No special interests or too many....

Post Reply New Topic

Are there many people here who either have no special interests or whom are struggling with too many?

I'm struggling with a new one. I've become enchanted by Bumble's smirk.








Christ, did I say that out loud?

I usually have trouble maintaining a long term interest in a topic. For example, I was once really excited about geocaching and read some books and did a bunch of research on the topic - but I never actually went out! I guess I had moved on to the next topic by then, but it also just seemed like too much effort.

Sometimes I'll remember an interest and start up again (coin collecting, backpacking, etc), but usually not. My only long term interest has been reading about history (mostly Roman and Middle-Ages).

Sometimes I become apathetic, or even afraid, of my interests after repeated interruptions.

I often lose interest in special interests as well. I usually lose interest because I can't find any more new information on it or another interest distracts me. I usually go back to old special interests.
Once when I was a kid I got obsessed with looking at a picture of an accordion in a book. That got old pretty quick and I had no more "fuel" for this obsession. That made the obsession go away for years. That obsession came back when I was fourteen and started getting into Nordic folk music.

I feel like I have many special interests, but I find it extremely hard to sit down and pursue them. I see this as one of the main ways that ADHD on top of ASD works-- I still have the intense interest, but not the follow through/focus. It is very frustrating and makes me feel like one of the best aspects of ASD is out of reach for me. Many people talk about how their interest makes them feel calm/recharged... I don't feel that at all. I feel chaotic and just want to get on to something else, no matter how interested I am.

I have many special interests which I switch through every few days. My current special interest now is "dog breeds". Not sure what I will be interested in tomorrow though.

I'm the same. I seem to get a new special interest everyday or every few days and I research the heck out of it and then move on to the next special interest. Random things capture my attention too, kind of like your dog breed special interest. I remember for a whole week I became obsessed with researching laundry detergent and I don't really know how that got started, but I ended up ordering about 20 different bottles of different kinds of detergent and now I'm pissed at myself for that special interest splurge because I still have 19 bottles squeezed in my laundry room cabinet! I wonder how long it'll take me to get through them all...

Both situations are bad for me. No special interest is eggstremely bad feeling. Too many is not as bad, but hard to do any at level desired. One is best for me, with a few much smaller hobbies that I do occasionally or as specific short-term projects.

I had one special interest for about 20 years, it was the only one.
But lately in the past 3 years there came a few others and it is confusing as I want to pursue every special interest to the same degree (spending all my time on it) and then I get confused over which one to pursue and due to severe executive dysfunction I cannot make a planning at all.
So I am in one special interest for a couple weeks, and mostly due to people outside I change to another one, and often the special interests all "fight in my head" as I think in enormous speed about each one and I cannot do anything sometimes for days as my mind gets overloaded.

I have too many expensive interests!

-RC cars\airplanes\helicopters
-telescopes\ astrophotography
-photography
-archery
-rifle target shooting

I seem to cycle through them. I can be totally focused on one thing for a long time, and one day, randomly move on to another interest.

I have too many... But I don't hate myself for it, really.

I have a few that I cycle through. My main pervasive one at the moment is psychology (hopefully it stays that way as it's my major!) I also have fluctuating interests in Star Trek, dinosaurs and Gene Wilder. Still trying to figure out what's so funny about that last one: when I mentioned it in the autism lectures I was giving to psych classes at my old college, people invariably laughed, with me, not at me mind, but I'm still trying to figure out what's so funny about Gene!

I have a lot, honestly i'm interested in just about everything. Drawing parallels between them helps me learn faster

Gene wilder made some excellent movies, especially along side Richard Pryor!

They laughed because it's such a specialized interest. Star Trek and dinosaurs appeal to many people not on the spectrum, but while lots of people may appreciate Gene Wilder as a performer, he's not the sort of 'sex symbol' star that people tend to become enthralled and fascinated with as an individual (comedy actors rarely are). So to the neurotypical mind, that interest stands out from the rest of your list as the most 'quirky' and the best example of an "obsessive personal interest" subject.

I was an obsessive fan of Kate Bush throughout the 1980s, and while she was a well-known superstar in virtually every other English speaking country on the planet, most people in the US had never heard of her, so it really stood out as peculiar when I would prattle on about her endlessly, pile up a houseful of collectibles and play her music for people who couldn't appreciate anything more sophisticated than Madonna. I might as well have been trying to introduce them to an imaginary friend.

Now, close your robe and follow me...