Necessary Interests

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I have a theory as to why AS people in general, have such narrow interests. We have had to find ways to cope with and understand the NT world. We were forced to find ways to adapt, for example: I am a music fanatic because that's the only thing I have to look forward to; Computers comfort me, and I understand computers; Psychology & Body Language, had to teach myself these in order to understand what the hell is going on; Writing, I'm not so good when I write it and post it in the same hour (like I do in WP) but I get many compliments on the story I am writing, used to not talk so well so I had to learn expression through text.

Those qualities are how I have adapted to this planet... the wrong planet!
I am also a savant with all of those qualities. So, my theory is that people like AS; people that are born without some quality that everyone else has. They have had to teach themselves some way to adapt, and during that journey, we basically raise ourselves off of these interests because we rely on them so much, the fact that we depend on these interests is what separates our interests from the interests that NT's develop. NT's don't have to force adapt for anything, so they just follow blindly without asking why.

Anybody out there that agrees with my hypothisis? Add to or change anything in my hypothisis. I don't actually know if everyone else already knows this (still trying to learn the "art" of research)

Last edited by EGGREGUYOUS on 30 Oct 2011, 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think we have special interests because that is simply the way our minds work. Rather than being moderately involved with a large number of things, our minds are built in such a way as to make extreme specialization natural for us. That kind of structure--having minds with a natural tendency toward one thing or another--is common in living creatures.

For example, when I show my cat a brightly-colored object, he doesn't really react to it. Bright colors don't faze him that much; he can see color, but it isn't that relevant to him. But, if I were to move that object, he would immediately notice the movement. That's because, unlike mine, his brain is wired to focus on movement as opposed to shape and color. Cats are predators; that makes sense for them. And, as such, he prefers to play with moving objects--a rolling ball, a dangled string--as opposed to shapes and colors, like when I play Tetris or create a patchwork quilt.

Autistic people are built to focus deeply on very specific subjects, just like my cat is naturally drawn to movement. We naturally learn, interact, and entertain ourselves on the small-scale, in details, in depth. And just like my cat finds that chasing moving objects is fun, we find that researching narrow specialist subjects is fun. It's relaxing, and entertaining, and rewarding. Chances are, when we engage in special interests, we get an especially large amount of dopamine, which is the neurotransmitter responsible for reward/satisfaction that people get when they succeed at something or get something they want.

I tend to disagree with your idea that special interests are ways to stave off suicide. When I was suicidally depressed, I usually lost my ability to engage in special interests. I don't think they're a coping strategy. Rather, I think that our special interests are simply a product of the way our minds naturally work.

My theory is what I call the 'stranded' theory. It's a connectivity idea. NTs have max number of connections between their islands of information. We have less connections. So it slows down the process of moving around. Instead of moving directly from point a to point q, we might have to take a longer route via point f.

We have the same intelligence as NTs (information islands), but without as many direct or obvious options for movement, we get slowed down, more easily confused if there's too much 'noise'; and we are better off if we can take our own time to reach our destination. This isn't always an option in an NT world.

I think it therefore becomes more comfortable or safe to spend more time on favorite info islands. Stranded by choice.

I'd like to point out not all people with AS have savant skills, and to anyone who doesn't, that's ok, you're still awesome and unique.

Maybe our special interests take place because our brains were wired to be more interested in things instead of people, as in we're not very social so we take interest in things that don't have to do with being social as a default. Everyone has special interests, even NT's, but ours are probably more prominent because we don't typically go out and socialize like an NT would. Just a thought. Or maybe it's because the NT is really good at seeing the whole picture, but missing the fine details in most things, so they need us to balance it out and make sure all the small and detailed parts of everything are there so it works properly in the end.

Interesting interchange there.

I kind of agree with both of you though. Though I don't think special interestes work so well as a means of coping with suicide, I don't think that's exactly what the OP meant. I think what he really means is that special interests might be so necessary to us, they are a means to an end, which is namely survival.

Another way of putting it is to say that if we are discouraged from pursuing our interests, and "forced" to broaden our horizons, we are forced to do things in a way that goes against our nature, which, if we go along with it, could very well induce depression and thoughts of suicide.

Although suicide never really crossed my mind as the way out of any of my own frustrations, I was actually discouraged from pursuing my interest, which happens to be the same as the OP's (music). Being discouraged from pursuing the one thing that really meant ANYTHING to me, and accepting it wasn't the best thing for me to do, caused me to waste decades of my life pursuing fields and goals I had very little interest in just because I had allowed myself to be convinced that those paths were the "right" way to follow.

What angers me now is that after all those years wasted attempting to "be what I ought to be and do what I ought to do," I failed at every one of them, and never did fully pursue the ONE thing that meant a damned thing to ME. Still, after all these years, I kept dabbling in music, because I could not help myself. Eventually I realized that despite everything else I had wasted my time on, my interest in music NEVER went away. In spite of everything else I did, music was the single constant that was always there, yet I kept putting aside in order to do what everyone else expected of me.

What a dunce!

I wish to this day I had never listened to everyone telling me I really didn't want to pursue music. It's STILL there, and I still can't help but periodically returning to it. Now, I'm flat broke, in debt way over my head, yet I STILL can't help it. It just will not go away!

So why fight it anymore? Fighting it has only wrecked my life. Maybe if I hadn't listened, and pursued music anyway, I would be just as broke and in debt as I am now.

At least I'd be able to look back and say, "Yes, but I did what I loved all those years, and I'm STILL doing it!"

What good is life if you don't ever do what you love?

When I'm depressed my interests shift to depressing topics, which makes me even more depressed.

Anyway, I think NTs do have an intense interest - socialization.

I agree with this about NTs. No matter the personality type, the natural instinct to turn one's eyes/ears/brains to process social information is severe for NTs. NTs all have the same all-encompassing interest of abnormal intensity and focus. Introvert, extrovert, who cares? The automatic processing is there, and one cannot help but have this special interest.

I like you a lot, you know what you did? You read between the lines! f*****g awesome!

I absolutely agree with you. If only dumbass people hadn't pretended to know what the hell they were talking about, you would be living a more fulfilled life.

Also, I hadn't realized that I put so much emphasis on the suicide part of my theory.

I didn't mean to base the theory off of suicide. Every living thing notices moving objects. I changed the wording of the OP, check it out.