Help! Do your strongest interests fade over time?

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OldFashioned
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01 Jun 2011, 4:22 pm

Okay we all know most people with Asperger have one strong passion or interest, in my case I have never been able to actively pursue two interests at once because I felt like doing two things would lead me to abandon one thing, I am very invested in all I do, if I was to start a sport I'd be obsessed by the said sport and abandon a passion for this or that. (I wish there was something I could do about that, as a result I don't do sport and I don't have much of a way to get a beach body...)

Basically when I was 8 years old I was interested in a particular ancient civilisation, then 3 years later it was another civilisation, whatever I knew about the other civilisation was erased from my mind, then it was yet another and so on until recently when I decided to make a hobby my job. Now I am scared to loose my interest in said hobby as I did for all my other passions... :cry:



TenPencePiece
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01 Jun 2011, 4:41 pm

My last strongest interest, which was predominately about maps and road systems and all that, has faded in the past three years, and I've probably forgotten a little. This has been replaced by my current weather interest. They generally come and go over time, I'm afraid.


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kittie
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01 Jun 2011, 4:42 pm

*hugs* All I can say is, I do this, a lot. Good luck.



roseblood
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01 Jun 2011, 4:50 pm

Yes. Mine cycle, but many have eventually stopped coming back and been replaced by new ones. Right now my active special interests are autism, gender nonconformity and an actor I like. In my daydreams and tangental inner commentary these often get combined in various storylines, e.g. an autistic character who's also camp and hangs out with a tomboy, or they rotate throughout the day. One of them might suddenly get usurped by another for a while, but I seem not to have more than three active during any one period of time, and usually just one or two.

One thing I find that influences whether an interest will fade is how easy it remains to learn more about the interest when your mind's done all it can with the existing information, but also how stressful it is to keep up with incoming news that you feel compelled to collect and record if your interest happens to be something that there's a constant stream of coming and going information about (as there often is with famous people as a special interest). It's a delicate balance. With an interest as an integral part of your career though, maybe you'll have enough ongoing learning to do to keep it from burning out.



Last edited by roseblood on 01 Jun 2011, 5:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

CockneyRebel
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01 Jun 2011, 4:59 pm

I've had a few special interests that faded out for a few years, but than they came back with a vengance. I've also had a coulpe of special interests that faded, never to come back.


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01 Jun 2011, 5:13 pm

Oh my god, this hobby of mine I will have to spend the rest of my life in so I hope it will not fade... As strange as this may sound for a straight man like me, women's fashion (no I do not crossdress or stuff like that, I just love women's fashion and read all the big magazines, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, L'Officiel de la Mode etc...), I am also very admirative of the beauty of certain women, their style etc... Fashion is a tough environment to survive in I hope my interest will never fade.



ScientistOfSound
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01 Jun 2011, 5:20 pm

My interests usually fade away for a while, get replaced, then come back around again. However I've always been making trance music, and that never fades away. I usually persue around three interests at once.



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01 Jun 2011, 5:24 pm

I know how you feel.
Mine don't get replaced, they fade out before another one comes along.

My previous interests have included geology, sociology, religious studies, and philosophy - I knew a lot about all these, I have qualifications in all of them...but can't remember a damn thing about any of them now. It makes me feel very stupid, especially when someone asks me something about one of these and I can't remember anything about them, or I'll go into a discussion thinking 'hey, I know all about that' just to realise I can't participate. I used to work in IT for British Airways, don't have a clue now about anything IT-related, I've turned into one of the very people who used to make my job a living hell. I also used to play piano very well, to the point that at five years old people thought I may have been some sort of savant, I keep hoping that even if the memory of how to play has gone that maybe muscle memory will take over if I just try to play...it doesn't. It's gone.

I'm worried right now that my current interest is waning, I don't have a job in this area (although I was hoping to pursue a career in this, and it does bring in some money), but losing it means no special interest, nothing to do with my spare time, and losing yet more knowledge - I'm not missing knowledge yet, but I'm noticing I'm not taking-on new information about this as easily as I once did, I'm getting repetitive, and that I'm less able to motivate myself to write articles dealing with the special interest. It's very frustrating knowing it may be fading away and there's nothing I can do about this.

Sorry, but I have no solutions.
I really wish I did :cry:


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Last edited by Bloodheart on 01 Jun 2011, 5:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

OldFashioned
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01 Jun 2011, 5:50 pm

ScientistOfSound wrote:
My interests usually fade away for a while, get replaced, then come back around again. However I've always been making trance music, and that never fades away. I usually persue around three interests at once.


Trance? Like this?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxvpctgU_s8[/youtube]

I haven't really had a permanent interest I think, I hope fashion and women will stay as a permanent interest so to say.

Bloodheart wrote:
I know how you feel.
Mine don't get replaced, they fade out before another one comes along.

My previous interests have included geology, sociology, religious studies, and philosophy - I knew a lot about all these, I have qualifications in all of them...but can't remember a damn thing about any of them now. It makes me feel very stupid, especially when someone asks me something about one of these and I can't remember anything about them, or I'll go into a discussion thinking 'hey, I know all about that' just to realise I can't participate. I used to work in IT for British Airways, don't have a clue now about anything IT-related, I've turned into one of the very people who used to make my job a living hell. I also used to play piano very well, to the point that at five years old people thought I may have been some sort of savant, I keep hoping that even if the memory of how to play has gone that maybe muscle memory will take over if I just try to play...it doesn't. It's gone.

I'm worried right now that my current interest is waning, I don't have a job in this area (although I was hoping to pursue a career in this), but losing it means no special interest, nothing to do with my spare time, and losing yet more knowledge - I'm not missing knowledge yet, but I'm noticing I'm not taking-on new information about this as easily as I once did, and that I'm less able to motivate myself to write articles dealing with the special interest. It's very frustrating knowing it may be fading away and there's nothing I can do about this.

Sorry, but I have no solutions.
I really wish I did :cry:


I forgot many things all that remains is the basics for example to names of the gods in this or this religion and their attributes etc...



Last edited by OldFashioned on 01 Jun 2011, 5:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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01 Jun 2011, 5:51 pm

Mine wax and wane and sometimes just disappear altogether for a while. But more often than not I will always really like that subject in some fundamental way.
I fear losing my favourite interests, my great ape interest is one I would not want to lose forever. When it wanes for a bit sometimes I miss it like crazy.


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01 Jun 2011, 6:02 pm

The only interest that I no longer have today is, ironically, the aspie stereotype: trains.

All the others, while they do sometimes fade slightly, have never totally gone away. That's when they're more like interests, and not obsessions. I can only have one obsession at a time, but my interests (almost) never leave me.


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01 Jun 2011, 6:13 pm

I do have interests fade, although they usually come back at random moments, or even become far more intense later on. This used to bother me but now I just figure if it comes back, it'll come back. Not to say I don't try to fight it on occasion, but whether I do or not, I do know it's not typically permanent.

I don't always forget things, although it may become harder to draw on that information when I'm not constantly immersed in the topic. It's been years since the X-Men were close to an interest of mine but I am still basically an encyclopedia for the 1970s and 1980s. I admit I have forgotten some things (like a lot of issue numbers in which particular things happened) but I do remember quite a few details and points of history.

Still, I do forget things a lot of the time. Some stuff just goes away.



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01 Jun 2011, 6:17 pm

I've had at least fifty consecutive interests over the past 20 years, and they usually lasted just a few months. Like Mario, Luigi and Bowser, for example, although the interest in the actual Mario universe went on for several years. That one has faded, but the good memories will always stay with me.
My longest and strongest interest, Siegfried and Roy, lasted five years and was wiped out entirely in a single evening.
Interesting times, for sure...



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01 Jun 2011, 6:24 pm

Hm, anyone got an idea what might trigger this loss of interest?



ScientistOfSound
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01 Jun 2011, 6:31 pm

OldFashioned wrote:
ScientistOfSound wrote:
My interests usually fade away for a while, get replaced, then come back around again. However I've always been making trance music, and that never fades away. I usually persue around three interests at once.


Trance? Like this?


Yes! Euphoric and shiny :)



tomboy4good
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01 Jun 2011, 6:33 pm

I've lost interest in some stuff that I was obsessed with over the years. My childhood obsession with horses has mostly faded away though I still have a soft spot in my heart for them. Same with Star Trek, & ELO....I still enjoy them but not with the fervor I used to have. But I got into photography as a child, & it has only gotten stronger over the years. I think it's part due to the fact that it's something I can travel with, & I almost always have a camera with me (if not an SLR, at least a point & shoot). I'll shoot most anything...be it landscapes, flowers, my dog or other dogs, insects, birds, other wildlife, etc. The only thing that I am not fond of shooting due to my limited social skills is people. I would love to improve my portraiture but in order to do that, one must be able to communicate well verbally & proper body language with people in order to be a successful people photographer. So far, this aspect has eluded me. I know now it's because I'm a social idiot. :oops: If I can fix that, I may have a chance.


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