Has anyone else lost interest in your SI when dating?

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SI = special interest
I've fallen in love for the first time, and it is real, not an on and off thing. I spend a lot of time with him, and he loves me and says how special I am to him, and he loves my quirks (my quirks are mostly hilarious or childlike or scatterbrained, but not offensive or embarrassing or childish). But anyway, since I have been with him (we met last August), I've gradually lost interest in my special interest.

It's the first time since I was 11 that I haven't had a special interest taking over my mind (I've had a few different ones in that time), and now I feel rather free. My last special interest (the one I am losing interest with) is a certain bus company and some of it's bus-drivers, and I always wrote stories about them what continued on. I've got about 12 or more writing pads full of a continuum of bus-driver stories, so that must be a few hundred stories altogether or more. But in the last few months I've just lost interest in writing stories about the bus company. If I do do creative hobbies, I just want to make up stuff to write or draw, like made-up people or places, not my special interest. It's just becoming less important to me now, and I'm finding myself talking less and less about it to close family too.

I've come to realise that my special interests was a way of coping with loneliness. I never had any special interests when I was under 11 (only casual interests what my peers were into), and as soon as I began puberty at 11 I began finding myself becoming obsessed with certain people, to the point where my whole life centered around them and I never knew when to stop talking about them and drawing pictures of them, etc. Then all through my teens I was rather lonely (I wasn't lonely when I was under 11 because socialising with peers was a lot easier) and so I stuck to my special interests. Now I have met my boyfriend, I am getting out more, gaining more confidence, meeting more people, and feeling special to someone. So now I feel like I no longer need a special interest. Does this make sense to anyone? Has this happened to anyone when you first dated?

Is it possible that he has become your special interest?

I don't see being very focused and interested in something as a way of coping with anything else--it's just how my mind works. When I get into something, I really get into it. I want to know as much as I can about it. It's not about suppressing anything else.

Edited to add:
Congratulations, by the way!

Looking back on my crappy relationship at the start of it it feels like maybe I was my husband's special interest when we first got together. It was an intensely flattering feeling. But I got dropped for more 'controllable' special interests, in fact, he has gone back to his first 'love' - dungeons and dragons.

I don't think it's good having anyone as your special interest. I wouldn't want to be someone's special interest and ecklan's case is an example why.

Yes, I was recently at my GF's place and even though there was a big playoff hockey game (in overtime at that!) on TV I was barely even watching it. It was almost like I have seen enough hockey games in my life anyway. For someone who obsesses over things (especially hockey) that was quite a weird feeling!

I haven't experienced losing interest in my SI or obsession when I have been in love.

As for being anyone's SI, personally I wouldn't wish to be so; I'd be uncomfortable with that level of attention and focus on me, because I know just how much thoughts and focus goes into a SI or obsession.

I have been married for almost a year and it has been the hardest but greatest experience of my life. When we first started dating I was obsessed with video games. I would study the history of them and try to understand the design choices of them. Then I met my wife. We dated for a while and she helped me not obsess over games as much and find other things to do. We got married and its been almost a year now. I have found my self going back to my SI lately because the intense feeling from the "bliss" has started to become common place. My wife has been SO patent with me about it though and is helping me set limits so I don't obsess over them. She is even pushing me to use my SI make videos on youtube about video games. The most importent thing is that you communicate with you significant other and make sure they know about your ASD and that they know about what could be coming.

As a younger person I tended to be very obsessive with the people I dated. Perhaps you could say there were a special interest, but I am not certain. It usually translated into me wanting to talk to them all the time, cooking for them and otherwise giving them presents while at the same time overlooking their shortcomings as partners and enduring years of emotional neglect and abuse, as my boyfriends were themselves too emotionally damaged to be emotionally available to me. My special interests tend to be long-lived (I tend to collect more but I never lose interest in something, and my primary interest has not changed for the last 16 years, I currently have an MA degree in it.) and perhaps for this reason I was not able to leave these relationships even when I became aware of the emotional damage they were causing to me.

My boyfriends ended the relationships after a time, and I am glad they did as I was finally able to meet my husband. I was also very obsessive about him in the early stages of dating, though this was less of an issue as he was also very into me. Over the years our relationship has matured into something more sustainable, as we divide our time between each other and our own special interests, of which we are mutually supportive.

Dating IS my special interest!

Well, one special interest out of a few. Music is the BIG one. I've dumped girls and been dumped because they couldn't handle the fact that writing music and performing comes first, or at least before them. What is somewhat difficult for others to understand is music isn't just a cute little hobby I do in my spare time. It's my livelihood. If you want to go out with me, you have to give me space to work so I can at least have enough cash to take you out somewhere fun. Otherwise, all you get from me is your stereotypical suffers-for-his-art musician who bums off significant others. Not a status quo I enjoy, but it's an unfortunate reality. My wife sticks with me because she sees me make the effort, and with kids involved, the stay-at-home-dad thing keeps her from throwing money at daycare. If no music, there's nothing else, and those who have understood that about me are those I've had longer positive relationships with.

I have a deep fascination with women. Age doesn't matter. Skinny/fat doesn't matter. I like 'em all. The thing one has to understand about women above all else is they are PEOPLE not significantly different from anyone else of any gender. The kinds of things that make other people happy are the same kinds of things that make me happy. So I tend to derive my happiness from the happiness of others, and what makes me feel special is getting a sense that I made some kind of difference in someone else's life. Getting a woman to smile, for me, is almost like a sport. If there's intimacy involved, I can't find it satisfying unless she's satisfied first. These kinds of things run deep with me.

So if other special interests take a backseat to relationships or dating, it's really only because I'm balancing one with the other. I think there are times that a significant other takes priority over other things. There's nothing wrong with that, except you can't really make a living just being a gf or a bf. And if you have the same fascination for the opposite sex that I do, you need the freedom to pursue your interest in them. In order to do that, you have to keep your bills paid and have enough left over to entertain someone. There's nothing wrong with placing one interest or another on the back burner for the sake of dating or pursuing a LTR. What matters is just keeping everything in the proper perspective.