Do AS people always have "special interests"?

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I think the difference between an interest and a special interest is the amount of focus, intensity, devoted to your interest. I am yet to see an NT with the same intensity (obsession) devoted to an interest. I have read about cases, but never seen one. Aspies are very fixated in their interests. That's the difference. Its not an issue of the amount of time you stay fixed on a subject, but the amount of time/effort dedicated to the subject you are interested in.

I read somewhere that the time and effort spent to an interest varies along with the stress. More stress, more focus on the topic of interest.

Maybe that's why I have no special interests at the moment :S I have no stress at all !

When I was 10, I spent a lot of time in a garage; I took the paint sample cards and I learned all the types and brands of cars that where common back then; I knew all the cars in the street.
I also read everything I could find about waterlife, aqariums etc. I could name most fish.

but nowadays, it's only the General Interest in Knowing things that is left. When I see a word i don't really understand, I'll look it up. Or some other things, I need to find out what it's about.

I also had obsessions with certain people probably because I had no social life, and WHEN I found someone willing to invest a little time in me, I'd just go wild and become a silent stalker

I'm screwed then and there is no point in denying it to myself anymore lol

I do not know what NT is but I think it means "normal" so I will run with that, the main problem with this argument that you make is that for the most part normals do not even like football or cars and fashion and the things they are supposed to like, they simply do not have the courage to tell anyone they are actually a closet Star Trek fan, which I have absolutely no problem with.

I am male, 33 and not gay...but I like America's Next Top Model, simply because I can watch interactions and hone my micro-expression & body-language spotting capabilities (which for an aspie are even more finely tuned than that of a normal...so much so I have even written various articles on the subject) however if you listen to anyone, they say that it is not socially acceptable for me to watch it, they claim I mu...actually, watching half naked girls...that isn't too bad and I do not care what others think of me lol

There are always going to be degrees of interest, I like beer...but to get obsessed with brewing techniques of the 12th century will be taking it too far, though I know everyone around me also likes beer lol

Thats the trick I think, and there are three things normals should not talk about since they cause so many wars: politics, religion and football, we aspies simply have far more things we shouldn't talk about lol

Yup. I'm exactly the same way.

I have autism, and I do have several special interests. I also think people on the spectrum have some sort of special interest, but maybe there is a small minority out there who do not.

I more or less agree with you. I think Aspie interests tend to be more "in itself", for our own pleasure, without aims. This is one reason why it is difficult for some of us to achieve a professional or useful level of knowledge in the field of our special interests. ADD/ADHD can contribute to it too.

Isn't it part of DSM 4 criteria that you need to have special interests in order to be diagnosed?

Now, of course, if you stick to routine, or engage in rocking or hand-flapping instead, then you no longer need to have special interests. But I was always assuming that speical interests are the most common of these options in case of Asperger.

Story of my life.
Do people find your interests as "obsessions?" Yes, for myself. The first time I considered this was when this was brought to my attention.

btw Avatar=

I have a special interest (Billy Idol) and I like to write! Billy comes 1st!

Thanks! Yours is neat too. I always really liked Neptune when I studied the planets.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer!! !! !! !

Not really because of the way they do it, people still don't like it. I was obsessed with Titanic in 7th grade and that is a very popular interest and lot of people are obsessed about the ship and the James Cameron movie. Well when I talked about it, kids hated it. Same as The Spice Girls and lot of people were obsessed with them too. Plus one of my aspie friends online is obsessed with sports and Star Trek, he talked about them all the time as a kid, even in high school. he got flak for it. Those two are also popular interests. I dunno if Star trek still is but it was a popular TV show when he was growing up.

I don't always have special interests either. Right now I don't have one because mine is too popular so therefore it's not special. Unless you want to count autism. I also get temporary ones and then I move on.

To have AS, you're going to need a single area of interest that you spend an inordinate amount of time on in comparison to other activities. Often, it interferes with your functioning, i.e., not doing well at school because you don't have time for anything else.

Otherwise, you technically should have another form of ASD.

(Yes, yes, I know one doesn't need it for the DSM-IV-TR's criteria, but the expanded text from the book pretty much says it's almost always there, unlike with Autistic Disorder.)

Currently my obsession is the history of various purebred dogs and collecting old pictures and written accounts of them. Secondary is genetics (particularly odd mutations).

My interests vary also, but some do remain constant. Psychology, for one, especially since I plan to pursue it as a career. I also enjoy studying linguistics, history, and art.