pensieve
President of Gallifrey
Joined: Nov 19, 2008
Age: 27
Posts: 7452
Location: Sydney, Australia
|
 Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 12:26 am Post subject: |
 |
|
I've been drawing since I was 2 or 3 so I don't remember how I got into it. All I know is when I was child it was the only thing I did that I was good at. Everything in the world was difficult compared to it. I still like to draw but not as intensely as before.
My interest in science fiction started as just a curiosity. After getting into Doctor Who I opened up to other shows and then started getting into all of it. I loved the back stories of alien species and the science in it kept me interested. I've always had a knack for remembering facts and once I got into science I had an abundance to of knowledge to gain. From science fiction I got into literature because for some reason I want to write my own sci-fi and that's what I'm doing.
My special interests always become a part of me and every part of my day is about them. Even when I have to do boring grown up stuff it's still on my mind. Everything unrelated to it become research, even socialising.
Most of my new interests have been subjects I've always liked a little bit but never really did much about it. I've always love aeroplanes but only recently started to learn more about them when I got interested in the air force, which was encouraged by Stargate SG-1.
And yeah, it is a feeling, one of excitement and to me, stimulation. It's hard to explain but it's almost like a high.
P.S Dots: I love tornadoes too. When I was 12 I bought a pet tornado and then tried to replicate it by using dish washing liquid. You basically swirled around a glass with chemicals in it and a funnel would form.
I like volcanoes too. I like the destructive forces of nature. I absolutely love solar storms. Well, all the data of a solar storm.
My special interests have to be practical these days, probably why I don't do as much art as I used to. I need to do them for a goal. I watch sci-fi to help me write. I write with the goal of getting published in mind and moving onto the next book.
_________________
My autism blog - http://latedx.wordpress.com
My completely random though usually about Doctor Who blog - http://alonsy.tumblr.com/ |
|
| Back to top |
|
StarTrekker
Phoenix
Joined: Apr 23, 2012
Age: 20
Posts: 506
Location: Starship Voyager, somewhere in the Delta quadrant
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 2:04 am Post subject: |
|
|
I don't go actively looking for my special interests, usually it's something small that catches my interest and makes me look deeper into the subject as a whole. Once established, my interests can keep me going for years, and they take up all of my free time. If I'm ever between interests it makes me feel a little lost, like an important part of me is somehow missing. My interests never really translate to the real world very well because they have always involved either books, cartoons, or, currently, sci fi. My most useful interest so far has been my intense study of Asperger's, something else I'm currently fascinated by.
_________________
"Scotty, one to beam out!" - Captain Kirk
"Survival is insufficient" - Seven of Nine
"Not fare well, but fare forward, voyagers." T.S Eliot (quoted by Captain Janeway) |
|
| Back to top |
|
FishStickNick
Phoenix
Joined: Apr 05, 2012
Posts: 957
Location: My own head
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 2:24 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I've had one of my special interests for as long as I can remember. But I can say that I don't look for special interests; I find something interesting, and I just become engrossed in it. Aspergers itself has occupied much of my free time for the last month or so. |
|
| Back to top |
|
IdahoRose
Imaginary Friend
![]()
Joined: Feb 25, 2007
Age: 22
Posts: 18651
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 4:07 am Post subject: |
|
|
| With every one of my special interests, I have come across something by chance and the moment I lay eyes on it, my heart skips a beat and it's love at first sight. Then I proceed to obsess over it for about 2 to 3 years (typically). My longest obsession lasted 6 years and my shortest lasted 4 months. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Kiseki
I just ran out of Band-Aids
Joined: May 30, 2010
Age: 33
Posts: 1604
Location: Osaka JP
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:23 am Post subject: |
|
|
I'm a bit worried as I haven't had a proper special interest in over 6 months. I don't know why but my brain doesn't seem to want one right now  I always know when an interest is becoming a special interest because my curiousity in it is MUCH stronger than anything else in my life. I feel like I need to know everything about it, from every angle, and I literally am IN LOVE with it. Then the love fades away and I start to feel lost and depressed. This is pretty much how I feel right now. I wish that something would grab me again...
_________________
Your Aspie score: 161 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 55 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie |
|
| Back to top |
|
minotaurheadcheese
Velociraptor
Joined: Apr 21, 2012
Posts: 412
Location: the lone lands
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 12:35 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| OddDuckNash99 wrote: |
Once an intense SI has found its way into my life, the first phase is a short period of increasing excitement and obsessional thinking about the new subject. I'll get what I call "excited panic attacks," which are pretty much what they sound like- I'll have a panic attack from excitement about the new SI, and in order to stop the panic attack symptoms, I have to engage in the SI. This tends to happen the most for movie/TV show SIs. Then, I slowly begin to search for and print out pictures of my new SIs. And do Internet research and/or read books. By this time, I'll also casually mention it to my mom, and then casually drop the subject here and there in conversations with people I'm close with. By this time, I know deep down that it's going to be an SI, but out of guilt and loyalty to my other SIs, I don't admit this at first.
Slowly, the intensity will grow enough and last long enough that I feel the subject is worthy of being deemed a true SI, and once it's "official," the next phase, which usually lasts 1-3 years, is what I call the "rambling phase." This is the "most Aspie" time, where I literally will talk about the SI and nothing else if given the chance, and I will try to bring up the SI in conversation whenever I can. The SI dominates my thoughts during this time, and if allowed, my brain will re-visit the topic whenever able.
After the rambling phase has ended, the SI will become a permanent fixture in my life, along with my other SIs. They stay with me for life, as do their passion and intensity, but post-rambling phase, I only will ramble about them when they are brought up in conversation somehow. I no longer have the obsessive need to talk about them every chance I get, but I still delight in talking about them when relevant. However, every so often, whether by reminder, nostalgia, or something else, I will have a resurgence of the rambling phase for a particular SI. Only, the resurgence of passion only lasts from a few days to a month before it goes back to the permanent fixture. |
I was really happy when I read your post. Virtually every detail of what you describe equates to my experience of special interests. I smiled when you mentioned the guilt and loyalty to your other SI's. That is an extremely familiar sentiment to me. I am happy to know that there are others who have the same experience that I do because I have felt since early childhood that one area which made me appear most eccentric and unlikeable was my fixation on certain topics, my unabated thirst for knowledge pertaining to them, and my sometimes inappropriate compulsion to discuss them in technical detail.
My SIs agonize me for two reasons. First, because I am aware of their social implications and feel embarrassed by their abnormal intensity and depth, yet feel helpless to control how I express them. Second, because during the early period when I am the most desperate to learn everything that I can about a topic, it can be a genuinely painful experience for me. Sometimes the information is not available or sometimes there are reasons why I have to wait to obtain it and I feel very frustrated.
That said, I would not know who I was if I did not have my SIs. I do not know how NT people go through life without the consuming intellectual passions I feel. I do not mean that as an insult to any NTs, just that I am not capable of conceiving what that life would be like. My personal motto is "amore Studii," meaning "for the love of learning," because I do not think I would continue to live were it not for my hunger for knowledge about certain subjects. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Night_Shade917
Blue Jay
Joined: Apr 04, 2012
Posts: 95
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 3:01 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Wow thanks so much for all your replies! It was really interesting to see all your perspectives and it's amazing how you all have such a great knowledge of your Special Interests! I really liked reading about them and it's so fascinating how you can remember such large amounts of information about your Special Interests  . I have an Aspie boyfriend and when he talks about his special interest, he sounds so smart because he can tell me so much information about one subject, it truely is amazing.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
SpongeBobRocksMao
The SpongeBob Freak! :D
Joined: Oct 19, 2008
Age: 19
Posts: 2970
Location: SpongeBob's Pineapple (England really!)
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:35 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Well, I've had my special interest in SpongeBob and other cartoons for quite a while now. It's not like I want it to become a special interest, it just happens. I remember I used to just watch SpongeBob once in a while, then daily, then I found myself collecting hundreds and hundreds of its merchandise. The collecting has stopped now, but the obsession is still there.
_________________
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
SpongeBobRocksMao!
Absorbent and yellow and porous is he!
SpongeBobRocksMao! |
|
| Back to top |
|
raylit20
Blue Jay
Joined: Mar 24, 2012
Age: 23
Posts: 99
|
| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:14 am Post subject: |
|
|
I'm glad to hear that others follow a similar course with their SI as I do. I typically follow a pattern like OddDuckNash99 mentioned.
For the last few years my SI has been vehicles, and while I love talking with enthusiasts about them, they often bore of the conversation and move on long before I do. I found that rather than being specific about things I get a better reaction if I am more general and don't fully finish explaining an idea. Seems very odd to do at first, but I see people doing it all the time around me. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
