The "high" from your special interest...

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My big special interest is obviously birds... There is this one bird I considered a "nemesis bird" (a not so rare species that for some reason you can't quite find) in this case the Black-billed Cuckoo. I go outside today and it's the first thing I hear... I also detected it's relative the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and a spectacular view of a Pileated Woodpecker!

Anyway I feel like I'm high just because of that... Talking to people about it, showing them what it looks and sounds like... Looking at my bird apps for the first time in months, Etc...

People see me as strange reacting like that over a bird but it feels great...

Special interests are a gift, agree with me?

Some special interests though do raise eyebrows even mine... I met one possible fellow aspie recently (not diagnosed) but he has a strong interest in anything death... He has a bachelor's in mortuary science.... Used to work in a funeral home... Gets real excited and hand flaps when he gets anywhere near funeral homes or cemeteries...

We have very similar personalities too... My relatives are trying to put us together lol!! !

My special interests are schools and games. The answer is YES they bring me an incredible high! I work as a para at a school with some very amazing kids and for fun, I invented a card game and started my own company. I'm also working on a dice game now. I haven't sold any yet but I'm going to open a store on weekends inside a nice flea market with a lot of foot traffic. It is nice to play one of my games and talk about the specific rules and mechanics of every game as they are always slightly different in some way. My family fully supports me, but they get nearly as excited as I do. They just say that's good, we're happy for you. Why is that? Because no one can get as excited about our special interests as us, the people with the interests!

I definitely feel this way sometimes. Thanks, feel-good brain chemicals!

Oh yeah they are. The way we can be passionate about something is so elevating.
You feel like you don't need anything else anymore. Never.
It’s ecstasy.


I wish I was as passionate about something as I was before. Mine faded away unfortunately.

I've had a variety of different ones at times, but for me, the granddaddy of all my special interests is music...listening to it, playing it, contemplating it, getting lost in it...that's it for me right there.

I dunno. Once it gets to the clinical level, it can be pretty disruptive. And it doesn't help with socializing. I didn't understand how annoying other people's special interests could be until I met a narcissist who would only talk about his hobbies. Now I get why my family limited me to one fact about my SI a day - and I don't blame them. As long as you're careful not to overwhelm the other person with information or force them onto a subject that can't engage them, it's fine. Otherwise, I use writing about my interests as an outlet. I still waste a lot of time on them, but being hyperfocused is a really nice feeling. I just wish it didn't mess with executive functioning so much.

I feel the same way with my main special interest. Sometimes I get so excited from talking about it I'll start running around the house (or wherever I am) like crazy. This feeling generally only lasts a few minutes, but it sometimes continues for quite a while. Even if someone just mentions it I'll go bonkers, haha! I remember several months ago my pastor mentioned my special interest in the middle of his sermon and I shouted,"YES!! !" I don't think he heard me, though, which is probably a good thing. If I find new information about it, I'll feel even crazier, sometimes for days.

My special interests are often all that keeps me going, I get very depressed during any time between interests. Can’t say they’re entirely good things, though, in my case. I love anything supernatural/paranormal/unnatural, with a particular emphasis on body horror - not always the best topic to bring up

On occasion I even get special interests I don’t even like, for example I feel like I have to know everything there is to know about a particular movie I have never seen and never want to see, or I feel the need to listen to songs by a particular band, even if I don’t actually like them, and can even narrow down to one song I don’t like. And I’ll have no clue why my brain decided to fixate on the thing in question. Fortunately this kind doesn’t usually last for more than a week or so. I do find it very intriguing that this happens and really wonder why. I try not to mention this kind of obsession around anyone who doesn’t know about my autism because they will not understand that even though I’m fixated on it, I really wish I wasn’t, but can’t seem to do anything about it.

I have to really fight myself to control my reactions to any particular interest I have (even the ones I don’t actually like get my attention). Can’t stop my left hand from flapping a bit at first because that really seems like a reflex, but I have to force myself not to do things like butt into other people’s conversations because one of my special interests came up (something I would never do if it weren’t for the influence of obsession, I have extreme social phobia and also selective mutism, but mention one of my “trigger topics” (“trigger” being a good thing, to me, in this case) and suddenly all that goes completely out the window and I start going on and on and on, very enthusiastically, if I don’t make a conscious effort to restrain myself.).

I can get a high, but more often I find my interest very calming. I can get a real sense of peace.