What significant impairments do special interests cause?

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You know as it states in the diagnostic criteria of the DSM that there are 'restricted interests and activities' and also that the 'disturbance causes significant impairments in important areas of functioning'. What could those impairments be?
While I can easily see how the first criteria (i.e. the problems with social interaction) can be a cause of impairment and suffering, I find it harder to immediately see it with the second criteria. If one has fewer social interaction and therefore spends more time alone, isn't having some 'special interests' one can indulge in then a rather useful solution and a source of pleasure and giving purpose rather than impairment?

That really depends on the person.

Personally and commonly restricted interests can cause difficulty in work and/or school; instead of doing what your suppose to do, your paying attention to your special interest.
it can also be a social block, talking constantly about one thing tends to drive a person away ( had to learn that the hard way)
Personally i have issue leaving the house without anything relating to my special interest.
I also have issue doing anything beside it, so if im drawing, theres very few chances im going to stop what im doing, even if i have to use the bathroom, havent eaten or if someone is talking to me.

Yeah, me to, Even the Bathroom, thing, though If I'm hungry I'll get something to eat, but only If I notice those things. Personally, I bring a Stuffed Piplup everywhere I go, and get quite upset if I don't have it, though it would suck, if I couldn't bring it.

I need to have at least 1 Sonic thing with me, i have a sonic back pack which i bring absolutely everywhere, within that i somtimes bring my talking Sonic Boom plush or my sonic boom action figure. And since finding clothing with Sonic on it is hard in my area so i had to make my own clothing with sonic on it, including my personal favourite, my Sonic hoodie.



^^^ i made it myself

Being so obsessed with your special interest that you can't tear yourself away, and you forget to eat, or sleep. Knowing that you ought to go to school, or work, but simply not caring about the consequences of just staying home and enjoying your special interest, because the obsession is that strong. At that point, it affects your survival, and is a problem.

EDIT - awesome hoodie, I love it!

LOL....the hoodie is somewhat menacing--but, what the heck? LOL

That is so damned sweet!! Wow...impressive

Thank all for the compliments on the sweater! i hope to make more with different characters

You're pretty good at this stuff!

You should reflect upon this ability when you believe you are disabled.

Regardless of my art skills i am still disabled, while i can make that hoodie or a nice picture, making a meal is still extremely difficult and going to school feels near impossible.

i have stregnths and weaknesses, just like everyone else.

It's all about degree and some aspies might not be as extreme in it than others but the impairments for it would be if they forget to eat, go to the bathroom, neglect their health like going to bed, and they fail to pay their bills or let's say they would rather go hungry than to not pay for their special interests or they don't work at all because they would rather do their interests or they don't get a job because something isn't their interest and also it keeps them isolated from their friends and they zone the whole world out they don't know what goes on around them. I say if they don't have any children and they don't have a partner, then it might not be a problem if they are still going to work and still pay their bills. Also if it's all they ever talk about and they can't have conversations about anything else that doesn't involve their interests.

For me I tune the whole world out and I don't go to bed when I should and I also don't eat even though I may feel the hunger in my stomach but I am just too lazy to get up because I don't want to stop what I am doing. It's hard for me to shift my attention from it to my husband when he interrupts and I feel irritation and then I forget what he has told me. I may also lose track of time.

My mom had a student who was flunking his grade because he wouldn't do his school work because he was into planes and would always draw them and make models of them on paper and he didn't want to do his school work. So they had to use his interest to make him do his school work and put his airplanes into it somehow like if they wanted him to do math, they had to turn each problem into a story problem using planes. I knew an aspie in my group and she told me with one of her AS students, they have to put his school work into his word search books so he can do it like wrote the math problems in it because it was all he ever did. To me these are extreme cases of the condition.

Exactly. That's what I believe, too. People have strengths and weaknesses.

But doesn't it help to know that you have artistic abilities?

Of course, im very proud of my abilities. Sometimes thinking of what i can do doesnt help make me feel better. Sometimes i just feel horrible and its ok to feel horrible.

I feel the same way. Disabilities exist, and there is no shame in having one. People with disabilities can have incredible talents, in other areas. And if you have an emotional disorder (again, often due to neurology you were born with, and not your fault) - then of course you will have times when you feel horrible. And that's okay too. It's just a challenge you have to live with, a condition that is incurable and for which treatment is limited, and it's all right to have feelings that other people don't understand, because they don't suffer from your disorder, and have no idea how it feels to have to live with your particular neurology and brain chemistry.

The section of the criteria you're referring to has four characterisitics listed:

* repetitive motor or speech behaviour
* insistence on routine or sameness
* special interests
* sensory processing differences.

Of those, special interests are usually either harmless or a strength. Repetitive movements are usually harmless, but sometimes this can refer to self-injury, and echolalia (repetitive speech) is often associated with language impairments. The two most impairing criteria in this section are the insistence on routine (which tends to cause anxiety and meltdowns when this routine is not followed) and the sensory processing differences (which can cause sensory overload and distress at ordinary sensations, as well as difficulty deriving meaning from sensations such as understanding speech or using physical sensations to coordinate movements).

Anyway, the significant impairment requirement refers to all of the features added together, not to each feature individually. So a person who has significant impairment due to poor social skills, and also has some special interests and stimming that don't cause impairment, would still meet criteria for autism.