Can you have aspergers without a special interest?

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My mom thinks that if you dont have a special interest that means you have non verbal disorder instead. I know I have my special interest but im wondering can you have aspergers with out that distinction.

Not "classic" AS, no.

IOW, it isn't part of an Aspie stereotype.

You can in fact have AS without a special interest, since there are three other criteria in that category within DSM-IV, and you only need to have one.

You're technically correct, but if you read further into the DSM-IV-TR, it states that those three usually* don't apply to Asperger's.

*"Usually" in the context of the DSM-IV-TR equates to most cases (well, that's what I've deduced via reading it, like how it says people with OCD "usually" don't have the social impairment of those with AS, and as we all know, OCD doesn't contain a social impairment like the one found in AS).

Special interest is just the ability to hyperfocus that you may be able to channel into other areas when older. I had a special interest as a child but as I got older I got less interested. By the time I was 16 I wasn't that interested in my special interest at all but I still lean toward hyperfocusing.

I didnt have a major special interest when younger that anyone could point too. I can see I tried to find one but never found them enjoyable enough for them to become major. I had minor ones like looking into stationary shop windows and contemplating whether to use 3 or 4 ring binders.

Focusing on study or work was a bit of a special interest. I tended to try and lose myself in that.

I have a major special interest now that Im older.

Much the same goes for me. I 'lost' my special interests over the course of my teenage years, which was tied to my attempts at dealing with the emotionally confusing aspects of puberty and the apathy and depression that grew out of that mental state.

At this point, the apathy - which detached me from my special interests - has faded, but has also contributed to my current attitude toward things in general... looking at everything from a distance, and picking out what I might find useful for myself.

However, I, too, still hyperfocus when I try getting into something. Just not '24/7' anymore.


But yeah, I would agree that special interests aren't a requirement for the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome... they're just a manifestation of how our minds take in and process info.

I'll chime in that my special interests faded away as I went through my teens, partly to apathy, partly to when I realized how weird it made me seem. These days I'm a bit of a renaissance man, having some useful or (maybe) interesting tidbits of information about all sorts of topics.

I've always had special interests as a child and teens. There were times where I would be "between" special interests, and not be obessed with anything in particular.

Like right now, for instance. I do not have any particular special interests right now. Does that mean that I am not actually Autistic?
Do I "regain" my Autism once I develop another special interest?

I beleive that the idea "You can't have AS because you don't have any special interests", is very ignorant.

Interesting question....

Can "special interests" vary over time?

I don't think I was ever "obsessive" over a single issue growing up (although I LOVED anything SciFi). However, I find that I am frequently focused on an interest to the point of obsession but if something happens to shift my focus (painful experience, boredom, etc.), I move on to something else that holds me in a similar way.

Typically, I only have one issue at a time that does this.

You can have AS without a 'special interest' it's just usual to have a special interest of some kind and they can change through out a persons life.

Oh, by all means! I usually have two or three at any given time that may or may not overlap. Most seem to run their course in a few years, once I've exhausted the subject, others have been with me all my life. I suspect that many who think they've lost any kind of SI may simply have transferred onto something they're not recognizing as such. SIs can be as mundane as a television program, or as exotic as radio astronomy or cataloging bird species.

Ive looked at the dsm and gilberg. But it talks about narrow interests... that just isnt me. What about wide interests?

When I was a child I read everything I could get my hands on. From encyclopaedias to clothing labels, novels (including adult-level novels), phone directory, the city map, picture books, my mum's psychology textbooks, other non-fiction of my parent's, the back of the milk carton- I would just collect vast amounts of info on everything, and watch a lot of TV, and when I talked it would not be obvious I had a special interest because I had so many things I read about to mention.

I would also spend hours outside looking at plants and insects. (I did use to socialise though but i messed it up).

So how would a diagnostician view all this? I often have a favourite interest with lots of little satellite interests.

huh? I thought it was the other way round,that you have to have three out of four of the criteria to get the diagnosis of AS... if only one then there is a lot of NTs walking around out there who have "one part of AS" or...?

And it would be interesting to see an aspie without special interest pop up. Life with AS wouldnt be so colourful as it is with special interests, as I feel it!!

DSM:

TPE2: oh righty right. I got my diagnosis nine years ago and apparently forgotten the details of it. Okay, thanks for clarify