Not smart enough for special interest?

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Do you ever feel you are not smart enough, or savant enough about your special interests/hobbies for them to be 'real'?

I love Peeps, but I don't know *everything* about them. I don't want to- it's not what I like- I just like looking at their shape and catagorizing them and viewing my collection. But- it does make it weird when people want to interact with me about them because it's so personal and one-person...uhm.. activity solo? I don't know how to say it. But to share this love of the shape of Peeps- that's not really shareable.

My other hobby is Doctor Who soundtracks- but not memorizing information about them. Just listening to them over and over, memorizing the sweeps of sound. Also- not really shareable. I love watching Doctor Who but don't know every character's name or who wrote what script from 1967....

I don't have vast catalogs of information about my hobbies- I just am very, very passionate about them. I'll spend all day doing them, enjoying them, looking at pictures of them and pinning pictures of them on Pinterest.

I feel like a bit of a failure because I don't know everything about my hobbies. Does this make sense? Are you the same?

I'm running low on words today, sorry!

I say your interests are unique. They make up of who you are. If I had to look for another that liked Dr. Who sound tracks....I mean actually listen to them like you do. I doubt I will find some one or at least it will take me a long time.

I say its a victory that you learn the relevant information and keep the details at bay just to make room for more relevant information for other subjects.


Cheers ^_^

Yes, I've had many interests where this was the case. Actually, my current special interest, WWII history, is the only one where I actually actively learn facts about it (because duh). My special interests tend to lean more towards the "spending inappropriate amounts of time on/with" instead of the intensity of the interest being all that abnormal. I would never be able to monologue about any of my interests like most people here claim to, but at the same time, I have zero interest in sharing my interests with others. My interests are mine and honestly I get rather uncomfortable when others prod me about them.

Sometimes I also wonder if I actually have "proper" special interests like other people on the spectrum.

I would venture to guess the number of savants among autistics is not much higher then among NTs. But even if it is, its not like every other autistic is a savant. Among all the ASD folks here, I have yet to see one that I thought genuinely was, though I of course can only see a limited part of what they are like here.

It is also not uncommon for ASD folks to not really have special interests. I have heard quite a few express that here. I think it is like many things about the spectrum, in that some have many of the common characteristics and some have few, and hardly anyone has exactly the same set as anyone else.

There is nothing wrong with having a level interest in things (not just deep interests in a few areas), and at times I think that is actually a better situation. If you are always looking at the ground for pennies as you walk, you will find a few pennies but may also walk into a low branch or street sign.

But you do have a few. Peeps is kinda different and cool. I have heard there are sites online devoted to them. I also heard they make a huge one each year like 5 feet across and drop it from the top of a building somewhere. There is also Peep jousting. You stick a toothpick in two Peeps like they are holding lances and place them close together in a microwave and turn it on. I guess they swell when cooked and stab at each other with the toothpicks. (I have an older brother who is a Peep fiend)

Thank you for the wonderful, insightful and helpful things you've all told me. I don't know how to quote yet and feel a little stressed out right now to figure it out.

I'm taking what you've said and putting it in my brain. Have to remember I'm ME- not a series of checklists in a book!

I get sad because I don't remember every single detail of topics I like.

I've never really felt like that. I do wish I had some sort of savant ability though. Just because I think it would be kind of cool, you know? I guess I'm the type of person who doesn't care about stuff like that. I do lose interest in my obsessions pretty easily if I don't get enough information about them though.

I would say that there is nothing wrong with your interests especially because you enjoy them and they don't sound all that disruptive. You have to realize my friend that on the other side of the fence here special interests can be very disruptive. I'm a savant myself (not as special and exotic as people would think, hahahaha, just really disruptive and it allows you to perform "parlor tricks") and I can tell you that it is not always all that pleasant to have obsessions that are quite excessive. I can't just enjoy my interests like you, it is an intense experience and it gives me migraines, insomnia, and inflames my encephalitus: a comorbid I have where your brain actually heats up from frenetic levels of activity and you feel delirious, anxious, it physically feels like a fever, and your head hurts really bad.

Seriously, you don't need to think of yourself as a failure. Be happy that your interests are fun and you can enjoy them without going off the deep end a bit like savants do.

Yes. I'm very enthusiastic about my special interests and I tell other people about them proudly. However, I feel like I'm being "tested" when they ask me questions about it - as if I should know the answers to all the questions people ask me about it because it is my special interest.