Special Interests vs. Narrow Interests

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Is there any distinction between special interests and narrow interests? I've seen "narrow interests" used in AS/autism overviews, but around here, the term "special interests" seems to come up more often.

Often, it seems like special interests can be very unusual, one of the most interesting I've seen being bathrooms. My dominant interest is video games... that just seems so tame, so expected. Not to mention there is so much variety within the category of video games. Does it qualify as a "special interest"? I have narrow interests... pretty common nerd interests, though I'd say more narrow than the average nerd. While AS and the autistic spectrum seems to describe me so very well, I find myself questioning whether these things are the archetypal "special interests" or obsessions of another nature.

"Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus" is how it's written in the diagnostic criteria. You'll notice that it says "abnormal in either intensity or focus". A "narrow interest" would be specifically those that are "abnormal in focus"--i.e., unusually specific, such as being fascinated with the geology of the Grand Canyon (a narrow interest). An interest "abnormal in intensity" would be studying geology on your free time eight hours a day or more, spending all your extra cash on it, etc.

Special interests cover not just narrow interests but unusually intense ones, too; and many of us have special interests that are both unusually narrow and unusually intense. We tend to become specialists.

Dr. Tony Attwood comments that "Special Interest" wasn't present in all of his clinical experience with the high functioning side of the spectrum.

Personally, I feel that any interests that are very dedicated and dominate all time and thought would fit the profile. In children they are more likely to seem unusual. Example: In grade school I was obsessed and fixated upon Logic puzzles, both the physical type you solved by manipulation (rubik's cube, as an example) and written ones that you solved by reasoning, including riddles, paradoxes, and cryptograms. I collected books of them and the physical puzzles themselves. This began to extend into a mathematical realm as I started to reach adolescence, expanding into the desire to solve algebra problems. Most people would consider this pattern of interest abnormal.

Currently I maintain several interests - post-theism/atheism, android programming, lucid dreaming (somewhat dormant), and spectrum disorders (newest). These are less unusual in a way but I feel they fit the pattern required. They dominate and define my sense of identity.

For me, one of the issues is "falling in love" with a topic. I am interested in languages, and sometimes when I hear about some obscure language I just have to know about it ... but I won't be at all interested in another related obscure language. It is like the language becomes my "secret garden" - it is just me and my obscure language. I feel like I am exploring a hidden world where no else goes - although of course, if it is a real language then people on another continent do speak it and (obviously) do know more about it than I do.

But in the English-speaking world where I live (Australia), when I say that I read or speak a certain obscure language, I then have to explain what the language is because usually no one else has ever heard of it. I really like those off-beat little paths where so few others go ... my private world. The odd thing is, the language will have to be a specific dialect - any other dialect of the language just leaves me cold. E.g. when I bought a book about Rheto-Romance (eastern Switzerland), I only cared about information on the Engadine dialects (Vallader and Puter) ... I just wasn't interested in the other dialects for some reason (well actually I do know the reason: there is a suburb called "Engadine" in my part of Sydney, and somehow I felt I had discovered a mysterious Engadine behind the ordinary Engadine that I knew - kind of like stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia).

I don't know if others feel this sense of secret wonderment with any of their special interests? It's like you're the only one who cares about your special topic.

Whenever I get interested in something, I tend to become an expert pretty quickly due to my sponge of a brain. As for my special interests, they consist mainly of zoology, history, and gaming. I also have a passing interest in firearms.

Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus doesn't imply the interest is unusual, just narrow. It means you are interested in one thing and obsess on it. Some kids focus on an unusual interest, while others read about dogs or horses. It could be drawing. It doesn't have to be specific or unusual, just narrow and intense.

Slightly off topic but languages are awesome Although nowadays I'm more interested in linguistics, which is to do with the science of how languages work. Actually here's a case in point, proving that special/narrow interests aren't necessarily bad: I've been very interested in linguistics, especially historical linguistics (basically...where languages come from and how they change and split off over time). When I was at school there was no real practical use for my interest in linguistics because I was studying sciences and maths at the time. But, three years on, I'm studying a degree in Linguistics and loving it Maybe one day I'll be a linguistics professor, where I'll have free rein to give countless monologues on my areas of interest to students.

/derail

Sometimes it has more to do with lack of interest in "normal" popular things that NT's seem to be drawn to for social reasons. NT's seem to be drawn to take interest in things that allow them to have something in common.

As stated very well here previously, special interests can become narrow interests. One possible interpretation of the difference between the two is that narrow interests are highly focused, and tend to involve items, objects, events, people etc., for which most people have little to no interest. For example, you listed video games as a special interest. I assume this means that you like playing them, reading or talking about them, and generally experiencing a wide variety of games. Most males in our generation share this interest. However, if you were ONLY interested in, say, Atari 2600 games, you read extensively about early Atari programmers, knew the technical specifications of the system, the history of its development, the full catalog of games and their release dates, that might be more accurately called a "narrow" interest. One NAT that my wife worked with had a "narrow" interest in ceiling fans. They fascinated him, entered into most conversations he had with others, and he had near perfect recall of makes and models, and could identify one on sight. He was a child, did not have any relatives who worked with ceiling fans, yet he pursued this interest for several years of his primary schooling.

I think that the degree of the "narrowness/intensivness" of an interest can be analised in 3 dimensions:

1 - "size" of the interest - you are interested in "History" vs. you are interested in the "Northern crusades against the balts and finns"

2 - time you spent in the interest - it is an hobby that you pursue at weekends vs. you are almost all the (at lest free) time reading/doing/thinking in it

3 - interference with the things that you need to do - this seems similar to the 2nd dimension, but is different: you can have only one pastime but not have any problem in work, clean the house, etc instead of enganging in these pastime; and you can have many interests that interfere substantially with your daily activities (I wonder if it is the case of people with ADHD)

I suspect that the big difference between NTs and Autistics sometimes is more the 3rd dimension that anything else.

For example, I spent almost all my time thinking/reading about politics or psychology; however I know someone that seems a classical NT that spends almost his free time watching soccer transmission at TV and, when he talks about his childhood, the talk is almost always about soccer games, basket games and soccer trading cards.

The difference is that his passion about sport (apparently) never caused any problem in his work, house choirs or socialization, while I, in the last 3 hours, am reading/posting thing in the net while my dishes (of breakfast, luch and dinner) are still unwashed.

Hmm OK so my interpretation of the words "special" and "narrow" in this context may have not been the most accurate.

Perhaps "limited" interests defines me more, but video games do consume most of my thought, in a way that I believe must be unusual. I enjoy a broad range of games, and I have some other interests... just not very many. None of my interests are particularly unusual, but outside of the Internet, I very rarely can connect with anyone on the topic of video games in such a way that I feel the other person really wants to talk about it.

The thing someone above said about disinterest in normal activities... very much so.

I'm also curious what makes a special interest "special." I don't really know how the degree of my intensity towards things varies from other peoples'...