Your special interests - a few questions

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I've been thinking lately about what constitutes an Aspie special interest / obsession and what doesn't. Mainly because the shrink that diagnosed me said mine is a hobby and not an Aspie obsession (though I don't agree with him). Please answer the following questions to help me understand:

1. Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s?
2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?
3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average?
4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?
5. What does your special interest enrich in you?
6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?

Thanks in advance to everyone who shares!!

1. Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s?
Get my PhD Someday

2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?
Yes, I use them for work

3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average?
50+ Hours

4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?
I help people with whatever technical/medical problems they have. I also like to play music for people

5. What does your special interest enrich in you?
Every AS person has a set of skills/interests which makes them deeper than a puddle.

6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?
I think all of us *need* our special interests to define ourselves.

I have two main interests which I think are both aspie obsessions. I'll answer for one in bold and the other in italics. The bolded one is obviously an AS obsession IMO, but most people probably wouldn't think the other one is.

Educational and career related goals, yes - I'm in the middle of a degree
No


Reading and collecting memorabilia
Taking photos of and spending time with


Reading daily (and quite a lot), lectures/seminars when at university
Quite a lot, it's hard to judge


Not really, except the university when I get high marks
Don't think so


It's just an interest I've had as long as I can remember. I enjoy it
Makes me feel better


Collections, reading, having some kind of intellectual goal I can work towards
Companionship

My first obsession (in bold) is history - predominantly modern military history, especially WW2
The second (in italics) is my cat

My cat isn't the typical aspie obsession as it's not intellectual and I don't spend hours reading about her or anythign like that. But I would say whether an interest is an obsession or not depends more on the way you feel about it yourself, not the exact nature of how you pursue it. I mean I feel obsessive about my cat (not in a weird way, I should point out ) and can talk about her obsessively. I recognise that obsessive "drive" here that I get when I'm working on my history stuff. So I don't think you an say something isn't an AS obsession just because you don't have a particular goal in mind or you don't research it as such. It's more about HOW you obsess, rather than what you do while you obsess.

1. Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s?

The intoxication of just doing it and thinking about it.
Some critical acclaim. (this may or may not happen.)

2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?

I donate work to charity auctions.

3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average?

70 hours weekly doing or thinking about it

4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?

Yes. it engages people.

5. What does your special interest enrich in you?

every part of me. i fuse together and find peace.

6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?

the need to live a life that has meaning.

No.



Not usually, unless I actually manage to finish a knitting project.



Once an interest takes hold, I'll spend most of the time that I'm not doing other things that are absolutely necessary like some housework, running household errands or going to work or school on it. (And I've been known to pursue my interests over the internet from work. It's like I just can't resist, sometimes. )



Occasionally, someone gets a nice knitted present. Also, others who read my stories get some enjoyment out of the results, or at least they say they do. Does that count? And then there's Half Price Books and Amazon, of course, not to mention the local craft shops and yarn suppliers.



They bring me pleasure.

Edit: When they're not irritating the bejezus out of me.



Um, maybe intellectual stimulation or as a creative outlet.

Regards,

Patricia

Yes
Yes
Depends on how motivated I am.
Yes
I learn many new things.

1. Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s?
Yes, I'm trying to make it to the Conservatory. (I started taking music lessons as an adult)

2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?
Yes

3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average?
Hard to say, it depends on many external things.

4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?
No

5. What does your special interest enrich in you?
I always wanted to learn to play an instrument, but never could. Now I can.

6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?
The need to learn new things.

Greentea, you ask stupid questions, but I'll answer anyway.

Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s?

Yes. I want to discover and have a list of ALL the places in Jerusalem where I personally can hang and feel like in a spiritual, uplifting refuge.

2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?

Yes. I love helping people tour and get to know the lovely, hidden gems of J'lem better.

3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average?

Research, planning, touring, documenting, organizing, traveling, resting...about an average of 2-3 hours a day.

4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?

Yes, see answer to question 2.

5. What does your special interest enrich in you?

Organizing skills, physical fitness, mental wellbeing, learning, awareness of surroundings, knowledge of humanity.

6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?

Probably a combined need for pleasure, calm and a sense of achievement.

I currently do not have a special interest anymore, but I can answer the questions for my old interests... Not one specific interest, but all of them in general, because the way I went about pursuing those interests/obsessions was usually same.

1. Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s?

Yes. My special interests were always joined to the desire of amassing a comprehensive knowledge.

2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?

Not always. Quite often, it was limited to reading about my interests, and avoiding putting anything to practice.

3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average?

I used to spend hours, approximately 4 or 5 on schooldays, and probably about 8 on weekends, which would make 40 hours a week.

4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?

No, no one ever did. It was purely aimed at myself.

5. What does your special interest enrich in you?

My special interests gave me practice in organising my world and my environment and making sense of it.

6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?

Pursuing my interests primarily gave me comfort and were a counter to any irritations I might experience during the day; secondarily, they made me feel better because they gave me the feeling I was a semi-expert on them.

All answers so far are very interesting and enlightening to me!

I haven't been diagnosed (yet... will go in for a..whatsitcalled 10th of august *nervous*)

But here you go:


1. Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s?
It depends on what my most intense interest is at that moment. E.g. with the food one, I did end up doing a pastry course (which flopped 'cause the people there lacked brains), and with most of my interests I try to attach a career or something to it to look forward to, but it hardly becomes reality (as you can't switch a course the moment your interest in another subject gets deeper than the previous).


2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?
Again depends on what it is. With food, I'd take up any chance to bake something and so I'd often make cakes when my mum had a ladies' tea party or something. When I'm obsessed with gaming I don't.

3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average?
I'll probably actively engage in the interest anywhere between 2-6 hours a day, and any time not spent engaging in it, is spent thinking about it (which gives me a lot of sleepless nights) or looking up information.

4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?
Again, it depends. But, for example, if I'd give a cake to someone, they might appreciate it.

5. What does your special interest enrich in you?
It makes me happy. Without it, I'm pretty much nothing.
I now possess skills I never thought I'd have and I have a more open mind thanks to some interests.

6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?
The ability to stay alive, to deal with life's less fun sides. It's a little door to my own world, away from anything that disrupts the calm in me.
And it gives me something to latch onto. When all else falls to pieces, I'll still have my interests. No one can take that away.

1. Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s?

I am not a goal oriented person. I believe my life is about fun and enjoyment and self-expression but I dont know if these are seen as goals? I am not driven towards achieving something concrete with them, and my poor attention span means I like constant change.

2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?

I think I should but I just dont know how to translate them to the ordinary world. Maybe I will one day figure out how to do this.


3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average?

Hours and hours! Though I try and stop myself because many of my interests have a visual aspect and I am supposed to be getting vision therapy. I have been trying lately to spend more time of the interests that have an audial aspect, and spend more time exercising.

4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?

I would have to say no to that.

5. What does your special interest enrich in you?

Just a sense of interest, passion, I guess I could say that my interests make me feel alive.


6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?

I think there is something very repetitive about them and that they are sort of part of an anxiety response. Often if I feel really bored and have nothing to do or nowhere to go, the interests can fill up this time. Sometimes if I am in pain of any sort they are the first place I go to. Though they can end up causing me even more pain, sometimes my reading takes its toll on me physically.

There's no overall goal that I'm aware of.




Not really.




Around 85.




Yes. I share knowledge gained from it, and people sometimes seek information from me.




It gives meaning to existence.




The need to learn.

OK, I'll answer this for all my special interests, which are: Italy, countries in general (Moldova included in this instead of separately because the answers will probably be similar), 20th history, and virology.

1. Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s?
Italy: Yes, I want to live in Italy when I'm older. And I'm learning to speak Italian.
Countries: I'm trying to learn the locations and capital cities of all the countries on earth (I already know all of Europe).
20th century: Just to learn loads.
Virology: To be a virologist when I grow up.

2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?
Italy: Well, I knew what they were saying when they spoke Italian in 'Angels and Demons', if that counts.
Countries/20th century: I tend to know more than they teach us at school, so I consequently get better grades in geography and history.
Virology: Will hopefully be my job when I'm older.

3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average?
All: Any spare time I have. Which interest at which time depends on what mood I'm in.

4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?
All: When my friends need help with homework or can't remember a fact related to one of my interests, I can tell them.

5. What does your special interest enrich in you?
All: Knowledge.

6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?
All: Again, knowledge.

I've been thinking lately about what constitutes an Aspie special interest / obsession and what doesn't. Mainly because the shrink that diagnosed me said mine is a hobby and not an Aspie obsession (though I don't agree with him). Please answer the following questions to help me understand:

1. Is there a goal, something you want to achieve in relation to your special interest/s? -Entertaiment ,also i try to make it in top 100 list
2. Do you put your special interest/s to practical use?yes
3. How long do you spend engaging in your special interest/s on a weekly average? to tell truth all i can afford
4. Does someone benefit from your special interest/s apart from yourself?no
5. What does your special interest enrich in you?
6. What need do you think your special interest/s satisfy in you, if any?entertaiment/competition

Thanks in advance to everyone who shares!!
my gaming is only for myself i think i seek entertaiment because i life kinda boring life with little chances