How do you know if you have a special interest?

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This might sound like a really naive question, especially coming from someone who has been diagnosed with AS. But I want to know, how do you know if you have a special interest? I know that NT people have special interests too. So what makes our interests so special? Is it because we care about them to the point of obsession? Is it because we continue to care about and talk about our special interests when everyone around us is bored to death of hearing about it?

I know I have had special interests in the past, but they tend to change a lot. I have found myself fixated on hobby after hobby and interest after interest. But after awhile I always grow bored of them and turn to something else. I find I can be obsessive. Is that what having a special interest is all about? Being obsessive and passionate? Is it normal to keep changing special interests or is that just apart of growing up with AS?

I'm 21 at the moment and I find I have a deep interest for writing that has stayed with me for a few years now. Probably the longest I've had a special interest for. If you can call it that. It's the only thing I care about and I find I really only care about my own writing. I'm lazy when it comes to reading novels and other peoples works but I totally adore my own fictional characters and worlds. Would writing be considered as my special interest? And do special interests tend to stay by your side as you get older or do they change with age?

(Sorry if I have rambled and lost the point here...I tend to do that a lot.)

Thank you,

- Riku

I think it's a matter of degree, but I'd say a special interest - as you alluded to - is something that tends to be all-consuming and intense to a degree that's not typically exhibited by more "well-rounded" neurotypical people.

In my own experience, I've cycled through a number of special interests since childhood: coin collecting, stamp collecting (for a short period), tropical fish and aquariums, bodybuilding, fantasy novels (Piers Anthony, Stephen R. Donaldson, Tolkien, ect) theology, computers and photography. In almost every case, I've gone to great lengths to pursue my interest. Growing up in the 80s, that usually meant checking out every available book on a subject from the school or town library. In my adult life, I've been able to endlessly research my special interests online.

Photography is my longest lasting special interest, and is something I actively practice as well as read and talk about to any poor soul who will lend me their ear.

Within the context of Asperger's, a "special interest" is so all-consuming that it could possibly affect, adversely, other aspects of your life (such as employment, sex, self-management).

It might not affect the above--but the potential is there.

very very few or one topic in which is all you think, talk, write and draw about, day in and day out, its all you want to research and talk about, everything else is boring and uninteresting.