Do your special interests ever reflect your mood?

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Like recently, I've become very depressed and overwhelmed, and my special interest has switched almost without warning to Thanatology (everything to do with death).

Does this happen with everyone else?

Special interests having to do with death is one of the ways they identify depression in younger people with AS.

Mine definitely change with my mood. When my grandmother died I developed a special interest in the history and culture of Finland, because she was my link to the Finnish culture. It was my way of coping.

Well, kind of, though not exactly the same.

My special interests often involve a lot of thinking and learning; but my stress level prevents me from thinking and learning well. So, when it's high, I'll fall into more low-level special interests; when I'm feeling better, I'll go to higher-level, more thought-intense ones.

Not really. It reflects my personality though.

When I was going through my worst patch of bullying, my special interests were drug addiction and problems in 'third world' countries.

The whole “dark interests indicate depression” thing doesn’t apply to me. I have a very dark sense of humor when I’m in a good mood, and I’m more prone to seek out lighter things when I’m in a bad mood. If I'm watching Jacob's Ladder, I'm probably in a good mood. If I'm watching The Flintstones, I'm probably feeling sh***y and seeking something to counteract my mood. When I'm depressed, dwelling on dark things is the last thing I want to do.

My depression got worse about the same time as my special interest switched from programming to drawing

yes some special interests depress me. esp those that deal with death.

My special interests reflect in my personality more than they reflect in my mood.

They can for sure, when my parents died it triggered and intense interest in our family tree, with me travelling thousands of miles for clues and photos.

I have had a special interest in martial arts since I was 13, It was triggered by a decision that no-one was going to physically hurt me ever again.

My strangest special intrest had to have been my obsession with the nasal turbinates of animals. Once I finnaly saw the nasal turbinates of a meerkat, I think that obsession finnaly died down.

I've always had a weird facination with mental asylums for some reason.