Do you have to have a SPECIAL interest?

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To have Aspergers... I mean, how special or intense does it have to be?

I'm waiting to be diagnosed, but I noticed that they always look for whether the person has a special interest and I'm not sure my interests are intense enough to be considered special. I really like sitcoms, scriptwriting, aeroplanes, certain musicians, etc, but I don't pursue them every minute of the day. I'm finding it hard to recognise whether my interests are at that 'special interest' level.

Can anyone elaborate/give examples/definitions? Are there people with AS that don't have special interests as such?

Not everyone with autism or AS has a special interest, although I think that's one of the criteria. There are many criteria for diagnosis and not every one of them - but a certain number of them - have to be met.

Mine is video games and consoles. That's pretty much where all my money goes after bills. Lots of impulse spends on video games

I don't think it's required though. Special interest perhaps, but some people might get obsessed.

Well, "restricted and repetitive interests of abnormal intensity and focus" fall under cluster B of the DSM-V diagnostic criteria, it's one of five symptoms in that cluster, and you only need to have two from it, however, it's extremely rare for an aspie not to have a special interest. There have been studies done that show that 90-100% of aspies have some type of special interest or another, so, from a diagnostic point of view, you can have autism without having a special interest, but from a "real world" point of view, it's extremely rare.

As an example of an aspie special interest, I'm currently obsessed by, among other things, dinosaurs. I spend ages watching documentaries and youtube videos about them, and catalogue all the information away in my brain to bring up in conversation. If someone does mention them, I'll take it and run with it, and can go on for ages, so excited that I get to share my knowledge with other people that I don't recognise when they have stopped listening. I have bookshelves that have individual shelves designated to particular interests, so along with my overcrowded Peanuts, elephants and Star Trek shelves, I have shelves overflowing with dinosaur figurines, books, movies, anything I could get my hands on, and my room is full of dinosaur stuffed animals that I've collected from different places. My dad got year-long passes to the Morrisson rock formations where they have trails that skirt cliffs full of fossilized dinosaur footprints. In comparison to most museums, it's extremely small, and I've already seen everything there more than once, but I get excited every time I go, just because I get to be that close to the dinosaurs. In a brief nutshell, that's basically what an aspie special interest is like.

It's common to have a special interest but not required per the DSM V:

B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities as
manifested by at least two of the following:
1. Stereotyped or repetitive speech, motor movements, or use of objects
2. Excessive adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal
behavior, or excessive resistance to change
3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus
4. Hyper-or hypo-reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects
of environment;

Ok, welllllll... I have things I do that I LOVE, and there are certain feilds that I really enjoy researching.
For example...
I will discover some sort of movie or peice of media that i enjoy.
I watch it, but it's not enough, I go online to research more about it.
I find a very limited supply of information, but that's STILL not enough, I REALLY want to know more about this subject.
I look up videos, articles, anything about the CREATION of this peice of media, just to learn more about it, but that's STILL not enough.
In many cases I end up researching the CREATORS of the media just to learn more about THEM, so I can learn more about what that peice of media is to THEM, therefore revealing MORE about the media.

It's like being literally "obsessed" about something that may or may not be important. You don't have to say you love it, you just have to REALLY crave it, even when you've milked it dry of information.
It's based more on the craving then how much you actually involve yourself in something. Many aspergians/austistics have very structured routines which don't allow them to indulge in obsession in such a way, therefore the desire of something would persist for a while, but starve and die.

It could be a hobby, a movie, sport, utility, science thing, idea, action, literally anything under the sun. {edit: it can be well beyond the sun.]

My primary obsessions are Art, Music, and Parkour.
My mini obsessions are Doctor Who, Screenwriting, Storyboarding, Comics, Movie making, etc...

To have prototypical AS, yeah (its intensity should be to a disabling amount, i.e., that's all you can do/think about for much of the day).

But you don't need to have that to have an ASD.

It could be that my interests are the norm to me, but perhaps looked at by someone else, could be considered quite intense.

I have just remembered about when I was employed. I'd spend half the day, every five minutes or so, checking, reading and posting in forums dedicated to Paul McCartney (an interest of mine). Sometimes I'd lose track of what I was actually doing at work and get carried away on this forum. Is this the level of intensity that could make it a special interest?

Your special interest doesn't have to last for a very long time, you could move between them.

For example I get really sucked into my special interest of t.A.T.u., then I completely forget about it.

My special interest is my research, and I pursue it around the clock, and I wish I didn't have to sleep so I could have more time to pursue it.

I've had many special interests over the years that come and go. Some last for months, others last for years. Sometimes they can coexist. But what they all have in common is I totally fixate on the subject, can I spend almost all of my time either thinking or doing the activity. A couple of months ago I became completely fixated on pens. I'm not talking about collecting them, I mean making them. All I can do all day long is think about pens or make them. Is a disabling? Yes, it is. I just started posting on wrong planet again to try to get my mind off pens a little bit. I'm not saying that the activity is nonproductive, because it's a very good skill to have an even possibly a profession. But my level of fixation prevents me from doing other tasks that I need to do to be an independent adult. Aside from that I spend money that I cannot afford to spend on materials to make my pens. Here here's a recent pen that I made.

[img][800:768]http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo20/ChupacabraRAWR/P3130383_zps36d32d6f.jpg[/img]

Hey! New to this site/knowing myself to [possibly] have Asperger's~...

So my main special interest is my writing of my book (so forth called the Book). I can manage to avoid being consumed by it for long stretches (though every little thing in life can make me think of it and write notes– in every class, there are usually 2-5 notes at the top of the page that can somehow relate to the Book... usually unique quotes/specific details/historical facts...)
The Book itself is also characterized as Aspergerish, I would say– reading Nabokov instilled in me a love for alliteration (and an annoying penchant for having them come naturally, and wanting to use as many as possible), and tons of intricate wordplay and puns and allusions– so much that I'll do 10-15 minutes of research into a single word's etymology (something I doubt any other reader, aspie or not, would be able to pick up on)
However, if I start writing, and can "get going" for that "session," or build up a few days worth of writing momentum, I can easily become consumed by it, to the extent that I'm ignoring my [poor] girlfriend and all other life just to dive into the Book, relax, and focus entirely on it.

My question, though, is if anyone else is consumed by something I'll call "serial manias/interests." For instance, one week I was utterly possessed by the desire to learn an instrument, and decided upon piano. I proceeded to purchase a $60 electronic keyboard online.
In the end, however, by the time it arrived in the mail the mania was gone, and I didn't play it once. At the time though, I was convinced it would become a long passion, even though I knew of my proclivity to have these "manias." This has happened plenty of other times, usually around arts/crafts, where I'll get obsessed with a specific craft, buy some somewhat expensive supplies, and then only use them on the one project...

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Interests that aren't stuck with them forever, but instead plagued by serial but still intense and consuming interests? Would this type of thing qualify for a Aspie diagnosis, as a type of "special interest"?

EDIT:
*Sorry for not reading all the previous replies! Seems like it is a thing. Anyone want to elaborate though?