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What “counts” as a special interest?

Inah

I am newly diagnosed with autism. I still struggle with identifying what “counts” as a special interest and I am still trying to find out for myself what it is. Like I understand the passion aspect of it, but I am not sure how long you need to have it so it counts (I am using “counts” even though I am sure there is no official measurement or judge obviously), if anything can be a special interest (I read somewhere that someone’s special interest was breast feeding which made me question my initial assumptions about what special interests are), as well as whether you need to be an “expert”. I hear the last part over and over, even in the post-diagnostic psycho education, and it put me off really. Like, I like learning about space but could in no way explain things to others!! I kinda hate this even because it puts one under some pressure to excel in something you might “just” like doing (perhaps it’s just me!).

Also, does being obsessed with working out what is “wrong” with me for basically the last 20 years of my life count as a special interest? Might sound odd and ego centric but really wondering that :) 

Equally I have been hooked by the idea of living in England since secondary school (I am not an English native person) and for the last 10 to 15 years have done everything to be able to do so (including deep diving into improving my English - even dating some English speakers and I am currently in a long term relationship with one*, studying, living and working in the UK) and the thought of going back to my country of birth is a devastating thought, among others because of the loss of daily exposure to English. Does this make “being in an English speaking environment” a special interest?

*just to be clear, I obviously love my partner and am not just together with them because they are an English speaking native, but I think I did consciously narrow the pool of possible partners to English speaking natives at the time and would find it difficult to broaden it again, especially to people who speak my mother tongue

Parents

  • I don't think there is any hard and fast rule with special interests. They are just interests felt far more intensely than your typical interest. They likely take up a lot of your time and you may feel upset if you do not get to pursue it. It may involve researching a specific topic a lot or collecting everything to do with that interest or it may be something that you actually do. You don't have to be an expert in that topic or be able to teach anybody else about it.

    I think you could just say England/English was a special interest of yours. I don't think you have to go as specific as "being in an English speaking environment". 

    Space could also be a special interest. You don't need to be an expert or be able to educate people. It just needs to be important enough to you that you spend a lot of time doing it and you feel quite intensely about it.

    Special interests in my understanding tend to my quite long term interests. Although I know some people will feel really intensely about a thing for like 2 weeks and then it switches to something else. I think this is more of an ADHD trait and I think this would be more likely categorised as obsessing as opposed to a special interest.

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  • I don't think there is any hard and fast rule with special interests. They are just interests felt far more intensely than your typical interest. They likely take up a lot of your time and you may feel upset if you do not get to pursue it. It may involve researching a specific topic a lot or collecting everything to do with that interest or it may be something that you actually do. You don't have to be an expert in that topic or be able to teach anybody else about it.

    I think you could just say England/English was a special interest of yours. I don't think you have to go as specific as "being in an English speaking environment". 

    Space could also be a special interest. You don't need to be an expert or be able to educate people. It just needs to be important enough to you that you spend a lot of time doing it and you feel quite intensely about it.

    Special interests in my understanding tend to my quite long term interests. Although I know some people will feel really intensely about a thing for like 2 weeks and then it switches to something else. I think this is more of an ADHD trait and I think this would be more likely categorised as obsessing as opposed to a special interest.

Children