NTs With Special Interests

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Does anyone else have anyone in their family, or know of anyone that is NT, but has special interests? My daughter who is almost 12 has always had extreme obsessions with topics that will last a couple of years, then change to something else. I would even go as far to say that her obsessions are more extreme than mine. They're seldom typical subjects that would interests a little girl, either. I know that she is NT, because socially she has pretty much always been on the same frequency as her peers.

Anybody who makes a career out of something that requires years of intense practice and extreme focus must necessarily have that thing as a special interest. Tiger Wood's special interest is golf. Martin Scorsese's special interest is movies. Jimi Hendrix's special interest was guitar. People who achieve fame because they are just that good at their special interest are obvious examples. But the world is also full of people who never achieve fame but are able to make a living with their special interest in cooking, cars, horses etc.

Hi Serenity, haven't seen you in a while, how did it go with your diagnosis? Hope you're well.

Special interest isn't necessarily an aspie thing. My dad is into sports and my mom is into home decorating and gardening. She will watch lot of shows on it. My dad will watch his sports and talk about it. He has gotten better at controlling his obsession.

I don't necessarily mean a hobby, or talent, though. My daughter gets obsessed with very specific, sometimes random, obscure subjects. Like, right now it's Michael Jackson. Her whole life is about that subject. She has a youtube channel, as well as several internet groups that she's made, and is a member of. Even her facebook is all about MJ. Every facet of her life right now is about MJ. Before that it was Harry Potter, before that it was Woolly Mammoths, before that it was the movie Mulan, which turned into being obsessed with anything Asian. Every few yrs. it's something new, and she will actually socialize less if her friends don't want to discuss, or have anything to do with her current special interest.

Hi LipstickKiller. I did get diagnosed, but now I find myself doubting that! lol I haven't gotten the official written report, yet, but I'm guessing that I'm still gonna feel less than sure even after reading it, even though I'm still seeing the same person for my co-morbid anxiety. Logic tells me that she's sure as anyone can be that I meet the criteria for AS, but my obsessiveness just keeps over-analyzing.

I hope everything is going well for you, too!

I know what you mean about doubting the diagnosis, I've been brooding over it since July and I'm still not certain. And sometimes I feel like if I manage pretty well socially for a while it'll all have been for nothing, I'm not really autistic. So I'm almost afraid of successful interaction (talk about catch 22) because then it's not Asperger's just generally being a weirdo and a dud.

So I'm constantly getting myself in knots, even though my evaluating psychiatrist is one of the most wellrenowned in the country

LOL I'm the same. It's 6 years since my diagnosis and it still seems too surreal to be true! I constantly doubt it and think "is this me or what? I feel normal enough"

Anyway, back to the original topic. I've known NT's with special interests, I think everyone has their main interest that they like the most.
I used to have an on/off friendship with a girl at highschool who became absolutely obsessed with the play "wicked" and sang the songs on the bus all the time and she drove me round the twist, and she's completely normal! And I have a friend now that I've known for years who's mental about the band greenday and has all their albums and has loads of their merchandise and she used to say "I love greenday!" all the time when she was about 13 and she ended up putting me off the band because I got bored of it. She's also completely normal.

I know a lot of NTs with special interests:

My dad gets obsessed with various movies. He'll watch them over and over and go around quoting them. First it was Forrest Gump, then Dumb & Dumber, then What About Bob?, then Spies Like Us, and now it's Me, Myself & Irene.

My brother is obsessed with guns. He collects them, and has a whole arsenal in his bedroom. He knows everything there is to know about them. Whenever we watch TV or movies with guns in them, he can always identify what kind of gun the people/characters are using and whether or not they're being used realistically.

My brother's best friend is obsessed with Jimi Hendrix. He owns a ton of Jimi T-shirts and wears one everyday. He's also obsessed with subjects related to Jimi such as Woodstock, guitars, hookahs, incense and hippie fashion.

My sister is obsessed with Twilight. She's outside of the age group that would be appropriate to be obsessed with it, but that doesn't bother her. She keeps trying to get in contact with the actors and actresses who star in the movie versions.

My brother in law is obsessed with the computer game Command & Conquer. He's also married to my Twilight-obsessed sister.

Last edited by IdahoRose on 12 Apr 2010, 7:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.

My mum is obsessed with Dancing With The Stars.

I'm an NT and I've always enjoyed special interests.
As a kid and teenager my special interests (obsessions) included: collecting rocks, the moon, the NASA space programme, the human skeleton, the concentration camps of nazi Germany, the X-files.
Today, I'm more or less preoccupied with dictionaries. Special interests is one of life's great joys.

My mother used to be absolutely obsessed with The X-Files when it was running. She still likes it now, but she's not quite so obsessed any more. She's been pretty obsessed with playing The Sims for the last couple of years.

All those parents probably have traits. My dad has strong interests, for example, is introverted, socially out of touch. His brother though, is extroverted, sociable, has far better empathy, but goes on and on about pretty much the same topic all the time. I think my uncle has the same traits as my dad, but for some reason is more empathic, but then, his interests are even stronger than my dad's, so who knows.

Impossible. Tiger Woods may love golf but I truely doubt he loves it to the point of true obsession. Does his wife feel neglected because Tiger spends ALL of his time playing golf or doing golf related things? Has his wife considered dumping him becuase he is more devoted to golf than he is to her? Does Tiger Woods talk of nothing but golf and is it all that he thinks about? Do people avoid interacting with him because all he talks about is golf? When it appears NT's have a special intrest, it's usualy with something considered socialy acceptable to be "obsessed" with such as sports, celebrites, reality TV shows or Japanese cartoons. There are other people to talk about it with who are equaly "obsessed" so they aren't veiwed as weird except maybe by people like us. It's impossible for an NT to have a true special intrest and be a true NT.

Does your daughter talk of nothing else to the point of annoying the crap out of everyone around her? Does she turn down the opertunity to socoilize, or even eat in order to do something related to her special intrests?

I know one NT who talks a lot about Star Wars.

My parents are an interesting case. While my dad is the one with intense interests and eccentric behavior, he is actually fairly outgoing and charismatic. I can remember him having lots of friends throughout the years.

My mom, on the other hand, has average interests and behaviors, but she doesn't like to socialize with people outside our immediate family, and becomes upset when her routine is disturbed. I can't think of a single time when she's had friends.

My dad suspects that my autism comes from mom's side of the family, because the majority of her family members have (or had) severe mental illnesses.