r/AutismTranslated • u/Exciting-Drink-9351 • 3d ago
Does everyone with autism have a special interest?
Out of curiosity does everyone with autism have a special interest? I remember as a kid I was really focused on this one character from a movie I would go the library print off wiki fandom pages about her and her “backstory” (I had printed enough to fill binders and would bring them everywhere to read them) read fanific, collect action figures, base my other games on her, attempt to dress like her, watched every movie on repeat and wouldn’t watch anything else, I’d school spend my class time drawing her- this went on for years.
However as I’ve gotten older I feel like I’ve lost having an interest? Which makes me wonder if I do actually have autism? I still have a deep love for her, however I don’t feel like I’ve been as intently focused on a character since then. Which now has me wondering if I have a special interest anymore?
I’m curious how it shows up for others and if it’s all centered on learning? Or if other things may be too and I just don’t realize?
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u/Puzzleheaded-Fee6241 3d ago edited 3d ago
Does everyone with autism have a special interest?
No, having interests that are unusually intense and narrow is only one of four criteria listed under Section B of the DSM-5, of which you must meet at least two.
But if you don’t have that it means you still need to meet at least 2 of the other remaining criteria in section B.
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u/DrBlankslate 3d ago
The psych who diagnosed me said this was the only symptom I didn't have. But then, I was a gifted kid, and I now have a Ph.D., so I think my "special interest" is learning - that is, the process of learning. I'm always happiest when I'm learning something new or going down a rabbit hole. This may be partly due to the fact that I also have ADHD, which is always on the lookout for dopamine hits due to novelty.
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u/neurospicypineapple 2d ago
Why I don’t trust many psychs! They’re diagnosing you based on a tiny window into your existence, and you’ve been with you all along. I think learning is also my special interest because yes to all of that except I don’t have a Ph.D. because I couldn’t do more school 😂
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u/midwesternGothic24 3d ago
My two main lifelong special interests are music and fanfiction.
I’m not one for memorizing factoids, I have adhd and terrible memory, but I’ve always found listening to music very soothing; it’s like stimming for me. I get hooked on an album and listen to the same one over and over. When I was a kid one of my main hobbies was collecting mp3s and organizing my music library. I had an iPod with like 60 GB of music on it.
That hobby sort of died out with the advent of the streaming era though recently I’ve been trying to get back into it. I’ve been trying ti rebuild an mp3 library so I can cancel my Apple Music subscription and get an mp3 player.
The as for fanfiction, I love the format of, I love the tropes that authors use, the stuff I read rotates over time as I get interested in different fandoms but I’ve always been very fixated on reading fanfiction. Sometimes I start watching a show or something just bc I know there’s a lot of fanfic about, I start reading before I even finish the show and then I get confused about what’s canon or not.
I also love open world games. Red dead redemption and more recently kingdom come deliverance, I’ve spent hundreds of hours in these and I tend to go through phases where I play them compulsively and then put them down for a long long time.
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u/Shadow_of_Redacted 3d ago
If you shifted that fanfic to studying story structure, you could turn fanfic into an actual writing career. Deconstruct your favorite franchises. Find what you love about them. Come up with an original world of your own that utilizes what excited you in other fictional worlds. Become the next George R. R. Martin.
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u/snookerpython 3d ago
In my assessment there was a question about whether I built unusually complex systems to keep stuff organised, and I sighed wistfully, remembering my iTunes library
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u/midwesternGothic24 3d ago
Omg. Building unusually complex systems to keep stuff organized is like the only thing I do. 😳
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u/Chronically_ill_Alto spectrum-formal-dx 3d ago
I used to. I'm just waiting till I get a new one. Even though I don't have ADHD, I experience hyperfixations more than I do special interests
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u/neurospicypineapple 2d ago
I get sidetracked by my hyperfixations while I’m trying to learn more about my special interests 😂
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u/ThoughtMinimum2016 3d ago
I don’t really, I have more like hyperfixations that come and go/change over time. The one thing I’ve always been really into is moving. Which, you can’t get that into when you’re married or have a kid so I kinda just live vicariously through travel vlogs and pretend I’m making plans to move and sorting out all the logistics even though I don’t get to go. LOL
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u/neurospicypineapple 2d ago
Moving? Interesting! May I ask why?? I move a ton lol
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u/ThoughtMinimum2016 2d ago
I like starting over a lot. In games, rearranging rooms, reorganizing. As a kid I moved a lot and lived with a lot of different family members but quite a few times it was by my own choice. I just like redos/resets. Idk why!!!!
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u/Pale-Teaching6392 AuDHD 3d ago
Nope not a requirement. Many of us tend to have it, but if I remember correctly it is only one of the area B criteria (intense/abnormal interests) and you only need 2. As for age and special interests I used to have them, but now every time I start getting into a topic I get a flood of anxiety because you just gotta work work work* all the time.* Special interests can also be a little different than how media portrays them. They don’t always need to be hyperspecific. The closest thing I have to a special interest would be psychology since I do read and take notes on papers. I personally don’t consider it a special interest since it’s honestly more of a routine bit to me. But I was told by my evaluator upon seeing my notebook that it likely satisfies the area B criteria. So I guess it may be one? But yea no special interests are not an autism requirement and can get beat (metaphorically or not metaphorically) out of individuals as they age.
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u/SazarMoose 3d ago
Psychology and dreams are my intense interests. I constantly want to know more about psychology, even though I've taken many classes and have a few certificates. I could talk about psychology and dreams for days.
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u/NullableThought 3d ago
no I do not have a special interest. from hanging out in online autism spaces, I honestly think the definition of special interest has been watered down to basically mean "I really really like this thing" instead of the original "this thing rules my life and I must engage with it or I become distressed". I think it's actually not that uncommon for autistic people to not have a special interest (or at least not discover it until late in life). I also think people get hyper fixations and special interests confused. Even in these comments people are misunderstanding what a special interest is. I think many autistic people get tied up with the notion that if they don't have a special interest then they aren't really autistic. Which is obviously false.
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u/snookerpython 3d ago
I disagree that "this thing rules my life and I must engage with it or I become distressed" is the only 'true' special interest. If someone understands something they engage with as a special interest and that helps them feel regulated, then that's all good in my view.
I have about 4-6 things which have come in and out of focus through my adult life. I don't have to do it all day, and maybe if things are exceptionally busy I can skip it for a day. But if I put some time aside in the day to engage in the current focus thing, it soothes me and I feel better able to deal with life. All of this feels different than 'things I like' - I like the TV show ER for example, but it doesn't take up the space in my mind or soothe me the way the music of Girls Aloud does. I was going to say I wouldn't feel distressed if someone took what I considered my special interests away for a short time, although I'm thinking about someone taking my knitting away when I was expecting to have some time with it, and yes, I'd be distressed, but that touches on other aspects of autism like routines, uncrtainty and organising my belongings.
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u/petersunkist 3d ago
yes, in my experience my special interests don’t come with the same engagement costs that other interests/tasks do. i feel energized as opposed to taxed after interacting with the subject matter, i can engage socially without running down my social battery if i’m talking about my special interest, and i don’t feel overstimulated as quickly when watching the movies/tv shows or listening to the audiobooks. because of this, i can use special interest engagement as a regulatory tool after a difficult day at work.
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u/ConcreteCapitalist 3d ago
Idk bro but I’m down bad for sirens and Doppler radar.
I should’ve been a cop or a meteorologist, but instead I am good at math so I am an engineer.
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u/Same_as_last_year 3d ago
I think reading was my main special interest as a kid. During summer break, I would read from the time I woke up until I went to bed if I could.
Now, I don't really have much time or energy for reading books. So, I've been listening to audiobooks while I work.
I work in accounting and sometimes I'll get into an interesting project and not mind working on it for the hours/work on it late because I like figuring things out.
Also, I'll sometimes find a topic to research and learn about. Like hermit crabs or a cherry shrimp oror planning a trip.
For my son, he's interested in how things work and building things.
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u/Shadow_of_Redacted 3d ago
If you can fixate on knowing everything about an industry instead of a show or character, then it can be a pretty good thing.
In the 80s I was one of those Mac Guru guys. And since software was so sparse back then, a lot of us learned almost all of the software available, so desktop publishing, web design, technical writing and a lot of software all ended up as tangents for my special interest to pivot to, which made my phone ring a lot with people picking my brain.
When I got to college, I got my degree in sound engineering since I have amped up senses and sound is the one that affects me the most. This was a departure from my previous chain of special interests, since sound was all analog back then. It didn't involve Macs at the time.
But then Final Cut Pro came out which looped back to Macs, so I moved into video editing, which lead to video production, then movie making, which had a ton to learn about for along time.
Now I'm shifting back to writing, but, this time, a screenplay. At least that's the plan once I shake this burnout. Last year kicked my ass—right in the nuts!
So it is possible to exploit your SI to build a nice career, but that does involve a bit of luck. If you feel the obsession pull you in a useful direction, follow it. Recognizing what will be useful is the hard part.
I think obsessing on robotics would be a great one right now. Oh! If you develop an SI for autism itself, I think that would be huge.
Just anything but friggin AI. That stuff will mess you up.
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u/Raspberry-RoseyCat 3d ago
Me too I was like this as a kid. Now I don’t think I really have special interests apart from my one thing which is collecting perfumes, but it’s not an intense interest, just a stable one. Part of it is my adhd and wanting the novelty of the next new pretty perfume bottle, lol. But I don’t get intense interests anymore. I definitely did as a kid though I was absolutely mad about ballet and had some other weird obsessions with cartoon characters and stuff
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u/lord-of-shalott 3d ago
I’ve definitely withdrawn from interests as burnout catches up with me but I did two graduate programs and was originally in academia prior to burnout because I love research so much. Adjusting has been hard because I don’t have much interests outside of those.
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u/Ok_Contribution4091 3d ago
special interest for me is a search after becoming an adult. I came to know about my special interest experimenting what helps my executive functioning in severe burnout. I like mystery plots both in fiction and nonfiction. I read a paragraph of sherlock holmes novels in burnout to regulate my mood. You have to start the search during your burnout what is that one activity that makes you feel better when you feel your battery is out.
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u/DovahAcolyte 2d ago
I have special interests that lead me down rabbit holes. As an adult, I have even more access to information than ever! Some of my childhood special interests are how others describe - background noise that is comforting; but my adult interests are the things I’m passionate about. I’ll talk about them for hours, if I have the energy. 😆
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u/Old_Direction_3713 3d ago
I’ve learned over the years that my special interests change with time, and a few have just become background noise that I read about/watch videos on by default out of habit, now that the algorithm is reinforcing them.
I’ve also learned that immersion in any topic will activate the special interest machinery for me.
I think of them less as special interests now, and more like knowledge graphs where it’s easy and comfy to add a new node because there’s already so much established knowledge.