How often do your special interests change?

Post Reply New Topic

Depends. My main interests have remained the same since I was a little child; but I also have "sub-obsessions" (don't know if it's the right term), that change quite frequently. For example, just a few months ago my "sub-obession" was about mechanical pencils, but currently my "sub-obsessions" are soccer and Kidney stones.

It varies. From over a year to a couple of days to a couple of months. It just depends. What's weird is how abruptly they end, kind of annoying really.

I have a main special interest that I've had a for long time. If I get interested in something else I'll obsess over it until I feel satisfied. These mini-obsessions only last a few days to a few months.

I have a central interest (philology) which has lasted since I was able to read (5 or 6 or so) until now (25), and I sort of have other interests that cycle around it so it has a more broad base.

example: I was a geology student. I found a fossilized leaf. I kept it and put it on my altar, not because it was a nifty fossil (though it was), but because it was the perfect example of the wabi-sabi aesthetic...beauty in impermanence, a symbol of deep time and a reminder of mortality...and conceptually self-negating in that its own impermanence immortalized it in a way. so that goes from "oh cool rock" to "gosh I wish I had more formal training in classical East Asian literary languages". I've done that with psychology and sociology and computing and music and at least a dozen religious movements I've been interested in.

so yeah, there's one enduring central interest that's sort of got these flying-buttress interests that keep getting added on as I get older and get exposed to new things. if I just stuck to one thing I'd be a savant, as it is I have just sort of a broad general knowledge base and the ability to BS on a perpetually waxing number of subjects.

My obsession has always been language/history. I remember rereading the book I had on Egypt about a thousand times when I was in kindergarten and begging my parents to take me to the ROM. Since then, I've never stopped with the history love. Although there are periods where all I wanted to do was science (geology/meteorology/vulcanolgy). And there's that weird obsession with natural disasters (that started in grade two). So I get a new minor one every year or so and history/ language would be my constant one.

The "primary and secondary interests" distinction is interesting and applies to me as well. I tend to have primary interests that last for many years and when they do change they often change to something related to the original interest so the shift isn't a huge one. But I also have secondary interests that I am really into for a few months or sometimes just a few weeks and then they change to something else. These are all kinds of weird random things which are usually unrelated to each other, though sometimes they lead into one another. I have actually been working on slowing my rate of hurtling through my secondary interests lately, as I find they are causing me problems (they are often things which I spend time and money on to get new books/equipment/information about that subject, then a month later I've learned what I wanted to know and lost interest). I tend to get lost in these things and then I find that I'm not doing anything with my life which is really getting me anywhere because I keep switching. I'm trying to concentrate more on my primary interest and be less distracted by the secondary ones, so I can develop knowledge and skills to a level that will actually benefit myself and others.

I'm another primary/secondary one. My primary ones have lasted at least a decade and a half. Secondary ones can change from every few weeks to a couple years. Sometimes they'll be a big interest for a while, then disappear, then return again down the road.

I have a few interests I've had for most of my life (bats, dinosaurs, Meteorology), but I also develop side interests that usually last for several months, and I usually become obsessed with finding out everything I can about them. If I exhaust the knowledge base for them, it can cause me to lose interest in them...
Current interests include: collecting very old telephones, collecting old wind- up clocks, collecting interesting books, Getting camcorders with night vision capability, And of course- being on the internet!

_________________
An Asperger's man who has Autism Spectrum Disorder level 1- mild, with a sprinkling of Synesthesia.

It took a while for my special interests to kick in, in Elementary school I used to read the Ramona books to the exclusion of everything else, but I only really thought about it when I was reading and it didn't infiltrate every part of my life the way my interests do now. I developed my first real all-consuming interest at the age of 10: Garfield the cat. Two years after that it was Peanuts, which lasted 5 years. It's been about a year and a half now, since I moved from Peanuts to Star Trek, and in that time I also picked up ASD's and dinosaurs. It's hard to say if and how long they'll stay. I hope Star Trek especially sticks around a while, as it's an interest I share with a very obsessive (but still NT) friend of mine. She's the one who got me interested in it to begin with.

It all depends for me. I know I had more than one in my childhood, but the main one I can remember is Aztec culture -- that one lasted a year or two of intense interest, and then interested me on and off for another year or so. When I was thirteen it was vegetarianism/veganism and animal rights. That one was one my life revolved around until about sixteen. My other major one at that time was Green Day. I sure I vaugely remember having minor ones, but I don't remember what they were. Then it was cake decorating -- I was convinced it was my destiny to own a bakery/ decorating business. About a year in I became interested in homesteading, and then shortly after it was bread making.
The hubby turns 21 in Feburary, so my next one will probably be extract making.
I guess the point of saying all that was to say that they've lasted a few months to years, and sometimes I have more than one at the same time.

Some of my special interests are life-timers, at least so far. Then I get temporary ones in addition to those, and they may last...I don't know, two months? Three months? Thereabouts.

I can trace my main special interests back to about 5 or 6 years old and I'm now 42. They have evolved and expanded over time but they haven't changed that much. I do have short term interests that are usually offshoots of my main interests and they can last anything from a week or so to several years.

..

My interest in insect has persisted ever since I was a child. I have cycled through other interest like my obsession with carnivorous plants that lasted a year in high school. These minor obsessions last about a year and currently my minor obsession is the Bioshock video game franchise.

They have never changed for now. (22 years old)
I started loving videogames at the age of 14-15 and I still love them nowaday (i'm obsessed with playing them all, at least the major titles coming out).

Also I love rock and metal music and I know all the major bands in this genre (it was my obsession until I knew them all to know their names).