Depression and special interests.

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Ok, so I was wondering if anyone has lost interest in their special interest when they have been depressed.

The phychologist told me one of the signs of depression can be to lose interest in activities etc that are normally enjoyed.

I am also wondering if depression (and possible 'missing' special interest) could make a diagnosis foe asperger's more difficult in an adult. Especially if the depression is a by-product of asperger's difficulties.

No. At least not for me. I used m special intrests to cover up my depression. I.e. focus on my special intrests to forget about my depression.

My obsessions get worse when I am depressed so I end up spending all my time with them.

No. I've lost interest in most activities, but I still do the one--play video games.

I almost have to play them to cope with incredible stress, its an obnoxious habit when overdone.

Listlessness is my problem. It's like boredom, but worse. Boredom should never be a problem since you can do anything to cure it, even if you just get up and start doing jumping jacks. But with listlessness, you lose interest in everything, even your special interests. You can't focus on them even if you try. You just lay in bed staring at the TV, not even really watching what's on.

Oh yes. I lost everything.

I shut down and my only 'special interest' is sleeping ;p

I'm about equally obsessive when depressed as I am when I'm happy, but the topic of my obsession shifts. For example, during the period of time when I was being most heavily bullied, my obsessive interests were drug addiction and war & famine in third world countries. Then during homeschooling I shifted to the more happy obsession with disabilities.

Ironically, my interest in psychopathy, despite it being a topic most people find depressing, actually is more of a happy obsession for me. I feel hopeful about psychopathy research because we might find a way to treat psychopaths. When I'm feeling more depressed, psychopaths scare me instead of interesting me.

I think so. If I feel depressed, I don't feel like playing video games or doing my other favourite things.

I got a bad review in work today (even though I've been trying so hard...I was 3% under a target I didn't know I had, so I've "failed" the month) and it left me feeling sad and depressed. Since I got home, I've just lazed around...I haven't felt like playing any games at all, or even listening to any of my favourite albums.

To answer my own question, for me, if I'm stressed I go into special interest overdrive. But if I'm depressed (not just a bit down, but really depressed) I kind of shut down, and struggle to find the motivation to get up, let alone show any interest in anything.

I always find repetitive things comforting though (eg, playing game after game of solitaire on the pc or training on runescape)

Even when I was very severely depressed I still kept mine, in fact it was pretty much the only thing I still did. I was suicidal, my sleeping and eating patterns went out of the window, I did no housework, had no contact with any friends, became very paranoid (although not in a conspiracy theory type way) and heard voices, barely left the house due to severe anxiety issues, had shutdowns where I could not speak and would just sit and stare (and sometimes cry), cried over anything and nothing etc. but I would still play Civilization (my passion at the time, my special interest changes from time to time) for a few hours a day.

I enjoy The Kinks as much when I'm depressed as I do when I'm happy.

Whyen I'm depressed or stressed out, I throw myself even deeper into my obsessions because they help me cope better. But during the times when I lack a special interest, it causes me to become really sad and unfocused.

In short: being depressed doesn't cause me to lose special interests, but losing special interests causes me to become depressed.

My special interests definitely don't go away when I'm sad. Although, I'm not sure I've ever really been depressed before, so I can't say really.

I tend to focus more on my special interests when i am depressed.

I've lost interest in everything, including my interests. I used to have a passion for computers, now I'm majoring in computer science and I hate it. I would change my major except I'm not interested in anything any more.