Special Interests: How Long Does It Take...?

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When you first come across something that you think is kind of interesting (for lack of a better term), how long does it take to figure out if it's a new special interest/obsession? Do you usually know right away, or does it take a little while to grow on you before you know for sure?

Sometimes, I realize it the moment it forms. Other times, I don't realize it until long after it is no longer a special interest. What I mean is I'll be very into an obsession, but often not realize it.

It is like the ground opens up under my feet.

My special interests have never really changed. I've had the same ones all my life, reading fiction and playing computer games. The only thing that has changed is the genres of fiction I read, and both of those shifts happened before I had ever heard of aspergers so it's hard for me to answer this.

However, I can say that I realised almost immediately after reading 1-2 books in the new obsession genre that I was totally hooked and wanted to read a lot more. After that it became very obvious very quickly that I'd shifted from the old genre to a new one.

Some I get drawn into slowly and they've lasted for ages (microbiology/quantum physics), others I bounce around a general field (evolutionary genetics, ancient history, the last sort are the ones I 'm sitting there realising that I haven't eaten or slept for days (often when working on a picture).

My interest in cones was certain about 2 weeks after I saw that one at the bottom of the river. But I mean, does an interest in cones count?
In any case, I've found that interests have always occurred as a result of a definite trigger, like reading about something or finding something, and you know immediately if you're interested if you can't stop reading and search the internet for more information.

I usually know right away, but sometimes it takes a little while to realize that I have a special interest with something.

I think an interest in cones does count. Sometimes the triggers can be a bit strange though, for you, you saw a cone at the bottom of a river and when I was interested in military ranks, it was from seeing the insignias that come with each rank on the TV, though my interest with military ranks has been a reoccurring one, triggered in many different ways.

I just say they're all hobbies.

For me personally, I sorta juggle multiple "hobbies" pretty well. I say if I stick with it for a year, it's a real "special interest" and if I don't, then it was just a "phase" or whatever. I never saw things as special interests, though, but the rest of the world would perceive pretty much anything I do as a special interest. Like hearing a single Russian song at the ice skating rink caused me to probably spend....10-20 hours at the very least looking for Russian music, downloading albums in the process. And to me this is just normal. I don't feel "obsessed" with Russian music or anything, it's just...I wanted Russian music. But to other people this would be quite obsessive.

I know when something is becoming my obsession when I start getting really into it to the point where I resent doing anything else. I then have the difficulty of trying to break the cycle as I know that this behaviour is detrimental to me. I know that if I stop doing anything surrounding my current obsession, I get upset and so I limit myself to maybe a couple of hours a day to it and do other things to break my day up and so I can live a 'normal' life.

Well I get obsessed with certain people, usually triggered by a crush on one person, then I start getting obsessed with everyone to do with him, and even fancying others to do with him. If there are women to do with him, I just get highly obsessed with them and try to copy them in every way and grow to love their names.

I've had an obsession with bus-drivers for about 5 years now, which is the longest I've ever gone with an obsession, and there's still no sign of the obsession getting old. The first time this obsession began was one day in August 5 years ago. I got off the bus one day and thought to myself, ''I think I fancy that bus-driver I keep having.'' I thought it was just a general crush at first and didn't expect it to mount into a full-blown obsession, but after a few weeks I kept seeing him on my bus, and then I started talking about him to my mum, but I still never thought it was going to be an obsession. Then after a few months, I started fancying a couple of other bus-drivers, and then one day I came home and wanted to build a bus out of Lego, then I started writing stories about these bus-drivers. Then the bus-driver that started off this obsession had left, so I had to just carry on building up an obsession with the others. Throughout the next two years, more and more bus-drivers came along as some of the first ones I fancied started to leave, then I started talking to one of them and finding out more about the bus company, and I got a lot of their names. Then two years ago the bus company changed, so there was then a different group of bus-drivers on it who I had to get used to. I was devastated at first and decided I hated all of them, but after a couple of months I began building up little crushes on these new ones, and now I talk to one or two of them and I know all of their names.

So I suppose the obsession goes on and on and on.

It's usually an instant feeling of awe. When I was a kid, the first time I went to the airport and saw all these huge machines that can fly off to other parts of the world with people in them, well it was pretty much love at first sight.
It also had a lot to do with how they made me feel, which simply put, was very happy and content.

Of course I then went inside one, which was probably more exhilarating than going to my first (and last, hah) concert.

Space was very similar, but I think once a child learns how ridiculously massive the universe is, then nothing can match that feeling of awe. I honestly can't think why everyone is not obsessed with space.

I swear, the instant I say, what a laugh, what a joke, the joke is on me. Byron, Marxism, 1904 World's Fair, 101 Strings, Stryper, slugs even, there's a frisson of the ridiculous and I know I'm a goner.

I say, if you have the urge to start researching it or pursuing mastery of whatever has stirred your interest---then that's a new passion/obsession/interest. If you can't forget it---you may have work or other responsibilites to attend to---but when you have spare time, you "must" find out more or dive into the new interest. You can't shake it off. You can't just forget it---the need to know, learn, or master the subjec matter doesn't go away. (Like learning to play a new instrument or learning about wholistic cures for Lyme disease or whatever the new topic is.)

Just like Ten said. For me it's instant. The trigger is generally genuine surprise, where I physically blurt out "No way (is that a real thing?!".
For instance, I was watching Storage Wars and they found some Uranium glassware. Now I have managed to scrounge up 19 pieces and have the two authorative (insanely expensive!!) books on the subject. Before that I spent a lot of time on websites reading about the subject.

I think those abrupt obsessions fade the fastest though.
Like someone else said, some fields just keep sucking me back in (human anatomy & physiology, biology, computerscience, science in general, little factoids etc.).
Those obsessions/interests grew over time and just kept getting stronger, though I'll add that I *was* interested in them from the get-go as well.

A good way for me to tell is that I make an Excel worksheet where I collect all the information (generally my obsessions end up in collecting stuff, like Dungeons and Dragons miniatures, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, movies, manga, comics, anime DVD's, figurines, series of books and a bazillion other things over the past years.)

It usually takes but a few minutes to an hour. If it doesn't escape my mind, I know for sure it is something I must know more about.

Well, for me it usually goes this way:

Throughout the years, I've been infrequently exposed to what later became my most enduring special interests. During these exposures, I never got interested in the said topics. However, they still made a lasting impression on me, either because I've found them pleasurable, intriguing or even unpleasant (!) At the time, I had other special interests going on.

Then, at some point in my life, it only takes one renewed exposure and I'm suddenly hooked. I suddenly perceive the whole subject in a different light. And I totally fall in love with it. I'm usually not aware it happens. It takes me a few days to a few weeks to become aware of what's going on. It also takes a few days/weeks (rarely months) for this enamored feeling to reach its maximum level of intensity. Those days and weeks are a very romantic time, when I'm fascinated with the novelty of the interest, I'm discovering it. Then, when my obsession has reached its peak intensity, I enter into a very euphoric stage of my life. I think about the special interest constantly, I talk about it all the time, I read about it, engage in activities related to it, write about it and even dream about it. Nothing else in the world makes me happier than my special interest. If I can't indulge in it, I get depressed, as if withdrawing from a drug. By this time, people around me are usually already fed up with my interest...

If it's a major interest, it can last for years on end. If it's a minor one, it can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Sometimes, it develops or extends into another similar or related interest. I've turned my interest in psychology into a career, I'm volunteering for an LGBT NGO due to my interest in the gay community and I've volunteered at a local rehab center out of my interest in psychoactive drugs. I've also written extensively about these and other interests. I need to make them part of my life, else life doesn't seem that much worth living...

Then the time will come when a new interest will make me fall in love with it. But... once an interest, always an interest. E.g. when I was 7 years old, I developed a special interest with dinosaurs. Now I'm 25 and I recently got very obsessed with a TV series about prehistoric mass extinctions, mostly because it featured 3D animations with dinosaurs. Also, my first ever special interest was about cats. Guess what, cats still make my heart melt like nothing else in this whole wide world...