Special Interests - they’re just interests

I don’t think special interests are just interests though. I have interests outside of my SPINs and it’s a very different experience that I think is useful to separate.

One day in middle school I watched Frozen 2, then I watched a documentary or how it was made, then I watched the singalong version. Then I repeated those three things over again immediately after. It was about 12 hours straight of essentially the same thing.

Around the same time I also spent 32 hours straight of doing an imaginary Frozen inspired story in my head. In that time I just paced my room or layed down. I did eat, drink, sleep, and I used the bathroom once.

Somtimes I get so excited thinking about it that I end up being physically exhausted and shut down the next day. Sometimes it’s the only topic I can talk about for hours. I’d rather spend my money on a Frozen item than any necessity.

Im not sure I’d even categorize them as a favorite interest because sometimes I dislike it. Some hyperfixations are less enjoyable and then it ends up being obsessive thoughts that make my mental health bad but it’s still an interest in some way and I can’t stop it even when I want to.

My regular interests don’t have the same effect - long term or consistently anyway, sometimes I can fixate on it for a short time. So I think “special” is less referring to the interest itself as unique or superior, but just to say that it’s diferent to how other interest are. That’s my interpretation anyway

I wonder what it is that particularly catches your interest or anyone’s interest in anything to this degree. I know interests or “special” interests are a common autism trait but does it relate to dopamine or fantasy’s or something else, what’s the connection?

I'd imagine dopamine must be involved somewhere with us experiencing the joy that we do. But it seems to me that it may also be some how connected to the fact that we tend to be quite rigid thinkers but that's an observation, no idea how the science with that would work.

I'd imagine dopamine must be involved somewhere with us experiencing the joy that we do. But it seems to me that it may also be some how connected to the fact that we tend to be quite rigid thinkers but that's an observation, no idea how the science with that would work.