Do all people who have autism have a special subject

Hi my Name is Naomi and I was diagnosed with autism a few years ago. I don’t think I have a specialised subject that I know all about I was just wondering if it was just me. Or did anyone else have this too 

  • I f don't have as far as I can tell a special subject . I'm not sure what counts as an obsession . I have had an RSS reader for many years . I'll check it umpteen times a day  to see if there are articles to post to forums. I also scan twitter regularly for that purpose .  I collect articles on mental health and genealogy mainly and store them on a usb drive.

  • That explains a lot. 

    My special interests were forever fluctuating as a teenager. At the age of eleven it was singing, then at the age of fourteen I developed a thirst for acting. I went on to study Performing Arts at college but I had a lot of trouble with the written assignments, so I didn't progress onto the next year. I was also part of a local drama group which I loved. Then at the age of seventeen writing became my special interest and it is still with me now, although for the past couple of years it hasn't been so much an obsession as it once was. Another one of my special interests is Greek Mythology. This came about due to story I was working on, and it remains still. 

    I remember when acting was a special interest to me, and I became really obsessed with an actress I liked. I'd have pictures of her everywhere because she made me happy. I know it seems pretty worrying and looking back at it now know how mad that seems. The obsession with her has ceased quite a lot since then. I still like her work and her as a person but it's not as concerning anymore. I got the chance to meet her at a convention last year and she was so lovely. The only bad part of it was when she tried to talk to me and my brain wouldn't connect with my mouth and I ended up feeling terrible. 

    How did you find studying? I like learning things but I find it hard to take in anything, so this has perturbed me from studying. I'm not great with exams, either. I think the pressure gets to me. 

  • but I get more and more 'absent' from the world as I get more stressed and unable to compensate or rationalise.

    I can identify with that.... it is like a self preservation "kicks in" - in order to maintain a certain level of control or balance.  I remove myself and become a mere observer if I can, or completely internalise as a strategy.

  • I'm kind of a serial obsessive ;)

  • Not sure, I think it's different from day to day depending on my stress levels? Is that what you mean by fluctuating? I'm not sure they're ideas with me that I focus on rather than just a baseline assumption which I find it hard to step outside of. I can do it by rational operation if I have headspace but I get more and more 'absent' from the world as I get more stressed and unable to compensate or rationalise.

  • Well at the moment I am really into my fitness and healthy eating. I want to try and persuade other people to do the same 

  • I don't have a specialised subject either - so you are certainly not alone! I like to watch documentaries on tv though as they relax me - but they can be about pretty much any subject. 

  • I don't find it difficult to find many things interesting - e.g:

    Why you will never find your passion

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zq9vQFodmM&vl=en

    I probably have more interests than I could possibly have time and money for!  I'm trying to get myself concentrating on a single speciality and I'm hoping to eventually use that for a career change, plus a small number of diversionary/leisure things.

  • Me to fingers crossed 

  • I think I'd stop at the soft crocodiles but if that's your thing then I hope that you can get to go to America and feed them one day

  • I just find them fascinating. I have got loads of soft crocodiles and would like to go to America and feed then. I really loved watching Steve Erwin was gutted when he died 

  • real ones? what is it that you like about them?

  • Yes I have always liked crocodiles 

  • I probably didn’t explain myself well enough there. Certain core traits like poor social communication; fixed thinking, obsessive interests don’t fluctuate, they are always there but I find that some stuff like being convinced that someone knows what I’m thinking without me telling them or believing that others can hear my thoughts because they’re so intense or being completely unable to realise that someone else could possibly think/feel differently about something to how I think/feel, that does fluctuate, usually dependant on context and what is going on in my head at that time. At the moment those ideas seem silly to me but in other phases they can get quite intense. Don’t know if that’s just me or if anyone else experiences that?

  • I’m glad someone understands what I’m talking about. Have you ever found that you become particularly fond of some special interests and they persevere through your life, not at an obsessive level  but just as something you like? For example, I still keep gerbils now, always have done; I still listen to Take That sometimes, I was playing one of their cds in my car earlier actually, it’s not an obsession any more, it hasn’t been for 25 years, it’s just something that I’m still fond of.

  • Ok thanks I always thought because of me not having a specialist subject I didn’t think I had Aspergers 

  • Hey Naomi! Some people do, some people don't :) If you don't, that's normal!

    Much love <3

  • I don't know, think there are times when I'm happier and more relaxed and then the traits recede a bit - but they're pretty present most of the time.

  • Totally relate to it, I was obsessed with cats for a while as a child and could reel off all the info on breeds etc - I adored my pet Tortie. I was interested in soul music when I was a teen, I still spend hours classifying and reclassifying my now much wider music collection into ever more obscure genres and subgenres. I was interested in gay film history for years and ran a website obsessively tracking down and listing films with lesbian characters or subtext. In the 90s I got interested in the internet and open source software, then digital rights. If I had time now I'd be researching neurology.

  • Yeah I’ve found my autistic traits fluctuate in intensity. Like sometimes I think they’ve virtually completely gone, then they decide to teach me otherwise and return with a vengeance!!!