addict vs. special interest?

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When I was in College I focused on school work but play videogames on occasion (beat a level/area) back to studies. When the suspension happen I was depressed and tossed myself into my videogames buying the newest game OH WOW play play play beat it (what next?) was my train of thought. I know with going back to college videogames WILL take a backseat and studies will be my focus but while depressed I tossed myself into them. Is this "addiction?" OR perhaps special interest? I talk about videogames alot and I focus on playing beating the latest game I bought so IMO I believe gaming is a special interest of mine. but it has been bugging me is my gaming an "addiction" or just special interest?

Special interests are just the way our brains work; it's impossible to get rid of them. If you forcibly remove every vestige of a special interest from an autistic person, they will just think about it constantly or else switch to a new special interest. If you keep distracting them to stop them thinking about it, they will go nuts and possibly start to lose skills. Special interests are an intrinsic feature of our brains.

An addiction is a sort of maladaptive coping strategy that people use because they are trying to deal with something else, anything from boredom to self-medicating for a mental illness. It's called an "addiction" when it causes detrimental effects. (Physical dependency is not the same thing as addiction and isn't what I'm talking about--for example, people who are physically dependent on caffeine are not usually psychologically addicted.) If you're a shrink, you only call it an "addiction" if there are bad effects for the person who has one: For example, if someone has lost his job and some of his friends because he spends so much time playing video games, it can be called an addiction. If he just does so in his spare time, to relax, then it's not an addiction.

The sheer amount of time spent with a favorite pastime can't be used as an indicator of addiction in someone who also has special interests. If it's a special interest, then the presence of that pastime will make the person more functional, more confident, less anxious, etc., because it's something that the brain is meant to do--a positive coping strategy, not a maladaptive one as an addiction would be.

Autistics can have both addictions and special interests. It's important to figure out which is which, because getting rid of an addiction is useful but getting rid of a special interest is impossible.

Thanks Callista! This reconfirms Psychology=special interest BIG TIME! (I just put the requirements for Psychology course transfer to BS and the BS degree requirements on a flashdrive! and was researching PhDs!) LOL! Videogames have gotten to where "I'm playing instead of going somewhere" but I've never LOST anything (job/friends etc.) from videogames. So with how you described it (and what I've read countless times) I guess gaming is NOT an addiction for me. I would say gaming is also a special interest of sorts since I talk about it so much and I'm always either playing or surfing gaming websites. Thanks for the info.

Exactly. Comfort food, if not taken to excess, is not a maladaptive coping strategy. There's a difference between occasional comfort food, and eating to avoid your problems, or doing it so much that you throw your nutrition off balance.

Negative coping mechanisms tend to be used to avoid or suppress problems; positive coping mechanisms help you handle problems.

I'm really interested in this subject because my AS teenager plays WoW pretty much all day this summer, since school is out, and the therapist he saw last week with his dad is pushing to call his constant playing of WoW an addiction. This therapist made his anti-gaming position very clear many months ago, which I do not agree with. I think WoW is the special interest in his life now, period. Plus, he is too old for most summer camps and is not interested in doing other things when he has online friends, goals to meet, raids to do, etc. But I know it would be easy to call it an addiction based on the amount of time he spends on it.

The test will be if he has trouble focusing on school in September because he is thinking about WoW.

I'm addicted to music. The Kinks are one of my special interests. How does this work? I've got YouTube on all day. I listen to The Kinks 50% of the time. YouTube is a drug, and The Kinks and the clothes that they wore, along with their sound and their lyrics are a part of my identity. I get my kicks from YouTube. I turn to The Kinks, for pleasure and happiness. The various artists that I listen to on YouTube provide me with the Cyber Caffeine that I need, to make it, through the day. The Kinks provide me with the truest happiness that I've known, 14 years ago, and today. I was off my rocker, between 1997 and Late Summer 2009, with Austin Powers and Sid. Those weren't special interests, or addictions - those were delusions.

I think the simplest way to distinguish between an addiction and a special interest is to ask yourself: Is this something that makes me happy or is this something I use to avoid feeling unhappy? If the answer is the latter, you need to find something that provides you with the former.

I've banned YouTube, from my apartment, yesterday morning. I was able to get back to sleep, right after my 2AM pee, because I took that step.

I think I have an addictive personality................in addition to and separate from my propensity for 'special interests'