Special Interest Out of Control

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Hi all,

I was in a meeting tonight and caught myself thinking about my current special interest. I mean, I wasn't totally absorbed in it. I was still (somewhat) paying attention to the meeting but I noticed I was aware of it on some level. I'd never thought about it before but in hindsight, I realised I'm actually thinking about it quite a lot of the time. I know I spend a lot of time at work researching it on the Internet (when I should be working) but I didn't realise how much of my time I spent thinking about it. I knew I devoted most of my free time to it but I'd never actually thought about how much of my time it really takes up.
It's almost like it's on my mind 24 hours a day. It's like it becomes my life.

I guess this kind of relates to why I like spending my time alone and why I hate being interrupted when I'm reading about my hobby. It also ties in with how I can hyperfocus on my interest for many hours on end if I'm not disturbed!

I remember when I was into TCP/IP, I was into it so heavily, I actually used to dream about it quite a lot.

Can anybody else relate to this? Do your hobbies/interests take up this much of your time (or am I just a freak )?

lol. You are FAR from being alone in this.

My special interests take over every aspect of my life. During work, I am thinking about them (and looking them up online). When interacting with others, I talk about them. If given the opportunity, I would do nothing but study my special interests at length, non stop, until I knew absolutely everything there was to know about said interest. And then I would review that information. There isn't a single moment of "free time" that I don't spend on my special interests. I get quite upset when I am disturbed while focusing on my special interests. Even when focusing on other things, I speculate about how my special interests tie into them.

This is (as far as I can tell) fairly normal

I have gotten in trouble for sneaking items related to my interest to work and surreptitiously knitting and searching for lace patterns online at my desk. I still have my "suicide note" from the day that I got called in to my supervisor's office. I wouldn't worry too much about your mind wandering at a meeting.

yeah its definitely something I can relate to, in fact I posted on here a while ago about how I could reduce my special interest because of how much it was taking over.

Let's stop feeling guilty about our special interests and just do them.
At work, it certainly takes a good amount of happy "self-talk" to get through the assignments we all have to do.
I have a meeting today for 1 1/4 hours, and you're darned right I'm going to be in my happy place exploring my happy places, while my eyes look at people's mouths as they are talking.
Let's just try to get through life, people, and not to feel guilty about it.
Most of us are smart enough to fake it anyway.

Oh yeah. You're right. You mentioned nothing about guilt. I'm sorry.

ToM issue

Yeah, you are NOT alone. That's my favorite Aspie characteristic. When I was actively writing a piece of music last year, I'd be in meetings and would be figuring out the next few bars and some counterpoint.

It's fun isn't it?

My special interests are one of the things that make me happy. I have a special interest with a particular bus that I get and most of the drivers that run the service, and I just absolutely love getting this bus. Not only that, I also write stories about them too, but actually getting on the bus feeds my pleasurable special interest more. This is why I would love to get a job where I have to get on this particular bus to get to. It might motivate me more to get out of bed and go to work, without having to force myself to go to work feeling all depressed like there is something missing. I have even given up working on week-ends because having week-ends to myself to pursue my special interests does honestly mean a lot to me. I know it sounds pathetic I KNOW, but....yeah....it sucks.

I do want to be a bus-driver myself, but I am still looking into that, as it is a decision I will have to make sure I would want to make. That's another reason why I want to get the bus more, so that I can sort of have a slight view on the life as a bus-driver and different things they have to face and so on. It's not always easy just to up and do something, but by putting my mind to it, I think I can achieve this goal in a few years, that's if I don't suddenly lose this special interest and want to do something else. I am very indecisive too, so I do need to think carefully on what decisions I'm going to make.

try having playing video games as specielt interest haha.

at least as a kid days seemed to last longer, or maybe its just because there is other stuff that needs to be done as adult. time flies. it does normally but video games, its like 8 hours gone in a blink.

My hobbies dominate my existence, except when I am depressed, then I just become obsessed over what I am depressed about until I can resolve the problem so i don't have to feel depressed anymore.