How do you fulfil your special interests?

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I was curious if it was normal for people with AS to only pursue their special interests through reading?

My special interest is dogs and dog training, and yet I rarely go to dog shows or dog training seminars. I instead read like crazy, and day dream about dogs constantly. My day dreams usually consist of competing with my dog, so it sort of confuses me that I don't make a more active effort to try to get to the point where I can compete with him. Instead I'm pretty much satisfied with reading and thinking about my special interest, but not actually doing it. I think part of this has to do with my social anxiety, and being around other people. I hope that makes sense, can anyone else relate to this?

My main special interest is Tim Burton movies. Of course, since my interests are movies, I have to buy DVDs of them so I can watch them. I also like buying posters and other merchandise.

But like you, I mostly fulfill it by reading and daydreaming about it. My daydreams mostly involve imagining what characters would be like in different romantic relationships, and what their children would be like. I also like to imagine that I am friends with all of my favorite characters, and that I am the long-lost twin sister of Alice from Alice in Wonderland. I enjoy these ideas so much that I often draw pictures of them or sometimes write about them. It's an ongoing saga in my mind, and it's hard to get it all down on paper.

My special interest is opera. I used to spend a lot of time watching DVDs from the library. People try to get me to go to Seattle to see the live opera, but I'm overwhelmed. I try to attend opera related events nearer where I live but I find they are all senior citizens and that seems weird. I can't get anyone my age interested, or even people at my church, for that matter.

I don't see why you can't support your special interest by reading. Please use a library. If you spend a lot of money buying books, that would seem detrimental. Earlier in my life I spent a lot of money buying books and CDs, and it got me in trouble financially.

I have two special interest, steel guitar and electronics. I know I spend more time talking and daydreaming about guitars then actually playing mine. Same thing for electronics I spend as much time organizing my parts as I do building. But for me its all part of a rituall. Every night after my wife and son go to bed I spend at least an hour in my workshop ( " The room were I keep my crazy") and It relaxes me and I sleep better. I used to get worked up about not being productive with my interest, but for me its really like an anxiety medicine and if it works for me, fine. It hurts no one.
My wife does question the need for so many steel guitars, as I rarely play out. but this is another syndrome I have called G.A.S ( gear aquisition syndrome) and my NT musician friend have it too

Home made band shirts, CDs, music DVDs and YouTube.

My special interest is language. I enjoy learning a new alphabet (braille system, greek alphabet), grammar, phrases, slang, phonology, latin, greek and modern languages (especially English, I do not have a real interest for Spanish or other latin languages). I also enjoy learning more about non verbal communication and the cultural differences.

It is strange that I always loved languages and the structure or communication since I fail to use them properly.

So, basically, I buy grammar books, phonology books, dictionary, took English literature/culture/language at the university and lexicology/didactics (a class about the various conception of languages and the way to include them in teaching). I analyse literary texts, read books about stylistics, figures of speeches, etc. I started to learn how to create programs on my computer but was afraid I would have even less social life if I really did that because of the many stereotypes. I enjoyed it though.

I became interested in horses and model horses but never went to a live show (did take riding lessons as a kid); loved breeding and raising Bettas in biotope tanks but never went to a fish show (did read much and keep great tanks, though- and had a web site); love learning new languages but only got to travel abroad a few times (expensive!); play early jazz piano but only for friends/classmates/talent shows. My interest in martial arts did get fulfilled enough by my going to class for years and getting increasingly skilled. My interest in animals over the years has been fulfilled by having some and reading about more. I too have stayed at home reading more than venturing out to share the interests with other people. I do have an interest in morris dance/music that is fulfilled more regularly still nowadays than anything else as gigs do come up. (After the performance, I go somewhere and take a nap!)

Mine only require buying books, the library, or downloading (for music.)

If an interest seems too expensive to fulfill at the present moment, I content myself with just gathering information.

I think its pretty common for a special interest to be intertwined with that tendency to obsessive collecting, whether its movies, music, books, vacuum cleaners, or just raw data to organize endlessly.


Sheldon knows tons of facts, dates and other minutiae about trains and their history, design and manufacture, but he only actually rides one occasionally.

Wow...
I have a few interests, like medicine, japanese art, pokemon, music, and dogs. My main one being music, which I am literally obesessed with.
When I was around nine or ten, all I talked about was dogs. I had a huge breed encyclopedia, which I filed through all the time, to the point where I could have crufts on TV on mute volume, and identify every breed of dog that came on.
Yes, its perfectly normal to pursue the interest through reading only, as I only pursue my interests of medicine and japanese art through reading an interent resources.

My special interest is flyfishing. I fullfill it by going fishing as often as I can during the open water season. I am lucky enough to live near excellent fly fishing streams. I also read alot about it, buying magazines and looking at books and also sites on the internet. It is not just to try and get better at the activity through knowledge, since I believe I would read lots even if I did not improve.

Computer systems and networks, and somebody actually pays me to do that. When I have a day off though, I reconfigure my toys.

My biggest interest is World War 2, Luckily for me there is an abundant amount of TV shows, movies and books on this subject. I watch a ton of military channel. My only grief is theres not a whole lot about nazis written or directed. Most everything tends to be told from the Americans perspective which sorta stinks sometimes.

I have two "special interests", physics and Magic: The Gathering. One costs nothing but the price of a new textbook, but the other bankrupts me, so I've decided to (try to) move on... and it's hard.