying details of the interest itself. For example, the article stated that one NT enjoyed theatre because of the social opportunities it presented, and while an NT enjoyed playing the guitar, an apsie with an interest in music preferred the mandolin. I merely find the statistic implausible because it's extremely difficult to say that anything is 100% true of all people within a group as humans are so diverse. I might even believe 99%, but 100% felt too definite, and I don't really trust definite statistics like that.

That is interesting, I can understand maybe not developing so much mainstream interests, I certainly don't. NTs having fewer interests is not something I have heard of but I suppose with ASDs having more interests could also have something to do with having problems socially, so having more interests take place of a wider range or increased social interaction that Nts might have.

I don't think I've ever really had a "special interest"...........closest thing I can think of would be my having a few favourite bands in high school, but that didn't mean that I only listened to their music.

That really is very interesting, but one of my special interests is VERY mainstream - but I still rarely speak of it because apparently the way that I think of it - very in depth and detailed - is not how it is main streamly discussed. I would still just annoy people.

(Mainly streamly - I coined a term!)

If they have a correct diagnosis of Asperger's or autism it probably is 100%. PDD-NOS is another story.

100% sounds right to me, did they mean their study sample or in general?

I don't think it's the number of interests, but solely the obsessiveness and intensity of them, that is important for diagnostic purposes. It is true everyone has 'interests', but it's when you begin doing things like shirking a lot of responsibilities due to your obsessive studying that it becomes indicative of ASD. We can look at any given high school or college student and say that, most likely, that person studies a lot, but a special interest sort of studying would be very different. For one, it may often be something that is unrelated to monetary or career benefits, NTs would never just sit and obsessively soak up knowledge about a certain subject if they did not see some personal benefit to doing so, yet we often do it obsessively with the SOLE intention of being knowledge pack rats.

There have been times in my life where people thought I was studying for some major degree in a science, and I would just tell them that I was doing this for fun, then they would often walk away confused. I assume they would be questioning why anyone would take such a huge interest in something that they weren't doing for a college degree. I think that is often the defining factor in an ASD special interest, in contrast to a NT hobby interest.

My knowledge of certain subjects is probably so grand at this point in my life that I would fit right into a very important career field in some sort of science, yet I never was able to put anything to a degree, I dropped out of college twice due to my ASD symptoms preventing socialization and proper focus. So, I have no formal education in the types of things I have an obsessive interest in. This may change in the future, but my experience in attempting to put my obsessive interests into a real career have failed multiple times in my life, so I am pretty gun shy at this point, I am still in some debt from my last college attempt that ended with me dropped out despite having nearly perfect grades.

I don't think it's the number of interests, but solely the obsessiveness and intensity of them, that is important for diagnostic purposes. It is true everyone has 'interests', but it's when you begin doing things like shirking a lot of responsibilities due to your obsessive studying that it becomes indicative of ASD. We can look at any given high school or college student and say that, most likely, that person studies a lot, but a special interest sort of studying would be very different. For one, it may often be something that is unrelated to monetary or career benefits, NTs would never just sit and obsessively soak up knowledge about a certain subject if they did not see some personal benefit to doing so, yet we often do it obsessively with the SOLE intention of being knowledge pack rats.

There have been times in my life where people thought I was studying for some major degree in a science, and I would just tell them that I was doing this for fun, then they would often walk away confused. I assume they would be questioning why anyone would take such a huge interest in something that they weren't doing for a college degree. I think that is often the defining factor in an ASD special interest, in contrast to a NT hobby interest.

My knowledge of certain subjects is probably so grand at this point in my life that I would fit right into a very important career field in some sort of science, yet I never was able to put anything to a degree, I dropped out of college twice due to my ASD symptoms preventing socialization and proper focus. So, I have no formal education in the types of things I have an obsessive interest in. This may change in the future, but my experience in attempting to put my obsessive interests into a real career have failed multiple times in my life, so I am pretty gun shy at this point, I am still in some debt from my last college attempt that ended with me dropped out despite having nearly perfect grades.