cyclic special interests.

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Hello,

I was wondering if what i consider to be a special interest really are special interests.
My special interests are more likely cyclic. They come and go... for example. These last days i spent my time researching about my genealogy tree. This has happend before, and i am sure it will pass soon. But when i'm at it, its so good, i could eventually go all day researching.

Another thing is games. I was a game freak when i was a kid. As a teenager it kept coming and going... as for now, I'm really considering buying a pokemon x &Y, and I'm 27, so my wife days it's a childish thing. But there are times of my life where my thoughts on games where virtually zero.

As a kid i would also love bugs... and animal skulls... i wanted to collect them. But now, its just a minor.interest, i think.

So, would these be considered special interests?

I have no idea. I am confused about my interests too and can't find clear answers as to whether they are NT or ASD or a bit of both.

I know at the moment that I am most excited about learning music theory and how to play piano. I am also reading books on music composition. I have purchased a digital keyboard/piano (a casio CDP-120...i could not afford anything more expensive and its does have lovely piano style touch sensitive keys on it so its like playing a piano even though it's not a baby grand) and practice at home as I am not able to afford private lessons at the moment (although I am looking into it). I have planned today out so I have the rest of the afternoon to do some music practice.

Here is my beautiful baby. I am very much in love with her...



(PN i am aware my wall needs decorating and I am in the process of saving up for and selecting the wall paper I want now).

I also plan to read some more of the book I am reading about the paleo diet by Loren Cordain. Here is my present reading list as detailed in my blog (except add two more music books to the pile 'Music Theory' and 'Music Composition'.

1 The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain, Ph.D.

All about the Paleo diet.

2 The Shark That Walks On Land by Michael Bright.

Marine biology of the strange variety and marine myths and legends.

3 Piano For Dummies by Blake Neely

All about learning to play the piano

4 Drawing For Dummies by Brenda Hoddinott (who also runs a website called DrawSpace (link) which provides free drawing lessons).


5 Learn To Play Piano In Six Weeks or Less by Dan Delaney and Bill Chotkowski

More piano playing.

Just finished:

The House of Evil: The Indiana Torture Slaying by John Dean. Very sad (and shocking) true life crime story about the murder of a young girl called Sylvia Marie Likens.

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I am presently undertaking the paleo diet but do keep jumping on and off if. I am having trouble letting go of some favourite foods that are not technically paleo. For now I have kept them as treats rather than removing them completely. I am interested in how nutrition affects out mental health and cognition. If I agreed with what the western world teaches about diet at universities (I do think the diet industry have gone off on the wrong track) I'd have studied it formally. Nutrition and the link to mental health and cognition has been an interest of mine for many years. Of course now it takes a Paleo direction and I have some books that are not on my reading list to read about paleolithic peoples in Europe and archaeological finds that indicate what they ate and how they lived. Has our modern day lifestyle really improved things for us in regards to nutrition? Thus far it seems our paleolithic ancestors diets were higher in nutrients than ours are!

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My other hobbies include needle crafts and occasionally, other arts and crafts too. Here is an unfinished sequin art project I am working on. I have around another 9 kits that I have collected that I have not started yet and around 10 that I have already done. I am aiming to collect and complete them all (the entire range...its a little project/aim I have going).



And here are some completed ones (on top of the unit, there are more but I either don't have pictures or don't have them on display):

And here is a cross stitch project I completed some time ago. Cross stitching was my main hobby for 6 to 8 years (give or take) and I still have my collection of around 4 years of cross stitching magazines with charts in, cross stitching books, nearly 100 kits, various aida and thread collections, collections that merged with other interests such as my tendency to collect all things fairy related (I have metal fairy statues, colouring books, reading books about their origins, and of course the flower fairy cross stitch kits as well other kits like popcorn, another range I was collecting).

I have lots more examples of cross stitching I have done but have not posted the pictures yet (this one has been done with DMC threads and Mill Hill beads):



Also I very much enjoy collecting and watching 1940's movies and musicals particularly staring Paulette Goddard, James Stewart, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Norman Wisdom and Jerry Lewis. I have posted some of them on my blog.

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Those are my main interests at the moment. I also have a more minor interest in drawing, my interest in shark species is still present but has dropped into the background (I really do want to start using my indexing cards though so that I can keep a database of species, especially those found in the uk, their characteristics, population, location/habitat etc and I also want to make and paint clay models of all 500 or so species but unfortunately I have to learn how to work with the clay first...I am new to pottery. I want to try it though and have started collecting tools. I also own around 25 shark movies and several documentaries. I still have more to collect but as it's dropped down the list in terms of my focus right now that is all on hold). As for my interest in bus riding/or traveling up and own the coast on buses (I have favourite routes, I do not like to ride buses inner city..yack yack) that is on hold for now as I it is temporarily become unaffordable, except for weekly visit to a nearby coastal areas to take pictures of the sea.

Here is a video I took of the ocean at Sheringham. Later I will post some very pretty pictures I took there on my blog, but I have just gotten back from swimming and I need to take a shower...I smell like chlorine as does my hair). The tide was a bit stormy that day! I love beautiful blue though. Isn't she amazing? I want to learn to draw and paint so that I can paint her. For photography and videos will have to do (not very high tech I'm afraid as my camera is old and somewhat basic).


[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dKZbm76u2A[/youtube]

I don't know if my hobbies are ASD related or not. I do luffs them though...they are my special special special precious little babies!! !! !! !!

Well im like 100% autistic and my special interests are cyclic and similar to your own.

For those who want to try sequin art you can find loads of them here. I like the iceskates. Must add to my shopping list if i can find it on amazon. And the wolf...the wolf first I think, it is cool.

http://www.ksgcrafts.com/browse/sequin-art/

Wolf:



I will shut up now. Sorry. But its a good link for people who like such things.

I suppose my interests go that way.

I love playing Lord of the Rings Online, but I reach a point where I just don't mess with the game at all until something brings it back to my attention.

I suppose I fiddle with something until I get bored with it, but I don't get rid of it because I know I'll come back to it in time.

Awesome to read about your interests bumble.
I, myself, have been following the paleo diet for a year now...
At first it became some sort of special interest for me.

I share your view about the current world view on nutrition, and in fact have thought to study this professionally. But it came as an unfeasible idea since it has nothing to do with my formation.

Recently i havent been very strict on the diet, since its difficult here where i live.

A lot of my special interests definitely come and go. Typically, they can last from only a few days to a few months; I've only had one, maybe two, interests that have stuck with me. That would be Phineas and Ferb and other cartoons.

I think my special interests tended to be more cyclic when I was a kid. For example, Chicken Run would be one of my special interests for about three years, then there'd be a hiatus, and then I'd be interested in Chicken Run again. My special interests are still kind of cyclic, too, like my interests in sensory processing disorder and certain animated movie characters.

I must say that pretty much everything I do is cyclic, in the sense of going around in phases. I often have multiple projects on the go and mean "project" in the most general terms: walking for health, walking for enjoyment, planning a presentation, studying my special interests, watching my way through a boxed DVD set, doing a backlog of paperwork or room tidying, etc.

I even listen to music in phases; at the moment it's Metallica, a while ago it was Hawkwind, a year ago it was Motörhead and several years ago Handel and Bach; sometimes I can listen to the same tune on a loop for over an hour, if it "just hits the spot" in terms of my mood at the time; Windows Vista/7 freebie Kalimba is particularly addictive and right now it's "The Musketeers" theme

Most of my "Aspie Special Interests" (tm) are typically Aspie in themselves: IT, engineering, theoretical math, physics and cosmology, mathematical philosophy, the cat fancy, microprocessor architecture, and a few other things. However, some of them are also practiced by NTs, such as astronomy and walking for scenery/health.

So my "cyclicity" is ultimately due to a lack of fine-grained multitasking skills or (in the case of music) liking something very much until it wears off; it applies equally to my "Aspie Special Interests" (tm), NT special interests and normal everyday life stuff.