Defining a special interest

Post Reply New Topic

Can any WP'ers define what a special interest is, and what it can be mistaken for?

In essence:

* Do these interests revolve around a few set things or do they spread out, or can it spread out to many other things?

* Would it be wrong to say that it can be anything and thus a Hyperfocus Phenomenon that eclipses other things?

* Are they always passionate in nature to you, or can it be simply a long duration interest that is out of the norm -- it pushes or displaces out other things?

Is there a defining way to characterize what's happening here?

Thanks.

Don't know Mydyar. As Game Programming & 3d Modeling, I can spend many hours doing it & I would be talking about that.

But then some boys, I would say have a special interest in football & they never shut up about it, kind of thing.

Females "shoes" "Boys" "boy band"? all I can think of & never shut up about it?

Maybe that is it? Really does this only come any use, until it becomes a obsession. That would be classed as different from usual?

Really is it just an "interest" or a "special interest" when it becomes an obsession.

* Do these interests revolve around a few set things or do they spread out, or can it spread out to many other things?
I have had many special interests in areas that are unrelated to each other.

* Would it be wrong to say that it can be anything and thus a Hyperfocus Phenomenon that eclipses other things?
It would be right to say this, in my eggsperience. A special interest can be anything, and its defining feature is the intensity and focus with which it is pursued. It can take over almost of my thoughts during almost all of my waking seconds, leaving me very few thoughts to devote to things like school/work/social/hygiene/food. I can put off going to the bathroom for hours for to not be interrupted from special interest and hyperfocus on it. In fact, I don't feel most of the usual physical sensations when hyperfocused on a special interest. The need to sleep is a horrible inconvenience, and the special interest is the last thought before falling asleep and first after waking up. Eberrything encountered in daily life becomes related somehow to the special interest.

* Are they always passionate in nature to you, or can it be simply a long duration interest that is out of the norm -- it pushes or displaces out other things?
I am always passionate about my special interests, and I would say that I feel love for them.

I am interested in many different subjects, and ideally, I would want to pursue all these different interests in a special way with great intensity and focus, but I find that I cannot do this, because I don't have enough time or brrrainzzz to do this. So I can only pursue one or two at a time.

Special interests can also be restricted, but they don't have to be. For eggsample, I went through of a period of only drawing pictures of transportation devices, but I eventually branched out to drawing pictures of other things too. My special interests were more restricted when I was little as compared to now.

I don't know what special interests can be mistaken for, if anything. I don't think that I have had any interests that are not special interests.

Also, one's aptitude in certain brain functions like memory can be verry merry berry high for the special interest while the special interest is in effect. I had this relationship with baseball statistics for awhile, and my memory for baseball statistics was eggstremely good. I also became eggstremely good at calculating baseball statistics in real-time for to update the big book of baseball statistics in my mind.

Shoes, boy bands, sports - all socially acceptable interests. Usually they're not chosen independently but are forced (can't think of a better word word - enticed/ hypnotised/ assimiliated?) onto people from an early age or are bombarded at us by the media.

Some people can be obsessed with those things too. Perhaps there have AS so mildly it doesn't cause many problems.

My special interests are a passion. They liven up my mood. They become my whole world and will be all I talk about. I thirst for them, especially if they contain a lot of information that remains to be discovered.
I have many interests but only one becomes my central focus at a time. When I focus on maybe 3 a day the focus and love for them is less intense.
Words alone cannot express how much I love physics, or astronomy, or the air force, or dogs, or science fiction. They make me happy. No. Overly joyful.

What I love about them is they're not socially acceptable, especially at the intensity I focus on them and speak about them.

My hyperfocus is different. It's about stimulation. The subject is only relevant as long as it fulfils its purpose in stimulating me, then I'll drop it and probably never go back to it. Like this now is stimulating.

I asked about this last year. What separates a special interest from a usual interest?

IMO, I think it is the passion which people on the spectrum put into it. It's like being in love with somebody and it follows all of the same steps (at least for me). I fall fast and hard and just thinking about my interest excites me. Then I go through a period of "I still like you, but I'm gonna look for other things too." Then I eventually learn everything I want to know and move on. Falling out of love with an interest makes me feel depressed and aimless

Also my goals in pursuing interests have everything to do with research. I feel like I need to know EVERYTHING, from EVERY side of the story. For some reason knowing all of this makes me feel like I am alive.

This!

Although I can have two interests running simultaneously. My present interests are Palaeontology/Evolution and collecting Spiderman stuff. However studying for my earth sciences degree (which relates to my interest in Evolution etc) is my primary interest and spidey is taking a back seat at the moment (partly due to funding issues when it comes to really getting my collection going and partly because it's semi new). My previous obsessions (ie cross stitching, jigsaw puzzles, sequin art, psychology, movies, certain computer games, nutrition, marine biology/breeds of shark etc...) have gone dormant but may resurface again so I am holding on to the collections I acquired when they were my primary interest in case I need them again. I get emotionally attached to my collections anyway, even if my interest stays dormant for quite some time, so rarely discard them.

All of which tends to annoy people greatly...

Not only do I spend all of my available time pursuing my interests, but they also didn't take kindly to my filling their car with 3 years worth of cross stitching magazines when I moved house and they offered to help because I couldn't afford a removal van. It doesn't really sound so bad until you realise that I had to leave a whole load of stuff behind due to not having the space to transport and store the items at the time. Basically I left all the useful household items to end their days in a skip saving all of my beloved hobby collections...which to them seemed ludicrous!

Thing is, if need be, I would do the same again! I can replace an iron or a kettle but my collections are close to my heart....

PN this is not the same as OCD hoarding as I only keep stuff related to the interests I know will resurface or collections related to hobbies I am fond of and not any old rubbish. Old magazines and papers etc that don't relate to my interests in any way get recycled and so on! Especially as I hate too much clutter around me. I need the room for my collections anyway as when I was into cross stitching (for example) I was not happy to have just a few spare kits to stitch, I managed to accumulate over 100 (which I still have and which don't include the years of magazines with charts in, separate collections of ranges of threads and aida and numerous books on the subject again with charts in)! Now of course people think this is a little excessive but, as always, I disagree lol.

They also think spending 14 hours straight a day indulging in my hobby is excessive too, but again I disagree! Apparently after a few hours I am supposed to put my hobby away....ho hum.

Last edited by bumble on 27 Mar 2012, 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This is exactly how I feel about my interests too.

I can relate to Kiseki's post about "being in love" with a special interest and Bumble's description of things relating to her interests. I have a handful of interests that tend to rotate as my primary "special interest", and every once in a while I will add a new one to the rotation. A particular interest may reign supreme over the others for months or even years, but I always seem to come back around to the other core interests so I keep all the stuff associated with them. Although my primary special interest (Autism and ADHD)doesn't follow this pattern (it falls more into the catagory of intellectual interests I have, like reading or researching), I am very drawn to interests that involve collections of items. I love crafts, because of all the cool aesthetically pleasing bits. I think I may love creating collections of the elements of crafting even more than I love actually making the craft itsself. I have collections of ribbon, beads, papers, markers, punches, stamps,etc. The prettier they are, the more fascinated I am with them. I am the same way with cross-stitching stuff. I have more floss, patterns, fabrics and magazines than I will use in years. Craft and hobby stores are very dangerous for me!
When I am involved in an interest, it is all I want to do. I will dedicate all my spare time to it. I tend to neglect everything else in favor of it. I lose myself in it. It makes me happy, and I can't wait for my next "fix". I am trying to teach myself to prioritize and learn to deliberately set my interest aside temporaraly for the sake of other things I need to do (like school work) but it's very hard; I don't get addicted to drugs or alcohol, but I imagine that trying to drag myself away from a special interest is very much like what someone who is addicted to these things experiences.

I've been diagnosed with AS, but I'm not sure if I have it nor am I entirely sure what special interests are.

When I was younger, I was mostly obsessed with video games and legos. When I turned 17, I began to be obsessed with business, mathematics, and libertarianism. I guess business/entrepreneurship has always been my core interest, even when I was a child. I like math but I'm never going to be great since I taught myself math at a later age, so I'm just learning it to help me be better at business. I don't know if this means I have special interests or just OCD.

I tend to enjoy only talking about libertarianism, mathematics, economics, and science. I also tend to become really focused and obsessed with my interests. I'll spend hours and read hundreds of pages of content if I'm enthralled.

I can become pretty manic with entrepreneurial ideas. I'm like a machine!

I've always had multiple interests but only one central interest and area of focus at a time. I've been into a lot of things over the years. Words cannot describe how much I love science for example. Neuroscience, astronomy, astrophysics, particle physics, marine biology, physiology etc. I only focus at one at a time though even though I always love science in general. I can't stop talking about it.

Besides science, other things I've been interested in over the years include things such as lego, ice-hockey, flags, mathematics, Rubik's Cubes, puzzles, Harry Potter and psychology. Right now I'm into everything that has to do with Asperger's.

When I'm having a special interest I need to do everything I possibly can in order to find out as much as possible about the subject. I read books, watch documentaries, read forums, listen to radio programs, think about it every second I'm awake, talk about it etc.

Last edited by rebbieh on 28 Mar 2012, 7:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

That happens to me, too. There are some things I've retained an interest in all my life but others that are like "affairs". It's kind of sad to realise that I'm just not motivated to pursue them any more.

Being a man, and perhaps it's also an INTJ thing, I'm pretty pragmatic and I don't feel a lot of emotion or passion -- I wish I had more joy juice. The interest I guess here is cerebral and the "love" is intellectual and it is thinking based.

My interests bounce around and it revolves around how things work, how our minds work, how governments work, etc. I might have this special interest due to the time spent with it as it occupies my mind to a significant degree.

It's a consuming idea oriented behavior, and it's a non stop introverted thinking endeavor. If I'm on vacation and we are walking down a sidewalk, the mind is figuratively trekking elsewhere in a new thought. What's in the head is greater than what's happening outside.

I'd characterize it as hard thinking drive. I sense the bias it has over me is way over the top -- it very much appears to stretch outside the usual introversion scope.

AS has been the focus since '09. Ive found I'm ADHD last year and kick these ideas around a bunch. As some questions: What is the character of ADD, and what systems are affected. If there was a brain scan or imaging device, would I be afraid to use it as it would show the specific areas that cause the trouble. Are there practice sessions that I can do do to make more connections. Are there neuro cognitive enhancers that make another difference as to neuronal growth. Do the parts of the condition crossover thus making Autism heterogeneous(?????)

It's a whole other obsession here.

I find the posts here very interesting and informative. It's great to have that passion.

I would consider that focus as a special interest. Some of my interests involve an activity, like crafting, but others are intellectual, like my special interest of about the last two years, which is Autism and ADHD. I am also interested in Western European history from around the end of the Bronze Age up to about the late Middle Age period; Interior Design with my main focus on kitchen and bath design (which is also my planned career); and philosophy/religion. These intellectual interests consume my mind a great deal of the time; I spend a lot of time in my head. I feel a huge compulsion to study these things and learn all that I can about them. My inability to adequately access my knowledge is very frustrating to me. I am undeniably an introvert, and my dx of ADHD may very well be correct. As there is a lot of overlap between ADHD and Asperger's, it's hard to tell where one stops and the other begins, which has been the subject of a number of threads on this site. AS includes some symptoms that ADHD does not, and these apply to me in varying degrees. As to your questions above, are you asking these questions of others or are you just stating that these are subjects of contemplation and study for you?

Here's how I would define "special interest" vs. hobby or other passtime:

A special interest is something I spend a lot of time thinking about and acting on.... For me, it's anything to do with air raid/storm sirens. I have been (I'll stop short of saying "obsessed") with them since I was a toddler, and I will drive all day just to be someplace to hear a siren test. And if that's not enough, I bought two 1200-lb Federal Thunderbolt sirens on eBay, and took my wife and a Belgian exchange student in our pickup, and went on a 10-day $5,000 road trip from California to Wisconsin to pick them up! The other component to defining a special interest would be that most likely, most people couldn't care less, and virtually no one should understand why I'd be interested in air raid sirens at all

An NT hobby, which I would not call a special interest, might be to collect postage stamps, to be an avid golfer, or something "reasonable", and understood/accepted by the masses.

Charles

But some special interests can definitely be "understood/accepted by the masses." When I was about 10 for example I was obsessed with ice-hockey. I collected ice-hockey cards and had about 500-600 of them. What I then did was to sort them over and over and over again and also learned the players statistics (from the back of the cards). Hockey cards can be an NT hobby as well, don't you think? I don't have a diagnosis, but I'm pretty sure I'm not NT.

I watch here on (US )TV, several Pawn and Antique collector shows, and it definitely has a quality of "passion" about it. It is them and it permeates them. It's in their personality. They travel far and wide on their hunt. But I believe the crux here is the quality and the quantity of time of mental focus on this.

For them, it's there but not dominant. they are spread out into other things that bide their time -- "a balance."

With myself I get a strong visceral sense these experiences bound outside the ordinary. And i've heard it said from our daughter as "obsessional."


Rhiannon0828 said:

The latest