No special interest while depressed?

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My special interest/obsession is science. I really like Astronomy for example. Usually I can sit alone in my room and read about Astronomy and watch documentaries about Astronomy and space for hours and hours and hours. I then prioritise over food, social relationships etc. I forget about what time it is and I even miss my interest when I can't be alone and pursue it. But lately I've been feeling really low/depressed (I'm usually always low/depressed but then I occasionally and quite suddenly get episodes of really low mood). Is it common for special interests/obsessions to sort of go away when you're depressed? It feels like I don't have a special interest anymore and that sort of annoys me. Been like this for the past 3 months or so. I want it back!

Can anyone relate to this?

Of course, any human or animal has trouble feeling pleasure when depressed, that's almost what the word means.


But just so were clear, think carefully how much of your interest your involved in. For me the more of something I do, the more my brain gets tired and I get depressed.

I try hard to balance it out, so that I avoid over doing it.

Learning to shift gears is a super valuable trait. Too much high rev action and your brain gets drained. This is why most AS face depression at a younger age than most NT's.

If you want stability in your mood your gonna have to learn to stay in low gear, and avoid over excitement. Caffiene, impulsiveness, lack of structure all go hand and hand with mental exhaustion.

Yes, when I'm really down I can't bring myself to do any of the things I usually enjoy.

It is hard to take care of self care such as showering and eating meals when depressed, let alone special interests that require attention and reading or researching.

I hope you feel better soon.

Three months is a long break if this was to be one of those life long special interests. But then there's people like me. I can name a few things that I can always return to even after years of losing interest but then there's other special interests that just come and go. Try not to worry too much. As other people are saying, it's natural to lose interest in things you usually enjoy if you're down or depressed, it's just one part of the condition. If the special interest is meant to return (ie, if it resides somewhere deep in your persona potentially holding your interest for life) then it will return. If not then you'll most likely find something else to be just as passionate about. But this is all medium to long term speculation. Focus on getting better first, one day at a time, otherwise just worrying about things like this might only add anxiety to depression.
Stay cool

I'm Kind of messing things up a bit but for the last month I've had really random special interests lasting for only a week or so. I get really anxious and feel really bad when one starts because I don't know where it will end. I've spent about a week on one, an old one which has came back and I feel my fear of losing it might be almost what is stopping me from pursing it. Three times in this week I've felt really down because the connection wasn't there and then I picked up something related and went back up again. Unfortunately today I've been up down all the time, I've wrote an email to my mum about what I feel but I don't want to send it because I don't like talking about being upset and I don't like upsetting other people. Is this the same idea as what was mentioned above? I don't know