Can you have Asperger's without a 'special interest'?

When I was diagnosed I was told that I had either high functioning autism or Asperger's. The official letter I received stated that my diagnosis was Asperger's. I don't have a special interest that I obsess over though. Well not that I can think of. Do you have to have one if you have Asperger's? Thanks

Parents
  • It is a question of degree, and I think it is a characteristic but not necessarily to the extent often cited.

    Some people are reported to have special interests but they change frequently. Some have very narrow, rigid interests, others have broader interests that could be mistaken for just an enquiring mind. Sometimes the impression lies in what people talk about all the time, which might not be reflected in day to day activity.

    Consider the factors that may underlie such behaviour:

    Ability to focus on a subject and study in depth

    Safe zones, where the subject is a comfort and escape

    Routine and rigidity

    Lack of social referencing, whereby interests are otherwise directed by those of others

    Something to do because you are not doing everything NTs do.

    Some people have very narrow focussed interests that concern NTs over much because they see it as harmful. The interests can include computer games, which NTs confuse with computer aptitude, and games with numbers, which is not an aptitude for mathematics.

    But another aspect is 'spikey profile' where you have strong interests and abilities and awkward gaps

    The major impact of narrow focussed interests and spikey profile is difficulty finding a job or obtaining sufficient breadth or usefulness of qualifications. Otherwise if someone is happy that way.....

    But I also have a theory it can change, if people are moved out of their comfort zone sufficiently to acquire wider interests, early on. But that doesn't mean I condone some of the interventions to try to brainwash it out of kids' systems.

    I collected and obsessed over shiny metal and glass objects for years, bits out of old clocks, old cameras, stuff from rubbish in waste land, interesting pebbles etc., I still have some of them But I'm spikey profile, with interests that adapt to a degree, sufficient to have survived. My main problem is I get so overawed by the detail I cannot see the broad facts that NTs pick up on immediately.

    Just a pity we cannot live in a society where the NTs work with us to use both ways of thinking, rather than trying to make us like them. Most of scientific progress and knowledge depended on narrow focussed researchers who strived endlessly for detailed clues NTs usually don't have time for.

    I don't think the NT world is more right. Just different

Reply
  • It is a question of degree, and I think it is a characteristic but not necessarily to the extent often cited.

    Some people are reported to have special interests but they change frequently. Some have very narrow, rigid interests, others have broader interests that could be mistaken for just an enquiring mind. Sometimes the impression lies in what people talk about all the time, which might not be reflected in day to day activity.

    Consider the factors that may underlie such behaviour:

    Ability to focus on a subject and study in depth

    Safe zones, where the subject is a comfort and escape

    Routine and rigidity

    Lack of social referencing, whereby interests are otherwise directed by those of others

    Something to do because you are not doing everything NTs do.

    Some people have very narrow focussed interests that concern NTs over much because they see it as harmful. The interests can include computer games, which NTs confuse with computer aptitude, and games with numbers, which is not an aptitude for mathematics.

    But another aspect is 'spikey profile' where you have strong interests and abilities and awkward gaps

    The major impact of narrow focussed interests and spikey profile is difficulty finding a job or obtaining sufficient breadth or usefulness of qualifications. Otherwise if someone is happy that way.....

    But I also have a theory it can change, if people are moved out of their comfort zone sufficiently to acquire wider interests, early on. But that doesn't mean I condone some of the interventions to try to brainwash it out of kids' systems.

    I collected and obsessed over shiny metal and glass objects for years, bits out of old clocks, old cameras, stuff from rubbish in waste land, interesting pebbles etc., I still have some of them But I'm spikey profile, with interests that adapt to a degree, sufficient to have survived. My main problem is I get so overawed by the detail I cannot see the broad facts that NTs pick up on immediately.

    Just a pity we cannot live in a society where the NTs work with us to use both ways of thinking, rather than trying to make us like them. Most of scientific progress and knowledge depended on narrow focussed researchers who strived endlessly for detailed clues NTs usually don't have time for.

    I don't think the NT world is more right. Just different

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