Can you explain the reasons behind your interests to others?

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When someone asks why your interested in a special interest, can you explain to them why? If so what is the explanation? If you can't, do you understand why you have the interest yourself? I have been asked why i care so much about my topics of interest and i find it extremely challenging. How do you handle situations like this? ( allot of questions and not a very well formatted topic sorry )

Well you could just give a blanket reason of knowledge is power. Most of my interests are pretty self explanatory. I like to read, knowing a lot about a video game, electronics (I had the class in highschool), tv shows.

I can't fully explain why I like the things I do. It's got a lot to do with the curiosity of the unknown, and to do with the mixtures of traits found within Mesozoic animals, like an odd mixture of mammals, reptiles and birds. But why do I like that? Don't know....

I just like them. I can't explain why things captivate me the way they do. Not fully, and not to the extent of how much I like them.

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THINGS I LIKE
Parasaurolophus, Plesiosaurs, Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Music, Tuna, Chocolate milk, Oreos, Blue things

Parasaurolophuscolobus. Parasaurcolobus. Colobusaurolophus.
....And Nunchucks are my friends.

I can't explain any of my interests.

Musical theatre is my main interest, and I fixate even more specifically on certain songs. "Nobody's Side" from the musical Chess is something I listen to repeatedly to calm down. I have no idea why I fixated on that song.

When I was diagnosed, the doctor asked me, "So, what do you like about musical theatre? I don't mind if you talk a lot." So I started telling him about Chess and that one song, because there are more than 5 different versions of it (different casts) and I know all of the actresses and how long each song is.

He asked me what it was about that song that made me so interested in it, and I couldn't tell him.

I am fascinated by rare diseases,illnesses, and disorders and the people affected by these things.

I also have a general interest in learning all kinds of new information, on mostly scientific topics. I love Wikipedia, and the large amounts of information it has

Whenever people ask me what exactly I love about my interests, I find it difficult to answer them. I don't understand the reasons myself, and it takes a lot of soul-searching to come up with a possible answer.

Since practically all of my special interests revolve around fictional characters, some people have told me that I obsess over certain characters because I identify with them on some level. After thinking about it for awhile, I'm usually able to see some similarities between myself and my favorite characters, even if those similarities aren't immediately obvious. So I guess it might be true.

I tend to hid my interests or at least the intensity of my interests from other people. One time someone asked me, "I'd like to know what your passionate about?" I feel like as a little kid, I was always ashamed to express my interests. Hiding my interests was sorta a way of feigning normalcy. But if anybody was to ever ask me what my interest behind something was, I will make up an answer off the top of my head, start rambling trying to make it sound convincing. Rarely will I ever express the true reasons behind my interests.

Can you explain the reasons behind your interests to others?

I can but it's very personal. It happened 20 years, ago. What I thought was normal turned out NOT to be.

TheSunAlsoRises

I find it easy to explain the reasons that I'm interested in the things that I am. People seem to be drawn to the things that they're exposed to at an early age, in most cases and that goes for everyone.

Yes I can very easy as a child, I grew up watching Pro wrestling and nothing else. Then when I was in middle school I started to watch Anime my favorite Anime will always be Fist of the north star. I also love MMA that's about it.

I can explain quite easily, I often go into a heart felt rave about why my interests are so awesome.
My explanation (I'll try to keep it short and sweet),
Non-human great apes: I get a feeling of the uncanny valley when I watch them. I just see distorted people and it's almost creepy, and when I read about the things they can do I can't help but feel awe. They're also an interest that can't get too boring because they are living animals with personalities and characters so I can keep updated on certain individuals. It's not all facts and figures like if I was studying rocks and minerals or maths. I also think a lot of apes look really pretty and cuddly, yes even the adults! I'd love to give a male orangutan a bear hug. My interest is more meaning than rote contrary to popular belief regarding aspie obsessions.

Human evolution and behaviour: I like to study human behaviour and physiology and compare them to other species especially primates. It's always fun to strip away the arrogance of "humanity" and look at us as a species of ape with its own interesting traits. I people watch like a wildlife watcher and make note in my head of patterns and sequences in behaviour of which there are many. And I also find evolution to be a more meaning than rote interest once again, I just find it an amazing process but I also like to learn the relatedness between things. I have a larrrrrge collection of primate related nicknacks and I include any figures of humans from various cultures in with my collection. I am a fan of various African cultures so I have quite a lot of stuff related to that.

Dreams: my life long interest. They are adventures that feel very real but are all in my head, that to me is a very weird but cool phenomenon. I LOVE dreams even when they're bad. I do not believe they have any real meaning but I still have a few dream interpretation books as they're fun to read.

I don't really think any aspie "obsessions" are more rote than meaning. It just can come across that way to outsiders.

I also think "obsession" is too widely used, but still....

_________________
THINGS I LIKE
Parasaurolophus, Plesiosaurs, Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Music, Tuna, Chocolate milk, Oreos, Blue things

Parasaurolophuscolobus. Parasaurcolobus. Colobusaurolophus.
....And Nunchucks are my friends.