How diagnositc is obsessive interests?

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Basically, I've been coming back here on and off for years now. For sure I have some sort of bipolar, and I had extreme disturbance as a child, especially with explosive rage episodes.

But anyway, the verdict is out on whether I am socially impaired enough to have autism (my childhood records say I lacked social skills back then, but the experts disagree on whether I am impaired today) But what I really strongly have is special interests. I have gone to ridiculous lengths when it comes to some of the stuff I have been interested in. In the past I've been diagnosed with OCD for this behavior, but more recently I've been told my behavior is within the norm.

Should anybody with special interest behavior be evaluated for AS or autism? Or is it part of something else?

I have HFA, ADHD, and OCD, and I have extremely strong interest in special interests. My main one right now (and for the past 14 years) is playing music - and I do it pretty much all day long. If I'm not doing something that has to do with it, I tend to get bored pretty easily, and have difficulty paying attention to things. I too go to ridiculous lengths when it comes to my special interests.

I think the autism and the OCD combine to make me really strongly have special interests. I think there's a good possibility you might have both some form of autism and OCD. There are others here who have both.

If special interest behavior is the only thing they have, then no they shouldn't bother to be evaluated for an ASD. It just be a waste of money and time because it would come back as negative. They need to have so many symptoms and it has to impair them. If they only have one thing that impairs them, no they still shouldn't get evaluated for ASD. But they can still go and seek help for it. They would probably be diagnosed with OCD. What other label can they use for it? If their interest was computer gaming so they were always on it and playing it and it was taking over their lives and causing them distress, they probably be told they have an internet addiction or computer addiction. Whatever label they have for it now.

In a sense I think autism spectrum has four aspects:

1) intense intellectual interests,
2) social awkwardness,
3) sensory issues, and
4) stimming.

Now, that said, I'd have pretty realistic (read limited) expectations about mental health professionals.

About 30% are lousy,
About 40% or so are in the sloppy middle and sometimes helpful and sometimes not, and
30% are pretty good.

My biggest complaint is that they lose healthy ping-ponging between theory and practice. And instead it just becomes clunky, all at once theory. The 'professional' can too easily become a "be righter" and once he or she has spoken, it's like Moses has brought forth the stone tablets.

And actually, whoever said you're "mentally interesting" sounds like they might be pretty good.

Keep in mind that your special interests may have been created and/or extremely passionate during manic episodes. It's quite common for new, exciting project/learning prospects to appear during (hypo)mania. And these new projects are often the drive behind (hypo)manic shopping sprees. Also, schizophrenia often has obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and I've heard of special interests in schizophrenics. (You used to be diagnosed as schizoaffective, correct?) My close friend has schizoaffective disorder, and all of us, including the doctors, initially thought she had AS because of her being socially withdrawn and having special interests. It just ended up being that the AS symptoms were early markers of her schizoaffective disorder. Perhaps this is what you are experiencing? At any rate, comorbidities are a tricky thing to sort out, so if you find that you still have AS-type symptoms despite your bipolar/schizoaffective disorder being properly treated, it might be worth getting evaluated, just so you can know that doctors are noticing and treating all of your difficulties.

As I am starting to understand, unlike other medical contexts in which (hypo-) means too little of something, I gather that in this context (hypo)manic means mania light or mania medium?

Is that largely correct?

Yes, the "hypo" in "hypomania" also means "low." Hypomania is, essentially, "mania light," where the same symptoms are present, only less severe and less incapacitating. The biggest difference between hypomania and full-blown mania is that hypomania is not a psychotic state. Full-blown mania often has accompanying psychosis. And even in non-psychotic mania cases, the symptoms usually are severe enough to warrant a hospitalization. Nobody ever has to be hospitalized for hypomania.

Basically, the bipolar "high" scale goes like this:
-Hypomania
-Mania (moderate)
-Mania (severe; usually psychotic and/or dysphoric)

Bipolar IIs only have hypomanic states. Bipolar Is start out with hypomania, but if left unchecked, will progress to (moderate) mania. And some of these bipolar Is, if left untreated, will progress even further to "stage-III mania," which is very severe, usually has psychotic symptoms present, and almost always needs hospitalization. Stage-III mania is the type that is hard to tell apart from schizophrenia during admittance into a psychiatric hospital. Severe mania also tends to have mood-INCONGRUENT psychotic symptoms, whereas (possible) psychosis in a moderately manic patient tends to be mood-congruent.

And keep in mind that within hypomania and mania there are different presentations of mood. Some people have predominantly euphoric mood ("classic" or "pure" mania), some have predominantly irritable mood, and some people have mixed episodes (combination of mania and depression; "dysphoric mania"). Mixed episodes and (especially) stage-III mania are not pleasant to experience. That is a big misconception about bipolar disorder- the "highs" aren't always "feel-good" states of euphoria. Even with classic euphoric mania, if it spirals out of control into stage-III mania, the patient mostly is experiencing paranoia, panic, and horror.

Point well taken.

And it sure helps if a person has a doctor or mental health professional they can halfway talk with.

And I like the aspect of trial and error in a respectful way.

(For example, I’ve read with antidepressants, it might first medication which works, it might be the third. Typically takes about a month to tell, and sometimes it's important to step down in phases even if the medication doesn’t seem to be working.)

And I really think whether something is working is more important than a label.

To elaborate, I have special interests in all my mood states. Anyway, I don't socialize much so oddly I can't tell how handicapped I am in this area. I had two therapists say I was handicapped and probably had AS, but I've had other people tell me I am not handicapped enough. I once had at a lady interrupt a bipolar support meeting to tell me I was autistic because she said she was really familiar with it, but my best friend that works with special needs children says I don't have AS.

Interestingly enough, I got a hold of some of my old childhood psych reports. They say I lack social skills, but one was interesting in that it said I took a test for social skills and passed with flying colors, but I could not apply my social skills knowledge to real life.

I have patchy social skills, above average in some areas, but . . . I sometimes really struggle with jobs and employment. The social fiction that a lot of jobs involves. For example, that we're going to promote the department store credit card and pretend like it's a good deal (this was the thing we overwhelmingly promoted, it made interactions with customers significantly less real). This is perhaps not the best example, for I could promote the credit card at this past job, just awkwardly.

In fact, I really think some of the same skills that potentially makes me a good entrepreneur also make me a somewhat sketchier employee.

Well, does this make me 'handicapped'? Periods of poverty and exclusion hurt, I'll say that for damn sure. And this also applies to social exclusion. I am self-diagnosed as being on the Asperger's-Autism Spectrum and am comfortable being self-diagnosed. I can see how a clinician could go either way, especially if he or she did not know a lot about the spectrum and had a mental picture that deficits need to be more 'obvious.'

I have also struggled with bouts of depression. no fun either.