thoughts on what is "enough" of a special interest

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Hi, all. I am a self-diagnosed Aspie new to this community....

I spend time every day on my "special interests"....I've recently been sharing some of them with others, and that makes me become sort of more self-aware/self-conscious about them....I was just wondering if others have thoughts/experience on how to tell what is a healthy pursuit of a special interest...?

Some of the things that I do are journalling, making visions and goals books of pictures and energy processes, fashion (looking at magazines, clipping pictures, making notebooks of stuff I like, making lists of stuff I want, and then shopping for them), photography of stuff all over my life....

I think today I feel odd because maybe this isn't stuff most grownups don't do!! !! !! ! and I'm 54 years old!.... ha ha.....Yet, these are really satisfying hobbies for me,a nd I enjoy them a great deal for several years...I DO feel they enrich my life....and I WANT to trust myself and appreciate myself about them!! because I do also feel they utilize and develop the Aspie "genius" way of being and doing things which is a real pleasure to me...

In order to make them enriching rather than anorexia-producing or wierdness-producing, I've made sure to balance my life with social interaction on a daily basis, to make sure that I'm growing in my friendships, and, recently, to share these interests with others rather than keeping them "secret" which tends to make them feel "wierd"....

Anyone else have experience, strength and hope on "unusual" hobbies....???

Thanks!

Nancy

I look at activites in two categories... There are those activites that are enhancing and those that are escaping. Usually shopping falls into escaping whereas journaling or creating would be enhancing. I give myself all the time I can to enhancing activities without consideration for how "weird" I am because of it.

I don't care how weird peope think of my obsessions with meerkats and veternary medicine. The people who are closest to me say one of the things they like most about me is my ability to have such passions and not give a damb what other people thought about it. It's people who were considered weird and quirky that made the changes in our society. All these normality, conformity obsessed poop heads can go jump in a lake and f**k themselves as far as I am concerned.

If people don't want to listen about my special intrests, then they can leave. It's not like I have any need for friends. My special intrests are my friends and my true friends love to hear about my special intrests just as much as I love to talk about them.

My special interests are rarely pursued in a healthy way. They're intense. They're all I talk and think about. They're all I want to talk about.

When I'm in the throws of an intense study or mini thesis, it dominates my time, energy and conversations.

It can become a problem if work, career or relationships suffer. I never let it affect my eating and sleeping, but sometimes I can rave too much to others about it, or relate all other considerations toward the special interest.

No matter how useful a garment, it is not for eating....

Welcome to WP!

To me, a special interest is "special" enough if you talk about it for more than a couple minutes, most people you know start to look dazed and confused and start yawning. I have many interests and share many of them in common with my geeky husband, so those I don't consider "special". There are a few things that whenever I bring it up he start to get drowsy, I think those are special.

Your hobbies sound nice and interesting to me. Not immature at all. My dad has lots of similar interests, and he's a 73.

Music is enhancing for me.

The evil casino used to be my escape. Used to.