Hi, I have no special interests.

Yes Golf23, I'm super quick at picking things up. It does tend to set people's expectations really high and then I feel like I'm letting them down. But I still count it as a super power

Urgh yes I'm not looking forward to being old and getting even more forgetful. The most frustrating thing is that I remember how good and remembering I was. Like what's the point of that

No special interests, at work I pick up processes extremely quickly and am able to do it after a practice run 

My memory is terrible as well! I hate to think what it will be like when I'm an old lady lol

To be honest from what you’re saying, it seems like people telling you to spend more time on your hobbie/interests or talk to people about your hobbies/interests, is just a ‘stock’ phrase that people are telling you, because they can’t think of anything else to say. It’s not a key piece of being human. There are many things that you could talk about, such as what you have done that day etc. Its quite easy to Google topics of conversation, I do it sometimes if I know I will be in a social situation with new people.

Hi Jess, thank you for taking the time to reply

Yeah, I like to research stuff I guess. I preferred it when I was younger and knew I would remember it  my memory is rubbish now so I forget everything I find out. 

I do want to have hobbies and interests. I suffer from depression and people always say "spend more time on your hobbies/interests" and with socialising it's the same thing "talk to people about your hobbies and interests" so it feels like I'm missing a key piece of being human and it feels like that's the reason I'm depressed and the only way I can fix things. I hope that's that isn't true but that's always what people suggest and they don't give many alternatives.

Hi, I don't have a special interest either. Sometimes I feel like I do because I become really interested in a certain thing, lets say space, but it doesn't last. I seem to phase into one thing and then another. I feel it's a special interest for a bit and then I lose interest and find something new. I've always been like this. So you are not alone :) 

It’s ok not to have strong interests or hobbies, and autism is a spectrum condition. There’s no rule to dictate that every autistic person must have large amounts of every autistic trait. Do you want to have hobbies and interests, or are you happy not having them?

Hi Kitsune,

I guess I mean interests in general. I find that with any hobbies I have, if something stops me from doing it (I hurt my wrist so I can't play video games anymore) or if someone tells me they think 'its stupid, I really quickly abandon my hobbies like they mean nothing to me. And if someone was to say try and have a conversation with me about video games, I don't really have much to say about them or not enough that it would make a interesting enough conversation. I guess I just don't have confidence in my interests and I think I mask them a bit but to the point where I can't even remember if I like them

OK, that's interesting, I'll have to have a think and see if I have any of those types of special interest. Thank you

This resonates with me.

Many years ago (before I knew I was autistic) I had an interest in computers and seemed to have a knack of resolving minor issues. My parents and close friends seemed to consider me to be some kind of PC guru (I wasn't), and I became their 'go to' person when they required PC help. As far as I was concerned, their PC issues were easy enough to diagnose and resolve. It wasn't rocket science, but when I attempted to explain things to them (so that they would know what to do if there was a next time), it went completely over the top of their heads. From my perspective, it was easy enough to understand, and I couldn't understand why it was so difficult for them.

Did the person who said this to you mean special interests or just interests in general? Do you have any hobbies that could be common ground to speak about with someone? I mean I do have a special interests, but I have other interests too which are more hobbies rather than intense preoccupations.

Lol, that's so cool. They have no idea, they couldn't possibly understand

This resonates with me. The only time I can remember being content was the last two years or secondary school, I did the "expected and important" GCSEs early because they were experimenting with my year group so when it came to picking what I was going to study in my final two years I had free reign and the teachers couldn't argue because there weren't many subjects I hadn't done already. I did art, graphics, dance and extra science. My days were so diverse and I was just trying things out to see if I liked doing them. I wish society didn't say "you have to pick this one thing and get good at it so you can get paid" I just want to try all the stuff endlessly and then move on if I get bored, no commitment. Damn Capitalism 

It always rings alarm bells in my mind when sites state what traits or characteristics autistic people should and should not have. Such generalisations are not only unhelpful but in many cases invalid. The only generalisation that can be made in this situation is that those sites always misunderstand the complexity of autistic people.

I don’t think everyone has a special interest.

In a lot of cases, it could simply be a subject you know more about than the average person. Be that a film, or simply a type a cat!

I didn’t even know I had special interests, as I was just doing what I enjoyed at the time, for example, card making. What makes it special is that you know/do more than what’s classed as average. That’s my interpretation anyway.

You know some autistic people their special interest is other people. Either specific people or people generally. Other times it's an activity, for example there are some obsessive knitters out there. It doesn't always have to be about an object / type of object / area of technical study to be a special interest.

Hi Melon,

I keep reading on all these 'autism' sites that i'm not suppose to have any interests, or at least very few. And that being autistic means i should  really have a  in-depth knowledge of something obscure.

But i think i'm the exact opposite. I'm interested in everything and anything. When i was younger i always looked forward to getting the list of nightschool classes, that our local schools were doing, i wanted to do them all,4 or5 nights a week, not just GCEs, but bricklaying to ghost hunting and everything inbetween.

That was a long time ago now, i'm nearly 69 now. But knowing what else i know now about autism, which i didn't know then. I wonder  if i went to   these places 'cos i was desparate to find a friend.

You know the question they ask, "I usually notice car number plates or similar strings of information", I answered yes and left it there. I didn’t tell them that I’ve got about 100 actual car number plates and can name on demand which cars they came from! I don’t think they would understand.