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Graelwyn
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20 Nov 2009, 11:43 am

zen_mistress wrote:
I think I am milder AS, and I can say that I have always felt the "need to read" when I am stressed.

Apparently when I was 3 for my birthday party my mother asked me to invite some little girls from my preschool. So I did. My mother ended up entertaining 5 little girls in the lounge, I spent a lot of the party alone in my room reading my books apparently... :) I dont know, perhaps I was given some new books and I found them more interesting than the girls and the party.

I dont think my interests were that narrow when I was a child, because I had some favourites to read about, novels being the top thing..... (I used to often read the same novels over and over).

But I also used to read anything I got my hands on, from encyclopaedias, gardening books, nursing journals, road map books, the phone directory even for a while, looking at all the different names and numbers and areas, flipping through my mothers novels and magazines (not really understanding what was happening though), so I was quite a generalist, but I used to read probably 5 times more than my peers, and learn about things that other kids my age would not have been interested in.

Strangely I have become more stressed and anxious as an adult and my interests have indeed narrowed... :?



I used to read, read, read also as a child. I remember taking the maximum books out of the library, and just constantly reading, including books of species of butterfly, bird and dog. I do think a lot of what my mother used to get me in terms of different toys tended to get left tried once, in favour of whatever most interested me at the time. My interests have narrowed more as I have become older, and I do generally only focus on a few things at any one time now, sometimes just one if it is a major, all consuming interest. I remember when I was in my Doctor Who phase, I would watch it every evening. It didn't matter I had watched that one twice already, and I would try and talk to my mother about it, and ask questions about it just so I could talk about it. And when I wasn't watching it, I was writing letters to the actors and reading about how it was made etc. I was terrible with that obsession, it was all there was in my world.



IMForeman
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20 Nov 2009, 12:32 pm

Graelwyn wrote:
zen_mistress wrote:
I think I am milder AS, and I can say that I have always felt the "need to read" when I am stressed.

Apparently when I was 3 for my birthday party my mother asked me to invite some little girls from my preschool. So I did. My mother ended up entertaining 5 little girls in the lounge, I spent a lot of the party alone in my room reading my books apparently... :) I dont know, perhaps I was given some new books and I found them more interesting than the girls and the party.

I dont think my interests were that narrow when I was a child, because I had some favourites to read about, novels being the top thing..... (I used to often read the same novels over and over).

But I also used to read anything I got my hands on, from encyclopaedias, gardening books, nursing journals, road map books, the phone directory even for a while, looking at all the different names and numbers and areas, flipping through my mothers novels and magazines (not really understanding what was happening though), so I was quite a generalist, but I used to read probably 5 times more than my peers, and learn about things that other kids my age would not have been interested in.

Strangely I have become more stressed and anxious as an adult and my interests have indeed narrowed... :?



I used to read, read, read also as a child. I remember taking the maximum books out of the library, and just constantly reading, including books of species of butterfly, bird and dog. I do think a lot of what my mother used to get me in terms of different toys tended to get left tried once, in favour of whatever most interested me at the time. My interests have narrowed more as I have become older, and I do generally only focus on a few things at any one time now, sometimes just one if it is a major, all consuming interest. I remember when I was in my Doctor Who phase, I would watch it every evening. It didn't matter I had watched that one twice already, and I would try and talk to my mother about it, and ask questions about it just so I could talk about it. And when I wasn't watching it, I was writing letters to the actors and reading about how it was made etc. I was terrible with that obsession, it was all there was in my world.


One of my special interests is Doctor Who too. You can tell from my screen name, I'm sure :D



Graelwyn
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20 Nov 2009, 3:41 pm

IMForeman wrote:
Graelwyn wrote:
zen_mistress wrote:
I think I am milder AS, and I can say that I have always felt the "need to read" when I am stressed.

Apparently when I was 3 for my birthday party my mother asked me to invite some little girls from my preschool. So I did. My mother ended up entertaining 5 little girls in the lounge, I spent a lot of the party alone in my room reading my books apparently... :) I dont know, perhaps I was given some new books and I found them more interesting than the girls and the party.

I dont think my interests were that narrow when I was a child, because I had some favourites to read about, novels being the top thing..... (I used to often read the same novels over and over).

But I also used to read anything I got my hands on, from encyclopaedias, gardening books, nursing journals, road map books, the phone directory even for a while, looking at all the different names and numbers and areas, flipping through my mothers novels and magazines (not really understanding what was happening though), so I was quite a generalist, but I used to read probably 5 times more than my peers, and learn about things that other kids my age would not have been interested in.

Strangely I have become more stressed and anxious as an adult and my interests have indeed narrowed... :?



I used to read, read, read also as a child. I remember taking the maximum books out of the library, and just constantly reading, including books of species of butterfly, bird and dog. I do think a lot of what my mother used to get me in terms of different toys tended to get left tried once, in favour of whatever most interested me at the time. My interests have narrowed more as I have become older, and I do generally only focus on a few things at any one time now, sometimes just one if it is a major, all consuming interest. I remember when I was in my Doctor Who phase, I would watch it every evening. It didn't matter I had watched that one twice already, and I would try and talk to my mother about it, and ask questions about it just so I could talk about it. And when I wasn't watching it, I was writing letters to the actors and reading about how it was made etc. I was terrible with that obsession, it was all there was in my world.


One of my special interests is Doctor Who too. You can tell from my screen name, I'm sure :D


Yep. I could never get interested much in the new series though. For me, it was the first 7 Doctors and anyone after that just didn't seem to hit the same note. At one stage, I had a collection of around 160 doctor Who Videos as well as annuals, jigsaws, autographs of the first 7 doctors, books, colouring books and my mother even had a woman do a special cross stitch pattern so I could cross stitch Tom Baker as the Doctor. I went to see collections, read fanzines, wrote endless lists of what I had in my collection, and sent a number of cross stitched cats to Tom Baker who I had met twice. He is very gregarious and eccentric in real life. That was one of my most intense obsessions, I think, and in a way it saved my life as I had had some sort of a psychotic breakdown and rediscovered doctor who when I came out of hospital... I gradually improved once I had that intense focus.



sartresue
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20 Nov 2009, 4:22 pm

Strait and narrow topic

One of my interests has portals and I wander through them to other interests. I have basically run out of books in my city which deal with my special interest. Thankfully we have the internet!!


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IMForeman
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20 Nov 2009, 4:46 pm

Graelwyn wrote:
Yep. I could never get interested much in the new series though. For me, it was the first 7 Doctors and anyone after that just didn't seem to hit the same note. At one stage, I had a collection of around 160 doctor Who Videos as well as annuals, jigsaws, autographs of the first 7 doctors, books, colouring books and my mother even had a woman do a special cross stitch pattern so I could cross stitch Tom Baker as the Doctor. I went to see collections, read fanzines, wrote endless lists of what I had in my collection, and sent a number of cross stitched cats to Tom Baker who I had met twice. He is very gregarious and eccentric in real life. That was one of my most intense obsessions, I think, and in a way it saved my life as I had had some sort of a psychotic breakdown and rediscovered doctor who when I came out of hospital... I gradually improved once I had that intense focus.


Oh that's really interesting. I can identify with you and your interest. I had the big collection of video tapes (now DVDs) and books too. I have Colin and Tom's autographs hanging on my wall myself, though I haven't as yet met them. I can only imagine Tom is Tom all the time lol. You can't fake that!

I also collect the Big Finish CDs.



elderwanda
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20 Nov 2009, 5:00 pm

sartresue wrote:
Strait and narrow topic

One of my interests has portals and I wander through them to other interests. I have basically run out of books in my city which deal with my special interest. Thankfully we have the internet!!


I like the way you put this. It's a visual image that works well to describe my own experience with one of my special interests, which is the work of a particular actor. That interest has led me to watch movies that I otherwise would never have known about, and then I sometimes become interested in the work of another actor in those movies, or in a subject matter in those movies. It is the overall "special interest" that has opened those portals for me, and allowed be to branch out and explore areas that I wouldn't have even noticed before.



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26 May 2020, 8:13 am

I don't quite get the difference between special and narrow?I love to read especially when meltdown or upset this is my alone time.



ToughDiamond
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26 May 2020, 9:24 am

^
Possibly the term "special" is used rather loosely. One definition of "special" is "regarded with particular affection," which may be what whoever coined the term as a description of our trait was driving at. Also we have the term "specialist" - it's quite common for Aspies to become specialists in their interests.

"Narrow" seems easier to understand as a description of us, as many of us cone down onto a narrow of a subject and study it in great depth. A similar word that's often used about it is "restricted," which I guess refers to the way we can be somewhat disinterested in all else but the small range of things that happen to have captured our imagination. I've described my interests as not being all that restricted, but I'm aware of an awful lot of subjects that I have no interest in, especially if I haven't stumbled onto them myself or if it doesn't readily map onto the subjects I've already taken an interest in.

Here's a few links - they don't directly address your question, and I don't agree with everything they say, but maybe they give some depth to the matter. I don't think it's a question that has a brief, definitive, satisfying answer.
https://www.medbridgeeducation.com/blog ... strengths/
https://www.quora.com/Does-every-autist ... t?share=1#
https://www.quora.com/For-people-with-A ... ne?share=1



sport
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26 May 2020, 11:37 am

Thanks for the links.