Question about the special interests part in the DSM IV

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Could someone please explain to me what exactly a special interest is? I don't get that in the DSM IV, I first thought it was a language-related problem because English is not my native language, but I don't get it in German either. For example what is a "stereotyped" interest? And doesn't it lie in the nature of all interests to be in some way restricted? And what is meant here by "intensity" and "focus"? Intensity I think I still get, if it means that one pursues that interest like ten hours in a row or something and still doesn't get tired of it, but what does "abnormal in focus" mean? And what if let's say my interests were math and reading, but I never spent doing math ten hours or reading ten hours, but instead spent the day like doing math two hours, reading one hour, doing math half an hour, reading 2 hours and so on, and doing nothing else, would that still count as special interests then?

not quite sure myself! i always just figured i had hobbies.... ....

I viewed it much as sedaka. I just considered them my hobbies. I thought EVERYONE with a modicum of intelligence wanted to do SOMETHING to pass the time, and that was your hobby!

Oh well.

stereotyped basically means that it appears so common that people believe it is true of the group.

Restricted means there aren't many interests, at least at once..

Focus means they can spend time just on that.

Intensity speaks of the effort put into it.

And YEP, it WOULD be special interests. WOW, you had some good ones. My first ones were probably science, english, electronics. I wish I could have thrown in Math someplace.

BTW sedaka! You COULD give us more to grok!

Steve

Would Routemasters be considered as a special interest?

I found this some what confusing ,as well.Especially,when you factor in the "stereotype examples" that are usually included.I dont obsess about vacuume cleaners or railway travel.I love books and crafts and looking for rocks.I can spend hours engaged in these activities.I love to collect and talk about these things.But lots of people like these things.Lots of people are obsessive collectors.It's difficult to know where the cut off is on this issue.What makes it "abnormal"?

I think the "focus" they are talking about is similar to the definition of "addiction".If engaging in the activity causes problems completing daily tasks...ie.....getting to work,socializing,keeping appointments,
losing track of time,getting angry when interrupted from activity,spending more money then you can afford.

"Special interest" is just another way of saying Aspie obsessions, something we gather volumes of information about and want to talk and talk about. They're also called "perseverations." And, yes, the DSM criteria for any disorder is notoriously vague and sketchy. It's hard enough to define what is "abnormal," and when all they do is give these broad terms and the textbook case, many of us go undiagnosed...
-OddDuckNash99-

An example given by AS expert Tony Attwood was a man who was interested in trucks to the extent that on his journey to work he would count the different types- Volvo etc he saw and then compile a 'League Table' of truck types. I think it can really include any 'solitary interest' that the person enjoys and finds comforting- it could be Maths,English,History just as much as trucks,computers,dinosaurs.

No, that's NOT what stereotyped means in this context. It means, instead, repetitive, similar every time, etc. It has nothing to do with preconceived ideas about people AT ALL.

anbuend is right. The problem is there are two different definitions of stereotype that mean totally different things.
The second definition is "repeat without variation". I only recently figured this out when I heard someone pronounce "stereotypie" and it sounded totally different than I expected.

Im moderatly obsessed with music (I buy roughly 250 albums a year)
but I fail to see how taking an interest in something is a major problem

some of my hobbies have been:

when i was little, i would collect stuffed animals/figurines of sharks and cats. i had tons of them...

i also collected stickers for a while... glittery ones in particular

i would take all my favorite movies and draw out comic strips for the whole movie...

for a while, i was braiding yarn and making a yarnball... my yarnball got to be a little bigger than a basketball

i would use paper towel rolls/toilet paper rolls and create cieling-high marble tracks... this i would also do at my daycare and all the kids would play with them. i could make tracks with loops and even small jumps (gaps in the track)

i would research some of my favorite animals and write pages of any info i could find on that animal and draw them and bind them into one huge book. at one point, i drew all the birds in the audobon book and had a little blurb about all of them.

when i was about 10... i would write stories on my pc instead of going outside to play. sometimes they would be like 30 pgs!

i also taught myself a geat portion of spanish (ie-my american education in foriegn language did not improve much upon what i already knew) just by reading dictionaries and such when i was young. still to this day, i love reading things in different languages as well as listening music and i have educated myself to some degree in spanish, french, portuguese, italian, and romanian. at some point, when i have time, i would like to look into languages with a completely different structure.

there are a million other random things i did for shorter periods of time, but i can't think of them atm....

as i got older, my interests became more involved but also more general. i started doing martial arts as well as art... both of which i still devote as much time as possible to.

"interests" are kind of why i think i decided to go into science as well. i've alsways wanted to be a scientist just so i could spend my life getting paid to study something that interests me... my little corner of the universe. so that's kind of where i am... i'm currently a lab rat trying to finish my degree (this spring i hope) so that i can just work a 9-5 day job in some lab doing research on various projects and writing papers about it... if i'm lucky, i'll be able to do some scientific drawings for some of the papers too

I think it also has to do with if we realize when to stop talking about whatever our interest is. If we talk about something to an extreme when with other people and don't realize that other people might not be interested in it, it would be more from AS than someone who just likes the topic.

Uhura

I think I have an example:

I've always been obsessed with fictional stories/characters. I will spend 6+ hours reading/talking/analyzing a character, usually online, on a forum, or reading/watching the story over and over. The biggest problem I had with this type of obsession was in high school. I felt empty without somehow engaging myself in this, so I would print out stories, conversations, anything I could read about it. I would do this in class instead of listening to the teacher. I would walk in the hallways reading. Soon I began skipping class to go to the library to use the internet so I could engage in conversations about said 'interest'. It envaded my every thought. And when I can't do anything about it, I daydream about it.

I suppose this also ties in with my internet obsession. I'm on the internet WHENEVER I CAN BE. I wake up, first thing I do is go online, I come home from work, I go online. I have to eat dinner? Oh, well, I can eat while I'm online. Gotta put on makeup? Multi-task! Do it while online! You get the point.

It's not as bad as it was then, but even now, when I am at work I will use any spare time I have to use my computer and log into discussion forums about the particular thing I'm obsessing over. These 'addictions' seem to last years until it wears out and I'm on to another thing.

Lucky for me I keep these obsession pretty well hidden... I don't like other people knowing my business/what I enjoy. Besides, I suppose I'm embarassed at the ridiculousness of the addiction and what measures I will go to to get what I want. It's extremely embarassing to admit this.

My interest is more thinking about it than actively learning about it. I use it as an escape when the world is too much. I just put part of my mind on thinking of that. One of you mentioned embarrasement-hopefully you didn't mean here. Not necessary.

Uhura