Shame and anxiety about special interest?

You’re certainly not the only one. My parents were fairly conservative. They sought to shield me from bad influences growing up. So when I finally got an encyclopaedia on CD-ROM the first thing I did was search the word sex and read basically every article.

That does make me feel a bit better knowing I’m not the only one who has special interests leaning that way, thank you. 

well as long as its not illegal and isn't upsetting/affecting anyone else then carry on.  One of my special interests is collecting erotic literature and erotic art.  The ladies in charity shops keep the 'naughty' books aside to see if I want to buy them, although most of the time they keep them for themselves  

I'm a really old female and I love heavy metal music. The stereotypical fan is believed to be a 15 year old boy! There are people who think you "grow out of heavy metal" when you become an "adult". At work, my boss said he "used to like" Iron Maiden. He asked if they were still going. I told him they'd played for around 250,000 people in Rio, so yes, they're still going.  

When I went to concerts years ago, I was in the minority of older folk but nobody cared. The kids loved hearing about concerts I went to and musicians I met.

You're not alone with this - I often feel embarrassed about being into kpop at 31 years old (since it's generally seen as something only teenagers like), and the thing is I'd never judge another person for having "childish" or otherwise unusual interests and yet I still fear the judgement of others. My general advice is always: if it makes you happy and you're not hurting anyone, then there's nothing to be ashamed of!

(Now I need to work on taking my own advice )

If your special interests isn’t hurting anyone, and I don’t consider that making people uncomfortable counts as hurting people, then I don’t see the issue.

and if it’s something people publish books about then maybe you should think about studying it more formally? You’d be surprised how acceptable unacceptable topics become when you say you’re doing a PhD in them.

 That said if you don’t mind me asking what are your support needs? How do they get in the way?

Doctor Who is one of the best things ever, if not the best thing ever already. :) 

I put off watching it for ages and then when I did I never stopped. I'm on a mission to watch them all before I die, but busy with work so can't find the time lately.

I am a bit similar in a way. I'm a big Doctor Who fan, which is very popular these days, but I became a fan in the 90s when it wasn't on TV and was a bit of a popular laughing-stock. I was bullied at school for liking it (albeit the bullies would probably have found something else to bully me about if I hadn't been into it) and to this day, I feel uncomfortable talking about it with "normal" people, only with die-hard fans. Unfortunately, the thought of going to a convention scares me (so many people!) and I drifted out of internet fandom years ago for various reasons and haven't been able to get back into it, so it's a pretty solitary thing for me, or was, until I got my fiancee into it. We were long-distance, so it was something we could do together, to watch and then talk about it. I would like to talk to other fans, but I feel I just don't know how to get back into fandom, which seems to be on platforms I don't use much (podcasts, Twitter).

We have a board game shelf so it'll probably go on that. It's building it that'll be tricky as the coffee table will be out of use for a while whilst we build it!

To be fair who doesn't it looks amazing!

I'm going to get it at some point but where to put it? It would take up most of the kitchen and a barn seems an inappropriate place for that lol.

I hope you had get it at a later point.

I'm half way through Season 4 at the moment! I love the US one too! 

Oh that one is massive. It looks so cool in stores but I don't think we have the space for it. My favourite would probably be the London Bus or the Sakura tree. I love my VW Camper too. My partner did pre-order the Titanic but cancelled in the end as it was out of stock for so long and we needed the money for other things. One day hopefully it'll be mine :)

My pride and joy in terms of Lego is my Saturn V rocket!

Aww that's so sad. My mum wouldn't let me have Lego as a kid because "you're a girl" but my dad made up for it with a scalectric set and remote controlled Ferrari :)

I have all the floral apart from the new wildflower set and bird of paradise! I have loads too - cars, the ship in a bottle, London Skyline and more :) 

If you ever need to feel like Lego is for adults, if you haven’t watched it already, watch Lego Masters Australia, it’s amazing!

Oh I want the Titanic set. My partner pre-ordered it for Christmas but it was out of stock until mid-Jan so we cancelled it in the end and spent the money on other things! I'm mid way through the floral centerpiece set at the moment :)

Don't be, Lego is as much for adults as it is for children now. Some of it is specifically for adults, like the pro building sets. There's a Lego Titanic which is over £500, looks amazing actually, but for sure not for children. I don't think I could even build it! 

Also my Mum who is mid fifties is a Lego fan and she's got loads of it. Still happily collects, builds and plays. If you enjoy it then why not? :) 

Please don't be. I remember this moment when I was playing with Lego aged 13 or 14, and my Dad (he was slightly irritated at the time about something I think) said 'Don't you think it's about time you put that away for good, you're getting a bit old for toys'. I was instantly mortified and I put the Lego away never to see the light of day again.

Cut to many years later. I'm listening to a podcast and one of the hosts is older than me, and never stopped playing with and collecting Lego his entire life. Unapologetically. And it's now perfectly cool/acceptable too, all sorts of ages are catered for. Not that we should ever have been waiting for society's blessing!

Lego is awesome!!! I own far too much. Not got any of the floral collection but I’ve seen them and they are really cool!