Pursuing Your Special Interests

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After a long journey of attempting to follow the urgings of my family to as they say "think about something else" or "be interested in what others are interested in" I realized that following such advice makes me miserable. It caused suicidal ideation, many years on psychiatric medications, I found that the struggle of trying to be someone I am not is not worth it. My families reactions were so traumatic to the special interests of washing machine agitators and repeatedly watching my favorite movie Flight of the Navigator that when I grew up I could not remember being a child of around 5 years old. In fact, I was so traumatized I went mute in kindergarten. I only talked to my parents and brothers. Now, over 30 years later, I am seeing the value of my special interests. The spinning of the washing machine tub and agitator in a way reminds me of the spinning of the Milky Way galaxy. The movie Flight of the Navigator is full of fascinating ideas about space such as time travel, time dilation, telepathy, mind transfers, and star maps. At the age of 5 I can say I was captivated by the movie and already had a fascination with the deep questions about life. To be ripped away from that and being called "obsessed" was to me like taking a creature out of their natural habitat and put in an environment that was less than ideal. Now that I am an independent, confident adult, I am going back to who I was when I started this journey of life. Perhaps blogging or song writing. People have gone far on the power of autism!

Do you have a favourite make of washing machine?

Not particularly, I like the top loaders. Though I always enjoyed watching the front loader spin at my Grandmothers as a kid.

If you have good Rote memory
perhaps you could find work on a washing machine manufacturers help desk
if you are more a high functioning type, perhaps you could work out how
washing machines work and learn to design them your self
or if its just a hobby, perhaps you could collect them
or learn more about them, learn to make your own

Yikes! I'm very sorry to hear that your parents saw fit to suppress your interests. Were you diagnosed with autism as a child, and did your parents have the tragically mistaken idea that the way to deal with autism is by trying to suppress all autistic behaviors including special interests? Or did your parents just think you should only be interested in things other kids were interested in?

Either way, suppressing an autistic child's special interests -- the child's deepest sources of joy -- is a horrible thing to do, in my opinion. Hopefully more parents are more enlightened these days.

We call them twin tubs here. My mum used to put me and my brother into them when we had the Hoover twintub for a bath before she did the washing. The Hoover washed via a side on spinny thing which didn't protrude that far, so was ideal for bathing in. (The aater partly heated and the power turned off while we were in. The same water was then further heated for the clothes wash).
Tuesdays were washing days. Whites then went in first. The last wash was my dads overalls. She could get up to seven washes from the same water. Very economical on electricity and water.

Flight of the Navigator was another real favorite of mine too!! ! My mom got so tired of me rewatching movies that she would tape over the videos and pretend it was an accident (something she told me about later, as if it was funny to gaslight a kid). Luckily FOTN wasn't one of the ones that got taped over.

I eventually followed my own special interests related to science and nature into a career studying insects for a living. As I write this, I am sitting in a field station in the tropics measuring bee respiration. The data are looking good!

I'm sure our parents had good intentions in trying to get us to behave like everyone else, but in the end, I think we are just always ourselves. -and there is no shame in that.

I am fortunate that I have been able to pursue my special interests in a more active way. I enjoy taking tennis lessons as well as watching my favorite players and have a greater appreciation for what they do.

"Horrible"? Seriously please do not exaggerate

The high school dean had the nerve to tell me that "comparing children to their siblings is the worst thing you can do to a child"

Child Protective services does not say that

Shooting children with guns, is worse than, comparing them

Hyperbole

Likewise, Maslow's hierarchy needs

Sometimes, parents don't have time money energy or other resources to, pursue special interest

So what?

Some special interests $$$$$$

When I was 12 , I wanted karate. My precious lil "parents" refused

Held grudge

Now I am 36 and still obsessed over it


Sunk costs

Effort justification


But karate instructors are human and have felony conviction and psychiatric illness, just like everyone else

You don't know what is going to happen, inside the building

Anything could happen

Just like anything could happen outside of the building




Washing machines, sounds kind of autistic to me

It's refreshing to hear from those that went through the same experience as myself and was able to persevere. Knowing I am not alone gives me great comfort so thank you for sharing!