Epiphany

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I was thinking about special interests earlier. I always considered myself to have had many special interests that changed over the years, lasting from months to years. Some I've set aside and returned to years later. However, I never considered myself to have had a lifelong interest. Then it occurred to me that do have a life long interest, mathematical calculations. I've been doing them in my head since 1st grade. every day. I will calculate things that have no relevance to my life whatsoever just because I like doing it. It doesn't matter what it is, basic arithmetic to statistical comparisons, I enjoy it. It's also something I can do anywhere I go because there are no external tools needed. What seemed really strange to me though was that I had never before considered that most people probably don't do this. It's such a normal part of my life that I never considered it a special interest.

Do any of you guys have things in your life that are so much part of you that you never considered them special interests?

I've always loved reading throughout my whole life.

A wide variety of subjects having to do with psychology....... From the mechanism behind the way autistic children play to gender studies(interracial relationships, cultural dynamics, etc); i seem to have a different perspective on things.

TheSunAlsoRises

I had never thought about reading as a special interest but if I'm reading a good book, nothing gets done. I'm totally focused on the book while laundry and dirty dishes accumulate around me.

I'm totally obsessed with reading. I always have been. When I was a child I used to read my books out loud from the ages of 3-10. Can we say quirky much? Of course I'd have to be at home in my bedroom. Also when I read, I tend to wiggle my fingers a lot and fidget...it's weird.

I know a child with autism who can be lured out of tirades by asking him math questions. He is a math prodigy and is in the 99th percentile for all IQ sub-tests. Any math activity calms him dramatically. Fascinating.

Its a sanctuary of structure and sense when everything around is chaos.

I've always done the same thing with numbers myself.. it's just automatic somehow, if I see a group of numbers I particularly enjoy seeing if they evenly divide into one another.. I suppose most people don't do this

I think I do it as something to do, a way to occupy my mind. I'm constantly talking to myself, commenting on conversation that is supposedly not directed at me, thinking about things that happened over 800 billion years ago, etc.. I don't think I can stop.. although sometimes I do inexplicably fall asleep

So yeah you're right I guess that is a lifelong interest of mine, too. It feels more like a compulsion, though.. and it's generally pretty simple math-wise

What's the difference between a special interest and just a thing you really like doing?

My definition would be something that you are completely consumed with, often to the exclusion of everything else, to the point where you will do it at any possible opportunity.

The special interest that has stuck with me most consistently, for the longest, is physical cosmology. It is strange though, because despite how much the topic captivates me, I know very little of the meat.

Still not sure if I'm on the spectrum. I've been thinking about the "special interest" bit....

Thing is, I don't have a single interest I can identify. In fact, I have too damned many interests, and it keeps me from specializing in anything. This has always been my problem, I have to know about EVERYTHING. I spend almost all of my free time reading online. Before the internet (yes I'm that old) I read books on any topic you can imagine. When I was a kid in school, even elementary, I read from the encyclopedia for enjoyment. No kidding.

Everyone who knows me calls me a walking encyclopedia, but like an encyclopedia, while I can provide accurate summary knowledge of _almost any topic_, and detailed knowledge on many, I am not a true master of anything. In high school, I was told if I just practiced more I had the talent to get a classical music scholarship. I was in gifted/talent language classes. I failed math because I honestly don't find numbers interesting because they don't _tell you anything new or provide an experience_. But I was hacking assembly language at home without any training, just a copy of debug.exe and time on my hands. Oh, and I was that kid who would read books upside down just because it freaked everybody else out.

I hate study but I love learning, if that makes any sense. Study slows down learning! You may get more details, but you get fewer _new things_ if you slow down to study! I find that I shouldn't ever bother to ask anyone for help on anything, to be honest, because it is exceedingly rare for me to receive a response that exceeds the knowledge I already have.

The result, of course, is that I'm a jack of all trades and master of none... I keep trying to make myself focus on one interest, but I feel like I'm missing out on other topics if I do that.

Sounds to me like yours is processing information. You need a constant flow of information and that probably calms you and keeps you balanced and focused. What happens when you can't have information? Have you tried? If you have trouble coping when you take away this mechanism, then you may have found your special interest.

You know what? Mine is reading too. I've loved books all my life & would even read during class in elementary school. However, my first obsessive interest woul still be dinosaurs. I use to read, think, even dream about them.
I sucked at math though, as we have discussed on another thread..

Sincerely,
Matthew

Without a doubt, music has been my special interest all my life.

Other countries (including the languages, flags, statistics, what the buildings/streets look like, food etc). Ever since I was really young it's always been something that can have me researching for hours!

I remember spending days drawing and cutting out all the different flags of the world, and making flashcards on the back of them with statistics about each country when I was about 12. Totally normal 12 year old girl activity (not!) But now I'm more interested in learning languages and actually traveling to these places. Alone, most likely.

But yeah. PLENTY of other obsessions/special interests have come and gone but this one has remained constant!

Last edited by megymegan on 03 Mar 2012, 1:29 am, edited 1 time in total.