Do most aspies grow out of having intense special interests?

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Lazershow
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19 Feb 2015, 2:32 pm

My special interests have changed over the years but i still do have special interests. When i was younger i was really obsessed with constellations. I used to know the names of all the constellations and everything but i grew out of that. For the last year and a half my interest has been anime as well as video games. Ive also been getting into psychology lately.



MagicMeerkat
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27 Oct 2017, 8:43 am

In my case...no. My special interests grow with me. A special interest in a cartoon meerkat will turn into a special interest in real meerkats. But before meerkats, my special interests were always animal related somehow.


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xatrix26
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27 Oct 2017, 10:29 am

Autism isn't something one "grows out of", this is a lifelong condition - not a disease to be cured of, nor a simple childhood ailment like measles or something insignificant like that, that someone finds a shot to give you for.

We. Are. Wired. Differently.

A motorcycle isn't something that can suddenly change into a car just because it doesn't like being different from every other vehicle out there. Autism is what it is and we can only find the best routines/special interests/obsessions that satisfy our unique human design to incur maximum happiness in this life.

I don't mean to come on too strong but I'm tired of NTs thinking that Autism is just a childhood "phase" or some simple adolescent hurdle to overcome in life. Most of us, and I mean 99% of us, have had to go through severe pain and suffering because of this condition. This is a very serious condition we have and full grown adults STILL have to deal with it every nanosecond of every day. This thing still causes meltdowns, light/sound/touch intolerances, social difficulties, workplace anxieties, daily routine reinforcements, resistances to change of ANY kind, severe general anxieties, speech impediments, and yes, INTENSE special interests are still there, etc. etc. etc. Still.

Autism. Ain't. Going. Away.

You've got it. For good. For all time on this planet. Now, there are several ways to adjust to this "new human schematic" that we're all born with and it's not ALL bad. Some of us are actually classified as "High Functioning" which has obvious gains to offer the world, and ourselves. Then again, just having Autism makes people think of us as special and while many NTs consider that threatening we all have something very powerful in common to deal with that kind of crap.

Resilience.

That's our REAL superpower. Some of us have high IQ ratings, excellent memory retention, computational excesses, etc. etc. But resilience is what really makes us shine.

So, Autism ain't goin' anywhere so don't hide it, tell the world and accept your status as unique human specimens and look on the bright side of that fact! Hey this is good advice for me too, because at 42, I still have difficulty with acceptance. Stim away gang.


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BookwormSophie
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28 Oct 2017, 10:19 am

Sure!! I mean it depends on the aspie but I've outgrown many intense special interests! My first huge obsession that I can remember was an anime, InuYasha. That lasted around 3 years. Other intense special interests involved Marilyn Manson, vampires, and the German language (I'm fluent now.) I outgrow all my intense special interests within anything from a couple months to 3 years. I don't think I've had an intense special interest since I outgrew German at age 21 (24 now.)



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28 Oct 2017, 10:33 am

I obviously haven't. I always find myself interested in something.



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28 Oct 2017, 11:46 am

Mine have always changed and they are not as intense as they used to be. I am always doing other things.


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21 Nov 2017, 9:05 pm

kinda. often times I’m obsessing over something, and then I think, this is stupid, what am I doing with my life? And I’ve found that this has happened more and more as I’ve gotten older. But I still have to force my self to stop, and I still spend hours on end looking up my special interests on the internet. Sometimes I use it as a motivator, so I’ll do a task and then look up something related to my interest.i’ve lost interest in most of the pass obsessions I’ve had, however, I don’t think I’ll ever reach a point where I’m not obsessing about something, and I don’t think I could live without it, I enjoy it too much.



Trogluddite
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21 Nov 2017, 9:38 pm

I find that each interest lasts for a few years before I move on to another. I always seem to have a couple going at once; usually one will be all about collecting knowledge about a subject, and the other will be creative somehow (could be visual arts, musical or 'technical', e.g. coding) As I get older I've noticed that I often return to old ones, even from as far back as my childhood, and some have recurred several times. I don't think the intensity has lessened any as I've gotten older, and things like cooking/eating healthy food, contact with friends/family and domestic chores regularly still get neglected as a result of losing myself in them.


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xatrix26
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21 Nov 2017, 10:13 pm

At 42 years of age my special interest of electronic gaming started in 1979 and continues until this very second and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

I've had different minor special interests but my primary remains bolted to my psyche and I'm quite happy with that arrangement.

Electronic gaming allows me to escape the pain and intense anxiety of my life and creates a very euphoric feeling of sorts that has become my new drug in life.


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23 Nov 2017, 1:21 am

I haven't grown out of my intense special interest and any interest that replaces an old interest can be just as intense. I don't hide my special interests at all. I like to celebrate them.


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27 Nov 2017, 3:40 pm

My special interests change every month or so and then come back to previous ones oftentimes.



Romansky123
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27 Nov 2017, 5:16 pm

Now a days I goo through periods of obsessing about one subject show or activity


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27 Nov 2017, 7:17 pm

I have a number of them. And have had several of them ongoing since I was young. I do tend to switch between them, with frequency and duration being pretty random. It's kind of like, I'll hit some snag with one of them, a problem I can't solve or something, and at the same time suddenly have the answer I needed for another one! And then switch to that one, or some combination of several of them for an indefinite period of time.
I have sort of gotten over a few, I'm no longer interested in egyptology, really. Still think it's amazing, but not my thing anymore.
And I do find some short term ones, like if I acquire a new thing of some kind I might end up on an information kick for a few months, trying to find out everything I possibly can about the item in question, and other things related to it, and the company that made it, etc.
I've gotten better about not just pouring information out on people, over time, kind of.
I realized that talking about music theory generally produces wide eyes stares, so I usually avoid talking about it. Although I still do it, now and then.
Pretty sure they were right when they said I've got ADHD. Just that it wasn't the only thing going on in my brain.