Losing my special interest!

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I feel like a huge piece of who I am has been taken away. I'm getting bored and more disinterested in my special interest lately. I'm having incredible anxiety the past few days, because it's my routine to do my special interest throughout the day. I have sub interests atm, but there not like a full blown special interest. Anyone else go through this and any advice? It sure is distressing. I now have nothing to annoy my parents about all day

I experienced it.
I gave up on my special interest once. I went to a vacation without a computer so I couldn't play my favorite game (a few years of playing 6-14h a day everyday, having daily and weekly rituals about it). Then when I returned I realized is not so funny anymore because when I was gone they added a patch that changed almost whole game experience and I got far behind the changes. I didn't like it anymore.

I was trying to find a replacement but nothing was interesting enough. Some things got my interests for a few weeks and anime even catched me for a few months but that was all not enough.
Eventually I got over it.

Now my time and efford is split between a few daily activities (including some of the special interest replacements). I quess it is better this way. At least my plan of day/week is more flexible now and changes don't hurt that much as they used to.

Special interests usually serve a few purposes. One of those purposes can be to maintain a sense of control in a world which we have trouble navigating due to our differences. Another is to reduce anxiety (which kind of naturally happens when you have a loss of control).

An inability to engage in a special interest for whatever reason can produce extreme anxiety. Are you depressed? Could your mind be switching from one special interest to another? The transition could be scary, because it's a huge change.

My main special interests are economics and fantasy. When I can't be into economics, I fantasize instead. Is that one of your sub-interests? If so, I recommend it.

Things like depression, sudden changes, or an inability to cope with life can cause one to lose "interest" in their special interest. Sometimes, you can be so devastated, that not even that helps.

I recommend watching videos about your special interest if possible. Sometimes, hearing others converse about it can get your mind thinking in "that way" again. If you want me to be honest, if everything is that bad, I recommend taking long naps if you can't fantasize. I know when I have lost interest, I felt an extreme lack of self. Nothing could distract me. So, sleep it was.

Its hard I KNOW how ht can be. Its usually caused by anxiety and depression/exhaustion. It could also mean that you might be transitioning to a new special interest which can be an AMAZING time. Whenever im severely depressed I tend to come on Wrong Planet and post. WP is like a secondary special interest for me.

Thanks for the responses everyone, makes me feel better

I know how you feel. I've been told that my bus service is no longer going to be run by my favourite bus company, meaning the drivers that are currently my special interest won't be driving my bus any more, and there will be all new drivers on it. It's so upsetting for me because I love this obsession of mine, but my obsessions are naturally ''out of sight out of mind'', and I have no control over it. I know once the obsession's gone it's gone and I am not interested any more, but whilst I'm still obsessed and deeply interested, it is an awful thought to think of it fading away. It's really not fair. f*****g cutbacks and Tory government, they ruin everything!!

It's difficult to get the other buses that this certain company runs because it's base is right out of my way and the bus I always get is the only one in the company that goes through my town. It's no good travelling long distance to a big town I don't normally go to just to see my old favourites, because I would feel like somewhat of a stalker. Maybe occasionally, but not every day. It's such a shame when things change, but I can't really talk to many people about this (except for my mum), because most people look at me and wonder why I'm so bothered about who drives a bus and who doesn't. You know how a lot of NTs are when it comes to Aspie interests, they just don't know how much our interests mean to us.

I haven't had any "special interest" for a long time. I mean, I play videogames or surf the internet for hours, but I'm not passionate about that the same way I was about a particular TV show or whatever when I was younger. I thought it was because of being older now, but maybe it has something to do with being depressed.

Yes, I have experienced that, most recently a couple of weeks ago.

I have found that if I am patient and keep my eyes and ears open I will eventually pick up a new interest. It is sometimes kind of fun waiting to see what it will be.

it happens, i had loads of special interests

1.Stacking objects
2. Piles of clothes,toys,dirt,ect
3. Thumbelina the movie
4. Toy Story
5. Spider Webs
6. Snubbies toys
7. Bratz Dolls
8. Simpson Collectable Cards
9. Spongebob Squarepants
10. ghosts
11. Wolves
12. Frogs
13: salamanders
14. a toy Mummy
15. Coraline
16. Sonic

these are roughly in order, but as you can see, iv had a lot of Special interests.

I've gone through many phases with my special interests, and some things that I used to be absolutely passionate about are now just passing interests to me. The only ones that have really been constant for me have been computers, music, and video games, and even then those are fairly broad topics, and I've gone through many phases with interests within those topics.

I've even gone through a few periods where I've been so depressed, that I've almost lost interest in everything, including my special interests. It's pure hell for me when this happens.

I never really developed any special interests until I was about 10. I had a sort of obsession with books written by Beverly Cleary throughout elementary school, and reading them are the only memories I have of the things I did for fun at that age. I don't remember what else I did at all, so maybe it was a bigger interest than I was aware of. I have kind of the opposite problem to you at the moment, Wags: I'm developing new interests so fast I can't keep up with them, and some of my older ones are getting shoved to the background. Right now I'm interested in Star Trek (definitely shoved to the background), dinosaurs, ASDs, and my most recent one that caught on a couple of weeks ago, the X-Men. I wish I could just focus on one interest and tune the rest out, because stretching my time over so many interests dilutes the number of things I'm learning about each one, as well as their general potency. I came close to being "interest-less" in 12th grade as my Peanuts cartoon obsession of five years began to wane, however near the middle of the year, it was replaced by Star Trek and I started fresh with a new interest. The trick is not to let your lack of interest depress you, otherwise you'll lose the energy and motivation to do things that might spark a new one. Keep looking around for things that seem interesting, and see if anything sticks; that's how I developed my interest in the X-Men; I sort of poked around the internet for an hour or so, not really expecting much, and before I knew it, I had another obsession on my plate.

I remember losing interest in the 70s Punk Movement starting the Canada Day of 2009. I had an entitled NT with mental health issues as a frenemy at the time. Two months later, I went back to being the fun CockneyRebel who likes the British 60s and obsesses about Routemasters again, though not on the WP message boards like I did before.

I had a pretty severe depressive incident years ago. During this any time I would try to enjoy one of my interest I would have moderate to extreme anxiety. It was absolute hell and I honestly felt like I was loosing myself. I eventually they came back to me and I enjoyed them with with a great fire and passion again. I just let the special interests naturally work themselves back.