can chronic anxiety cause narrow, intense interests?

Post Reply New Topic

Way back over 15 years ago, my mom suspected I had Asperger's because I had a narrow range of interests and always thinking about them virtually every minute of the day. I also had repeative behavior. However the psychiatrist (he specialized in autism) claimed I was not on the spectrum because he said I seemed to understand body language because the evaluation was only one hour and I kept noticing my mom check her watch and he said I understood what she was doing. He claimed I had some kind of anxiety disorder which caused everything including narrow, intense interests. Is this true? There were several therapists/psychologists who also suspected I had aspergers but they have not offically diagnoised me with it. Some reasons for the suspicions include boring people with my interests without being aware of it, and also prone to anxiety induced thoughts like the inability to cope with horrible thoughts of things like going against God, causing harm to self or others etc (I never have done it and would never do it, but have worried many times, but have not had that in a while). However, I don't believe I had meltdowns and while I do have some sensory intergration problems (such as being clumsy etc) mine are not as bad as what I have read about those on the spectrum. I know someone who has Asperger's and he said he has a very senstive level of hearing and smell. Some smells do bother me a lot (like the smell of turkey, cat food, chicken, beef stew, and lots other smells) but not like I would go into overload. I just move away from the source of smell or get more air. I also can be bothered by certain clothing tags and I used to jump when people touched me, although it is not as bad anymore. By the way, the mention of the symptpms that I was hearing about Aspergers is that they can't understand how other people feel. That has actually made me aware and from then I tried to focus more on that and improved over time. In the past, I used to be demanding on people, like calling friends everyday without realizing I was annoying and also I became demanding for replies to emails I sent if I don't hear back from them. I had no idea I was being annoying until someone told me outright. I'm better in those areas than I was before, but back to the question, can anxiety cause all of this rather than an autism spectrum?

"However the psychiatrist (he specialized in autism) claimed I was not on the spectrum because he said I seemed to understand body language because the evaluation was only one hour and I kept noticing my mom check her watch and he said I understood what she was doing."

And this is an expert on autism you say? Since when is it impossible for autistic people to notice if someone is looking at their watch and know what they are doing? and how does noticing this mean you can read body language in general?

I am diagnosed and i notice when people do obvious things like that....also I question anxiety causing narrow intense interests, that just doesn't make a lot of sense. I don't know I would get a second opinion.

You can learn intellectually what you don't understand instinctively. It just means you have eyes in your head.

That expert sounds anything but.

What kind of narrow interests? Can you give examples? Anxiety could cause intense preoccupation with the things like self harm and going against g-d that you mentioned. These would be obsessions and are commonly associated with OCD. If you had a narrow interest in types of dung beetles or genetic disorders that cause liver failure, for example, and spent most of each day studying one of these subjects and got angry if you were interrupted that would probably not be caused just by anxiety and would be the kind of narrow interest commonly associated with ASD.

Interestingly I had kind-of the opposite experience as a child. The school referred my mum to an anxiety disorder doctor for me and based on my non-verbal communication the anxiety doctor asked my mum if she thought it could be "something developmental" and referred her to a psychiatrist who specialized in Asperger's. The psychiatrist ultimately diagnosed me with AS but co-morbid with a specific learning disorder and a psychologist I saw years later diagnosed me with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and OCD but confirmed that I also met the criteria for ASD and had that as well. They can and do often occur together.

How old were you when you saw this specialist? The older we are, the better adapted we tend to be. Perhaps that psychiatrist didn't understand.

Thanks all for the replies. I personally know two people who officially have been diagnoised with Aspergers, met them in person and hanged out with them and all. They definitely would understand when a person is looking at a watch. My major special interest, is in lights which I have had a lifelong interest in. One of my earliest memories of lights involved a Lite Brite when I was around 1-2 years old, in the later 70s. It had a GE 25w soft white bulb in it, yes I can remember details like that at that age. When I was three years old I knew the difference between the incandescent bulbs used in households and the fluorescent tubes used generally used in schools, stores etc and the bluish mercury vapor lamps in street lights (and later the orange sodium ones). I always analyze this kind of thing, figuring out the age of a bulb and how a particular technology works, right down to the types of materials used in filaments, the fill gas, even the specific materials used to make glass and everything. There are hundreds of lamp collectors in the world, and apparently Aspergers is more common among these than the general population. Quite a few also have similar diagnoises such as ADHD, and I've met a few professional lamp engineers who work in the industry as well as being into the hobby. I guess they prolly are of the mentally gifted types, not necessarily aspies. Besides lights, my other special interests include electrical infrastructure (I'm very good at fixing wiring and electrical stuff and hope to become an electrician someday) and vintage American cars. I grew up with very little knowledge of normal social stuff, I even tested at second grade in humanities when I was in high school! I made the mistake of talking pretty much nonstop about my own interests to friends and others plenty of times growing up, assuming they all would know and understand what I was talking about! When I began high school there was no diagnois for Aspergers but I was different enough to warrant being referred to a therapist to be taught basic social skills and that's when I eventually learned that other people would not always be interested in my stuff but social stuff was something that took me a very long time to learn and figure out. Growing up I only made 3-4 successful friendships and even they were frustrated with me with my quirks like I did not get it when they tried to make a joke with me, something I did not find out until years later. Also one thing, the intense, absorbing mindset I have caused problems in doing work, it made me slow in doing things because it was hard to focus. It nearly cost me jobs a couple of times. I absolutely can't work in a fast paced environment where low error margins are expected! Unless maybe assembling electrical devices which thanks to my strong interest it allows me to focus better. Oh someone asked how old I was during the assessment, I was 20, almost 21 so I was long out of high school and had gone through therapy so I was a bit better then than when I was 10 or so.

So would it be worth it for another opinion? I am considering seeking for more therapy, not only the above but especially the anxiety because it gets bad at times and would like to find ways to cope better.

^^^
Well, sure, you could ask for a second opinion about ASD when you go to get help for anxiety.