Attention span

I am very motivated, and this might explain why I have been so successful in camouflaging my aspergers over the years. When I was a child, and even more so as a teenager, I had very narrow and intense interests: food as a child, Titanic- followed by by the actress Kate Winslet-as a teenager.

When I finished the 6th form I went straight to my local university (I still lived at home with my parents as I still do) and did a History Degree, and I did very well. Because I had to read about other things than Kate Winslet, my obsession with the actress gradulally diminished in intensity and eventually I stopped being interested in her, and I was left with a broader range of interests. I still get very interested in certain subjects, and when I am interested in something everything else gets sucked into the dominant interest and I forget to do important things, but I am definitely more flexible and prepared to learn about new things.

I am very motivated to be likeable and this means that I try my hardest to follow the social rules when I am out in public, although I don't always succeed,and I experience a greeat deal of stress and anxiety if I over-socialise, which eventually leads to panic attacks.

apologies for taking the abbreviation NT for granted - it avoids using words like 'normal', and if anything slightly puts them down rather than us.

Do the moderators know of any current research into what causes low motivation or conversely narrow focus?

NT is used to mean Neurotypical, typically it's meant to describe people not on the autism spectrum.

What does NT stand for.  If people on the spectrum can increase the number of activities they like then that would be good :)

I wonder if it has anything to do with reward chemicals in the brain?

Take the opposite - things we are interested in, enjoy and are motivated doing, can spend hours doing. Reward chemicals must be involved in the feeling of security, pleasure, relaxation, coherence, safety etc that these activities bring.

The issue with people on the autistic spectrum is that there are a lot of uncomfortable or distressing environments, a much greater range than for NTs. Conversely there are only a few safe environments. Reward chemicals must strongly reinforce these very few refuges.

NTs have a much wider range of pleasurable or restful or comfort zone activities, which include socialising, and also many aspects of their work. Therefore it is more likely that they find some motivation in what they do because the less enjoyable activities are not too far removed from the comfortable ones. So they can be more flexible and more motivated.

The question is, can people on the autistic spectrum diversify and increase their comfortable activities so they too have a wider range, and are therefore more readily motivated. Is this something we can change?

As far as I can find out motivation isn't an explainable aspect, and there's a range of different behaviours. I believe they are already aware of reward chemicals as a factor in favourite interests.

Has anyone managed to break out of their constraining special interests and develop greater motivation?