Published on 12, July, 2020
Thank you to user JuniperFromGallifrey who informed me about the idea of monotropism, a concept developed by autistic people themselves to describe the intense focus autistic people have on their particular interests, meaning that other stimuli may be disregarded. For instance, if you're engaged in your special interest you may not notice someone speaking to you, or that you're hungry. And if someone draws you away from your activity of interest, itay be very irritating or make you angry, and it's difficult to re-focus. It's understood as a strength, the ability to concentrate so well.
I'm thinking of seeking diagnosis (female, age 40, married, two kids) it's very expensive in my country (NZ), and I'm doing a deep dive into autism to really understand it and assess whether I have enough characteristics to make it worth being assessed.
In the past I would focus deeply and for long periods of time on: reading fiction (from being a small child), academic essays at school/college/uni, painting for hours and hours into the night, playing particular adventure-based video games (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle...) for 10+ hours. I wouldn't eat when I was focused on something. But, I don't think I experienced those things as having gone down a long tunnel, and I didn't struggle with being brought out of my attention focus.... if someone came in and spoke to me I would stop and speak back, for instance. (Although my answers would be like... "what are you painting?" "A picture" [teen eye roll], what are you reading? "Ugh, a book". What's it about? "A girl".... etc etc so I guess I did find it irritating.... though I found my parents generally irritating lol.)
I guess I'm wondering, do all autistic people experience monotropism in the same way? Do women experience it differently to men? It seems to be a defining characteristic that all autistic people share as a description of themselves... or am I wrong about that? Do all autistic people struggle with refocusing your attention while enjoying your special interests?
It would make me very happy to be diagnosed with autism. My social difficulties have always been extreme. In addition, after reading this forum, I have a lot in common with a lot of people here. I have only ever had a couple of friends at a time, and a lot of the people I have chosen to spend time with have now been diagnosed with autism - I guess like attracts like, I don't perceive any oddness in my autistic friends, I appreciate their directness and the fact they only talk about interesting things. I would love to have an explanation for my difficulties. It would be a relief because I wouldn't be so hard on myself for all of my social, professional and personal failures. Thanks in advance
Hi, so I have been (semi) diagnosed with ASD & ADHD, so I might experience this a bit differently from someone who does not have the ADHD component {although it is my belief that I actually didn't have ADHD (just a family predisposition) until I had COVID-19 - so my childhood experiences are slightly different}. For me, the experience of 'hyperfocusing' is quite similar to doing archery - your attention is entirely focussed on the target, and you are very annoyed by interruptions (including by bodily functions/pain - so these are often shut out or come through as brief flashes rather than the persistent, dull sensation a person in 'normal' focus might experience), but external interruptions are still acknowledged (like how you could still here someone shouting to 'stop' on an archery range!). I would be confident it is different in men (I am/grew up female) as it is a lot less taboo for them to be upset if they are interrupted in a task.
You may note I use 'hyper focus' instead of 'monotropism' - a suitable analogy for my experience of this would be the difference in reading a Wikipedia article vs a good book. Hyperfocus still, in my experience, gives me an intense desire to learn about a specific topic, but mentally I'm making many links and sometimes I forget what my original aim was to learn about (still on the same topic, but for example I could be very focussed on reading an article about the discovery of a novel dinosaur specimen, but then that reminds me of a curiosity I had about the pigment preservation in this style of fossil). I guess it's also related to the availability of information with the internet age! A lot of things interest me, so sometimes I struggle to distinguish between 'special interest' and 'interesting'.
That's true, I was always seen as "grumpy" as a teen (I actually was very grumpy lol) and I am generally a very irritable person... but irritation needs a stimulus, right? I very much prefer to be left alone. I too like to read articles then jump to the next related article. I heard once that autistic people's brains have much more synapses firing off all at the same time than neurotypicals, because they/we are constantly making connections between seemingly unrelated topics.
Have you heard of a Podcaster called Blindboy? He is on the spectrum and he does what he calls "hot takes" where he talks about things he's found very interesting and gives his own take on them and links he's made to other topics. It's very interesting and I feel like my brain works a similar way. I did a masters degree in Cultural Studies where I could basically research anything I wanted.