Special interest as an antidote?

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My special interest is music. I play piano and organ and also have a cello and a guitar, both of which I noodle about with if I get any spare time. I've noticed that when I'm practicing music, I'm intently focused on it and am loving it, but at the same time my mind goes flickering through other thoughts, as though doing a bit of a clean out. I feel so relieved and happy, even hyper, after a practice session, and the longer it lasted the better. It's as if it untangles all the mess that gets muddled inside my head every day. Perhaps it's because, when I'm immersed in what I love doing, I'm letting my brain function in the way it was designed to? I wonder if this is why things feel better after...

I have the same with dancing, so it has a lot to do with music. If the music is good, I express everything it allows me to, and I can dance for many hours if the music gets me going. At some point I dont consider any move, but am solely affected by the music, so that the moves come fully naturally, while my mind is going through many thoughts and the whole thing is making me completely comfortable with everything.

I wonder if it's more related to how music affects the brain then? I guess if my obsession was to do with studying facts it might be impossible for the mind to study facts about something while processing and filing away other thoughts...

absolutely stimming and bike riding do the same for me.

That is interesting that you mention this. My one daughter's interest is her trumpet. She sometimes has a very hard time over at her father's house, and when she is stressed out over there, she plays, plays and plays. It really is the way she relieves stress. Her "baby" is in the shop right now, and she had a melt down over it. She was already tense and they had given her a loaner trumpet, but it does not feel or sound the same. She could not handle it. It comes back home on Friday. I know she will be happy.

sorry for the double post

I don't know, I'd have to think about this. As much as I enjoy my hobbies and obsessions, they don't always seem to relieve stress. Sometimes they do, but whenever I'm interrupted or I have to stop before I'm ready to that always seems to make things worse.

I intently focus on, and love, my special interests, but for me stimming (running up and down) 'clears out' all the bad stuff, not my special interest.

I think my new Sonic the hedgehog obsession was what saved me during our move from Texas back to Ohio. My parents were nitpicking on me more than usual about basicaly everything but I didn't really pay attention to it because I was so focused on my new obsession. Sure we were moving back to the same house, but still it was a move. I had a VERY hard time during our move from Ohio to Texas. It has been years since I've developed a major special intrest. My last one before Sonic was Titan A.E. but than after I finnaly got my own pet lizard I lost all intrest in it. Titan A.E..

When I get a new special intrest, that's all I want to think about. I learned the hard way to never talk about my special intrests. It took forever to break the ice of my new Sonic obsession with my mom. Whenever it came up, I carefully would change to subject to kitsunes or the famliy of einaceinae (sorry RoBUTTnick, Sonic is NOT a rodent).

I was reluctant to talk about Titan A.E. too now that I think about it. Maybe it was just because I was older and more mature than when I discovered my meerkat and Lion King obsessions. I was ALWAYS being told I needed to shut up about those or that my parents needed a break from hearing about them. It made me feel as if I wasn't loved very much whenever I was told that. Lately, I don't want to share my obsessions with anyone. Maybe it's a learned thing. People never wanted to hear about them when I was a kid, so why would they want to know now? I've been spending my waking hours for the past four or five days on a picture of my fursona and Tails the fox. I'm even dreaming about this picture at night. I have no idea when it will be done but I think my obsessing over it is going to make it turn out really good.

Anyway, my special intrests were always my strongest autistic trait.

Listening to good music while working on a art project makes me very happy. I work on these art projects for a long time, not taking any breaks.

Listening to music when I'm alone brings me a lot of joy. Whether I'm posting on WP or working in my sketchbook, it keeps my mind busy.

One of my big ones is folding origami cranes. (I'm working on 1,000.) Whenever I get upset to the point that I think the world is just a horrible place and there's no way I'll ever be happy again, I fold cranes. Sometimes I watch movies and fold cranes. It calms me like nothing else in this world.

music works both ways for me; both the act of making music and listening to it makes my mind clear itself out and reground me.
i play the less well-known euphonium, but i also often grab a jambey or something simular if i'm around friends doing a little jam-session.

Maybe it's because music engages so many parts of the brain at once that maybe it gives a kick to the weaker parts of the autistic brain while the stronger parts of our brain let us become immersed in it? Or else it just depends on what type of special interest you have, e.g. with origami you can be absorbed in it but still go on autopilot to some extent, letting the rest of your mind sort out all the thoughts that need to be put away...

It's really bad for me when I don't get time to absorb myself in music because I take so long to do everything else every day, so I should probably prioritise more with getting lost in music, considering how positively it affects me.

This is actually something I've thought about a lot, I was getting weird phone calls from someone a while back(resolved now but it was weird at the time), and I was on the verge of having a panic attack because it was just one of those things that freak me out, and all it took was thinking about my SI, and bam, it was gone. All the worries I had were mostly mollified by the mere thought of something I love.

I would say it's the cure because it's one of the things we use to find order in chaos, right? So doing something that makes sense of the world would naturally ease your anxiety and such.

the autopilot sounds like a good description; i indeed play my usic without any thinking about it; i actually get a lot worse if i try and think about what i'm doing.
the explination of putting the whole brain to a higher functional level while acting on autopilot (so not needing the functionality), creating more 'bandwith' for other thoughts... intrueging...