What “counts” as a special interest?

I am sorry to hear this! I hope you know now that you aren’t sick or wrong and it’s a shame that these pictures are gone for good because they sound really cool (way more professional than I ever drew them!). 

I used my bike too and pretended it’s my car. I loved to play detective as I was little and I needed my “car” to get around to solve the mysteries in my neighbourhood. 

Inah said:

there are a lot of examples in there I haven’t quite experienced (like being able to focus on it for hours

OK, I understand but I don’t have a reason or answer about why that may be.

Inah said:

Don’t know if anyone else ever felt like that?

Oh yes, but it was more about my repetitive behaviour of counting. I was had many sessions of therapy to treat  OCD at an NHS hospital. It wasn’t picked up that it was an autistic behaviour until much later. My autism diagnosis medical report says that counting is beneficial to me.

I know you said you haven’t ADHD, but I thought you might be interested in the article about AuDHD that I mentioned in your other thread anyway. 

Oh LOL I totally forgot the first post was you when I sent this. Oh well, haha.

I hate the term “special interest”. An interest is an interest, you don’t need the word special in front of it. 

I am German :) 

I think that was my concern, that many of my interests are short lived rather than longstanding identity shaping interests (that said, this discussion has encouraged me to believe that perhaps the “English/ being in an English speaking environment” and finding out what is “wrong” with me obsession may count as special interests). I think I will keep on monitoring how important my interests are to me. 

I used to draw floor plans as I was 8-9, they looked pretty professional with thicker and thiner walls, doors (in which direction they open) windows, all rooms, pipe scheme, electric installation scheme, furniture, all in colors and on the reverse full address with postal code and name of the owner. I had a full file with them and tram line schemes. Unfortunately majority of my pictures are thrown away long time ago, because I was told many times that my obsessive interests are sick and bad so I believed that im inferior to others and everything that I do and what belonged to me was wrong, so it had to be destroyed. Now I cry and miss my old pictures but they are gone. I also used to drive bicycle around the area and imagined that it's my tram and I was the driver.

Thanks profdanger and yes I have seen your post on the other discussion I started haha 

Thanks ArchaeC I think I understand it conceptually but there are a lot of examples in there I haven’t quite experienced (like being able to focus on it for hours - because I struggle with attention even if it’s something I like doing, being very knowledgeable or turning to it as a self-soothing thing).

It’s interesting what the article said about “encouraging” people to engage in their interests though because I don’t think I allowed myself to do things that are just fun over the years because I thought I have to keep up with other things (things at work, the news, anything that is “productive”) leaving little time for just exploring what I actually like doing. Don’t know if anyone else ever felt like that?

An interest in anything can be a “special interest”.

I have had an interest in archaeology and canine behaviour for many years, but I have loads of other interests too, some of which will be brief interests.

I have provided a link about interests in case you haven’t read it. 

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/about-autism/focused-and-dedicated-interests

Thanks for that B I read that too ( I am a woman, so that was one of the first things I saw). Interesting what you say about OCD. I was diagnosed with it. It did in the past and still sometimes does show itself by having to accompany my loved ones to work/ dog walking etc even though it wasn’t my place or despite feeling poorly etc, and a worry of mine regarding special interests is that I do them out of FOMO for example, rather than passion for it (but then it’s hard to draw the line between the two?!)

That’s really interesting! I still hate it when my browser switches to my mother tongue by accident, so I think I can understand that. I also love floor plans! As a kid I was obsessed with drawing them, and now I just love looking at them, they are so satisfying!

Yeah I think my interests may vary in intensity,  some of them are just nice to haves, others feel a bit more fundamental (like English/ being in an English speaking environment/ figuring out what’s going on with me), and because I didn’t recognize the latter as a special interest, I doubt I had any at all! 

As the assessor asked I said mermaids, swimming and space, but mermaids are fascinating but not all encompassing, and space and swimming are constants but possibly not so identity forming, or perhaps not yet, not sure. That’s where it’s still murky for me, like how intense is “intense” enough? If you turn to it occasionally? I binge watched swimming videos and went twice a week, now I can’t because of some medical issue and it’s upsetting and I cannot watch any videos anymore (because it’s too upsetting), but I feel I can still cope somehow (perhaps because I know there is an end to my medical treatment).

I would just say something that encompasses your identity like what have you loved throughout your life, what do you fall back on when you’re bored what sort of key topic is it… it might not always be the same thing such as you were obsessed with lightbulbs once or you were obsessed with batteries for the month / the common theme of multiple tiny fascinations as the special interest you are not identifying would be physics and science so maybe see if you can break it down like that . It might even be video games but the larger subject of that would be something else 

Stuart333 said:

I think it's any interest you could bore an NT about, to the point where they walk off if you don't stop.

You have just triggered a memory of a boyfriend saying to me after I had been enthusing about something

'Thank you for the Open University lecture'.

Really good description! I had a boyfriend,  ADHD but now I think he was actually AuDHD with undiagnosed Autism. His special interest were spiders, especially tarantulas. Nobody could endure him talking about them, only me- although it wasn't my thing. 

I think it's any interest you could bore an NT about, to the point where they walk off if you don't stop.

Does it matter if an interest is "special"? I'm into lots of different things, I don't have one overridding interest

For me Russian was my special intrest for around 10 years, I took a high place in Olympic competition in the capital of my country of birth *not UK, English is not my first language either. My intrest was so intense, that I spent any minute of my free time to study it, the grammar, the vocabulary,  spelling, I was fully in love with the language,  country and culture. While pacing my room I also repeated words or imagined that I talked Russian to my imagined friends. I used to listen only to Russian music, watch only Russian movies or movies in Russian (there are many nations, that use Russian as their first or second official language) menu in my phone must have been in Russian, so I left it to the service point to install the menu language package with Russian. If it was impossible and i had to use the phone in my first language,  I was sick for weeks and months, couldn't eat and sleep, couldn't calm down till the menu of the phone was in my beloved language. I became so good at Russian that russian-speaking people didn't recognise I'm not one of them.  Just an example of my special interest. Earlier were trams and floor plans. Now I have aliens and space. It can be anything it's not about topic but intensity.

I've previously read that 'special' interests present differently in females and also, I believe but am not certain, that I've been told that females are more likely to change interests than males (making the interests shorter term).

I just did a quick Googly and I've come up with this which explains it quite well:

https://autisticgirlsnetwork.org/knowledge_base/autism-and-girls/

(under 'Girls and Passionate Interests'):

'Autistic girls may have passionate interests which are viewed as more socially acceptable than the ‘special interests’ of their male counterparts. For example, animals and reading are common passionate interests amongst girls, alongside others.'

I obviously don't know your gender, but this may in any case be of general interest.

When I had my assessment I was quite concerned that my 'interests' wouldn't be seen as 'special' but upon discussion with the psychiatrist I realised that they were/are fairly intense which I think is quite key.

Actually, I'd put this intensity down to self 'diagnosed' OCD.

Otherwise, I agree with all the comments others have made here.

Good morning from America, Inah!

I actually just mentioned this on another thread earlier this morning! It’s totally okay for special interests to come and go, for you to not be an expert in them, or not being able to focus on it for long periods of time. I recently had an obsession with the Seattle Sounders soccer team, but I didn’t become an absolute expert in them. Like, I don’t know all the players’ names by heart and such. Sometimes I like not knowing everything about something; It leaves more for me to discover later.

Autism can DEFINITELY be a special interest! It has been for me.