How to force/impel a special interest?

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When I was teenager I was obsessed with programing. I could spend whole nights in front of the computer. I even used to make my own programs: I had my own word processor, I played the games I programed by myself, and so.

I wanted to study IT, but then my father got in the middle and prohibited me to study IT and use the computer. He wanted me to study a "real" engineering.

Last years I have trying to get back into IT. And it has been a big nightmare: no matter what, I couldn't feel this obsession again. Until recently. Right now I'm back into it: two weeks ago I was programing until 5-6 AM without stop, like during old days.

But it took really a hard time until I could get this 'special interest' back. Just trying and trying and trying again.


So just wondering: does anybody know a easier way to impel a special interest?

Talking about it with someone who has the same interest.

My impression is that true asperger special interests cannot be forced - you don't find them, they find you, so to speak.

But of course you have do try it out/"discover" the interest before it can become one. For instance trying to program for the first time.

Join an internet discussion group for programers?

Just don't forget all about is here on WP.

I'm afraid it doesn't work. I already tried that!! !

Find out what made you fall in love with it and then try to recreate that. Think up fun things to do/learn/read about programming/[insert interest], something other than what you're doing now... New but concerning the same topic. Basically the same advice for someone that wants to rekindle a relationship with a love-interest as for a special-interest
I'm in almost the same place with neuroscience, not really into it again but I am planning to properly learn the basics soon anyway when I have time for it (very non-sequential learner)

In my experience once someone moves on from a special interest, that's it, they don't go back. They move on to a new interest and the issue of trying to pick up the old one doesn't really occur.

For you though, the situation is different - you were forced to give it up

My best suggestion is not about finding contacts or discussing it with others but about finding a purpose - if there is something you want to do, want to play with, want to find out how it works if.... then that's when you will engage and get the most out of your interest and the urge to focus will be irresistible

it may not happen right away, you may not be able to force the interest to grab you, but when the right sense of purpose crops up it may well let you in again.

Yeap, you're right. 'Special interests' are in many ways like love. Perhaps it has some chemical reason, as it says in this article, http://www.wrongplanet.net/article352.html

At the end of the day, what we feel is due to our chemistry. Perhaps this is the reason for what I'm such a bad learner when I have tried to be organized but I can go really far when I 'fall in love' with a subject. It happens to me too, the 'not to be a sequencial learner'. But being sequencial means order. I never have been able to be 'organized' when it comes to those subjects. Either I feel no interest, and no matter how much time I use it's useless, either I feel obsessed, and then I'm chaotic and passionate about the subject, but then I learn and get better really fast. It's like being love with somebody: you don't learn 'sequencially' or in a organized way about this person, you just pick eveything here and there in a chaotic way, but after some time, you're gonna know this person really well.

That was a good link; think I've read something like it before, but the connection was already obvious as that is what it feels like. I think whatever opiates affects are involved as being without the current interest feels like mild withdrawal.. And being on a small dose prescribed opiates have made me stand learning things that's not a special interest, which was almost impossible before (not the reason why I take it but wish it was) so I'm totally with you on having to feel passion or it doesn't work. You described how I do it too I think it's really common being non-sequential, especially with those that are autodidacts (learned that word just the other day, thought everyone was), but that's opposite the way schools teach - still not used talking to similar people

ETA: Also withdrawal or just being sick makes me go (instinctively) for the quickfix special-interests and exclude my others - those with the fastest payoff to the least effort, like specific songs or other things like that to feel better again. Maybe those with less complex special interests aren't feeling well (not that there's anything wrong with simple).

Last edited by Anomiel on 20 Apr 2013, 10:31 am, edited 3 times in total.

Well, I have a bit of both worlds. I have been autodidact with IT and it has been a nightmare until I 'felt in love' with the subject again. Now I'm trying to reproduce the steps that made me reach this point, with other subjects. I think it works better (at least for me) if, instead of focusing in the picture, I focus in small details that look specially interesting and work the subject picking here and there some kind of 'ignition points'. That's chaotic, but when you 'fall in love' with somebody or something, you do it because small details.



Yeap, it's the same for me. (Though I call them 'guilty pleasures' ) Indeed, this kind of special interests can be highly relaxing. And not only books or songs. Sometimes, for example, I browse typographies for a while to relax, something that, if you think about, it's quite insane!! !

PS About the neuroscience, that's interesting. Some moment in the future when I have more spare time I want to write a scifi novel whose idea I have now in my head. And I had to deep a bit in neuroscience since it's very related to human intelligence, AI and the concept of identity.

I have AS & I don't really have any special interests or obsessions. My hobbies are watching TV, going on the internet & going to the gym. So yeah maybe you just don't have that trait.

I have it. But the issue is trying to tweak it towards something useful.

Well could you just spend your time doing what you like doing & then something you do could develop into a special interest? Do you have to have a special interest?

Positive experiences, special interests are just as much a coping mechanism to stress as it is a genuine interest.

So if you want to strengthen your resolve or your productivity with a special interest, simply ensure you have positive experiences.

I don't mean making computer programs that give you compliments. But what I mean in try engaging in it the interest when you know it will be stress relieving.

For me, the special interests arise out of wanting to achieve something, there is always a goal. No goal, no interest. If I'd abandoned an interest previously because the goal was achieved, it can come up again if there is something I want from it (maybe it could work for you that way?).

Most recent one is landscaping my back yard. I've collected tree and shrub data sheets from the USDA and universities for my plant hardiness region, categorized based on size, growth rates, shade/sun needs, water needs, wildlife value, space requirements, etc. Also, sprinkler specs. Put into spreadsheets and then created a plan drawing. Previously, had no real interest, most trees were just trees. Now I could identify most that grow in my area by sight (LOL). Tropical fish has been one that has come and gone for me throughout my life depending on whether or not I was going to set up a new aquarium.

IF this would work for you, maybe you need a reason to program; a new game? a program that you need to utilize for some other interest? what about something you hate to do, a program that wold make it easier? (to bad you can't write one that would fold laundry... I hate folding laundry... I'd pay for that program)

That's smart, reproducing it. Have you had any luck so far? I do that too, for example with astrophysics if I'm really into black holes, then wanting to understand them would lead to understanding all the necessary physics involved and then finding other interesting things trough that and repeating the procedure and then I suddenly have a framework to put all other astrophysics related data in so it just gets easier to learn even more and so on. That's not exactly how it went for me with astrophysics but you get the idea. (which then lead to ordinary physics during the research, which then lead to quantum physics. Something similar happened with biology, started with something big which then lead to understanding of all the other sciences that make up it)
I guess guilty pleasures is the right word - if I felt any guilt about it no no, I prefer "interesting" to "insane", browsing typographies is totally normal - even joining the cult of Helvetica is totally normal nowadays, there's even a documentary about that font. Have you seen it?
Oh you're a writer - you could make a writing-mad lib program or a simple AI-like conversational program? If you still need any inspiration to get programming Or maybe write about a computer that lost the passion for computing and is trying to regain it instead.