Your special interests...

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Could you tell me more about your special interests please.

How much time you like to spend on them. What happens if you can't spend time on them. How many you have. What they are. Whether or not they change and what you feel is the difference between your special interest/s and an NT hobby.

Feel free to have good ramble about your special interests if you feel so inclined. I find that, oftentimes, it makes for interesting reading.

One special interest, most of my time on it, 9 am to 11 pm yesterday, I google articles about it while walking around, will be my career, obsessed.

How can you stand to read about other peoples special interests? I find nothing more boring than people going on about them, unless it is same as mine.

I have a few main interests that get most of my attention, but I also have a lot of other smaller or minor interests, some that cycle around to become my main interests on occasion. It's like they all want to take turns at being my main focus or something. There are also things on my waiting list of interests (things I'd like to get into but don't have time as there are not enough hours in the day) as well but which I have not spent any time on yet.

Over the years I have had various levels of interest in all sorts of things such as psychology, parapsychology, health and fitness, yoga, weight lifting/body building, biology, geology, volcanoes, fossils, beach combing, hiking, museums (particularly natural history), photography, art history, archaeology, needle crafts, drawing, painting, pottery, nutrition, the paleolithic, paleo nutrition, sharks and marine biology, piano, movies, history, Victorian lifestyles, fairies, sewing, mythology, dancing, singing, acting/drama/theater, movies, writing, logic puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, various tv series (once spent weeks watching nothing but the incredible hulk for example) and recently music theory, riding buses, traveling, the coast, old black and white movies/musicals and vintage fashions.

I have no idea if my interests are special interests or just intense hobbies. I do get attached to them and can often spend all my time pursuing them to the point of not getting other things done, but can't spend time learning all the things I sometimes want to learn because there are not enough hours in the day to do so. This can upset me sometimes. Its also one of the main reasons I never finished a degree. I just could not make up my mind what I wanted to study, they all looked interesting in their own way. Indecision.

It is one of the things I find confusing about whether I have an ASD...I often have a main focus or two which I fall head over heels in love with and which I like to go in really deep and get to know everything there is to know about it (I really like long intensive sessions with my hobbies) but at the same time I can have so many interests I find myself overwhelmed by them. Many of the minor interests however, don't really get much attention from me. They just sit in my head in the possible interest to get around to in the future category.

Right now I pay most attention to the Paleo stuff, needle crafts and the piano/music theory

I enjoy birds and I also enjoy programming. Specifically lower level stuff.

Oh and Norman Wisdom movies and Evgeny Kissin.

I have interests that live in my head too, and I wish that I could pursue them, but I can't, because I have one that I pursue too intensely to have time to pursue any of the others.

Similar to me then, except I have two or so that I focus on more than others. But for me they can change frequently. I have found some ways around it in that I can put Norman Wisdom movies on whilst I do needle crafts. This allows me to spend time on both interests simultaneously. I have begun collecting Norman movies from youtube but will probably buy the dvd collection.

If I have absolutely no interest at all in something then I will tend to find it difficult to stay with the conversation, but as I have had such diverse interests over the course of time (some of which only exist as an interest in my head) I don't mind people talking about them. I will always favour my pet subject of the time though.

Yup. Comparative Religion and Mythology, Western Occultism and Ritual Magick, General Parapsychology and the Paranormal, Physics (Quantum and String Theory), Philosophy, Mysticism, History and Sociology of the War Between the States, Ancient Civilizations, Fiction Writing, Pop Music History and Record Collecting, the Graphic Arts, Tattooing, Cinema, Firearms, UFOlogy, Conspiracy Theories, Toy Collecting, Comic Books...

And yet, lately, I feel rather depressed and disconnected from direct interest in much of anything.

I like to spend whatever free time I have on hem, mostly reading books and watching documentaries, as well as researching them online. I like thinking about them as well a lot, like on the school bus or in class. When I don't get time I feel kind of frustrated and 'normal' stuff bores/annoys me.
I have a few, mostly politics and history related. My biggest one is Communism/Marxism (which I follow myself) as well as the history of the USSR. I also have a massive interest in 9/11 and the 'conspiracies' surrounding it. Although I'm not a supporter myself, I have an interest in national socialism (Nazism), fascism and white nationalism. On a more random note, I also am quite interested in roller coasters in the UK- less on how they work, more on the types and what kind people like, as well as discussing different theme parks and their histories/futures. I don't know if it counts but I can get quite obsessive over music and bands as well- I have quite a specific taste in music and I listen to it a lot.
I don't mind reading about other people's special interests if they're particularly interesting or similar to mine. I think they're kind of different to NT interests as I seriously do think about mine literally all the time. I'm never not thinking about them,and try to associate or bring every conversation/thing to them. Even my parents and teachers sometimes say "Do you think about anything else?" and the actual answer is no.

I seem to have killed the thread.




[::Crickets::]




Sigh.

I love your special interests! I've always been fascinated by comparative religion and paranormal stuff.

I tend to have one special interest every decade or so, and focus on it nearly exclusively. I have to force myself to do other things (like watch TV, otherwise years go by and I've missed all sorts of fun shows!)

How much time you like to spend on them.
Depends on the interest. Anywhere from 6 hours a day to no time at all.

What happens if you can't spend time on them.
I once was depressed for a few days. Otherwise, I get frustrated.

How many you have.
I suppose I have just one right now. I've had a lot of others before now.

What they are.
Home chemistry, blowgun, potato guns, a combination of the two, origami, html coding, programming, Rubik's Cubes, real guns, fire breathing, Spam (like the meat), model planes, space exploration, drones, crossbows.
That's the bulk of them.


Whether or not they change and what you feel is the difference between your special interest/s and an NT hobby.
They change a little too often. The difference is that I sometimes can't sleep at night when I have an obsession.

Posted thrice. Sorry.

Last edited by r84shi37 on 27 Jan 2014, 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Posted thrice. Sorry.

Last edited by r84shi37 on 27 Jan 2014, 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Lucky! That means you can actually get good at something. My main special interest seems to change every few years. I will never get truly good at anything.

I was raised by fundamentalists, and saw the holes in that dogma very early on, so I spent many years looking across many disciplines and schools of thought to see whether there was any truth to be found anywhere. It's a fascinating journey. It's kind of sad how many people are of the attitude that because we live in a world of technological gadgetry, that we're the pinnacle of humanity, our science is infallible and we've learned essentially everything there is to know. The truth is, we're still an ignorant primate species intoxicated by our own arrogance and mostly blind to just how much we still don't know and how much of what we THINK we know is completely wrong.



Yes, I have developed new interests periodically and they just pile onto the hayride. Shortly after my daughter was born, I caught sight of myself in a photo and was aghast at how out of shape I had become - and my sociopath ex had recently brought a new weight bench into the house and never used it, so I bought stacks of books on weight training and bodybuilding to learn technique, so I wouldn't hurt myself and I've maintained a steady workout routine daily for years ever since. The special interest obsession with diet and exercise only lasted a year or two, until I knew as much as I felt I needed to know, but it turned into a long-term lifestyle routine.



Just because you develop a new interest doesn't mean you have to abandon the old ones. I have some that are Major, 'always present' interests and some that are minor, 'periodic' and kind of cyclical - I don't focus on them all the time, but they keep coming back around from time to time and absorbing all my attention for a while. If you keep at anything long enough, you'll develop some degree of skill with it, even if you don't master it completely. What matters is that you get some positive enjoyment out of it.

Last edited by Willard on 27 Jan 2014, 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.