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Special Interest, Too Many I Could Scream - Anyone else?

Rainbow Pixie

Since my autistic diagnosis, the one thing I get confused about is the topic of special interests. When I've read on various platforms that they can be very specific and narrow. But for me I have lots of interests and I get stressed when I can't do them all due to time etc. I have a dolls house which is a project for me as I'm obsessed with tiny things. I love tarot, I love crystals from a geological point of view. I love reading specific genre books (Skulduggery Pleasant books). And I have a passion for rock/metal music and playing my bass guitar. I love simulation video games and board games.

Now this is why I could scream, I will obsess over one thing for weeks, then suddenly I go to my other interest for weeks, then another etc. It's prompted people to say I have "fads" and that bothers me because actually I never stop liking an interest, I just come back to it at a later stage, sometimes months later. But with every interest I have I become fixated on everything about it. My bass guitar alongside my rock/metal music has been the only exception where I live and breathe that every single day. 

But then there's that occasion where I want to do all my interests all at once and because I can't I just get upset and do mine of them out of sheer frustration that I argue with myself over which one to do.

Does anybody else experience this? I do genuinely struggle with this to the point I've almost wished that I could like only one thing.

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  • There was an autistic youtuber I watched one time who said that they dont have a single special interest, but they have a few at different intensities.
    Like for me, Frozen is my primary special interest then my secondary would be autism/psychology, then Ive got a few more tertiary ones. I consider them all special interests because I can get very absorbed in them and they make me very happy but I can also get upset if I cant engage in them. Sometimes my autism/psychology special interest is higher than my Frozen one, but only for however long im focused on it at that time.
    This doesnt make too much sense, sorry.
    But maybe its kind of like that with you, where your special interests arent stopping when you move on to a new one, but rather the one you are focusing on for that week has moved up (like if you got a new video game that might become your primary special interest until later you find a new article on crystals then that may be your primary focus). You do seem to have quite a few special interests though so I think the suggestion of ADHD is valid. 

    Also I call some of my intense interests special interests or hyper fixations depending on how long ive had that interest. Like a new tv series that I start researching all about and talking and watching it a bunch, I would call a hyperfixation. But then like my interest in Frozen has lasted years. I think im the only one ive heard to do that with having some things be hyper fixations and other special interests. 

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  • There was an autistic youtuber I watched one time who said that they dont have a single special interest, but they have a few at different intensities.
    Like for me, Frozen is my primary special interest then my secondary would be autism/psychology, then Ive got a few more tertiary ones. I consider them all special interests because I can get very absorbed in them and they make me very happy but I can also get upset if I cant engage in them. Sometimes my autism/psychology special interest is higher than my Frozen one, but only for however long im focused on it at that time.
    This doesnt make too much sense, sorry.
    But maybe its kind of like that with you, where your special interests arent stopping when you move on to a new one, but rather the one you are focusing on for that week has moved up (like if you got a new video game that might become your primary special interest until later you find a new article on crystals then that may be your primary focus). You do seem to have quite a few special interests though so I think the suggestion of ADHD is valid. 

    Also I call some of my intense interests special interests or hyper fixations depending on how long ive had that interest. Like a new tv series that I start researching all about and talking and watching it a bunch, I would call a hyperfixation. But then like my interest in Frozen has lasted years. I think im the only one ive heard to do that with having some things be hyper fixations and other special interests. 

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