Not having a special interest

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I'm currently between special interests. My obsession with Finnish history gradually fizzled out, and now I haven't had a special interest in a few weeks. This is usually how it is for me. So I'm curious: Does anyone else have gaps between obsessions? Or do you transition right from one to another?

Yes, I do.
I also have obsessions that last for very short periods of time.

I used to be a chemistry freak. That died out for about a year. Then I got obsessed with music.

me too

I typically transition right from one to the other, but all of my obsessions/special interests are relatively embedded within my internal world. I might switch from one to the other, but I never completely reject any of them. I usually put one aside while I focus on another, and I may return to the one I formerly had put aside. New obsessions/special interests may come, but none will ever leave me completely. I still have the same special interest (video-games) since I was 6 years old, but I don't play video-games as much anymore since I am in college and have more important things to worry about. However, I will not ever give up liking video-games or dissociating myself from them. Another instance is my physics obsession. When I was a junior in high school I took a physics course and became obsessed with physics. After that school year new obsessions and special interests arrived, and I focused on them and put physics aside. Then came freshman year of college and my physics obsession returned, albeit enough to cause me to do a physics minor in college.

I do not change dedicated interests (special interests) often. For 8 or so years I collected pc parts, rebuilt and refurbished computers which is not highly technical. I woke up, went to sleep and often dreamed of assembling computers. In the past 10 years my interest has been disability and advocacy. Sometimes in this interest but not often I get to a point intellectually for a few hours rarely or at the most a day perhaps once a year I am trying to figure out what to do next. Although recently I am frustrated with trying to find something to challenging in my interest so I just invent a new challenge to accomplish and usually do. I cannot seem to give up figuring things out and always find a solution.

I usually start another interest while obsessed with some other interest and sort of shift focus to the new one. Or the new one is short lived and I go back to one of my previous special interests. I have about six special interests that I keep going back to.

Perhaps this would be relevant to me also. My previous interest was quite narrow minded whereas now it entails much greater complexity. All of the sub-interest are related with a core fixation on human behavior.

I am currently between special interest too. I find it a bit unsettling to be without an obsession as I can slip into depression very easy. I think I am going to start an electronics project and that will give my brain something to "chew" on. I am trying to direct myself to a special interest that wont cost alot of money.

In my case, it's mixed, sometimes they last a short time, like my short term interest in scamming people that e-mail scam (thankfully I didn't actually try to do it) but mainly my interests last a long time. Birds is my longest running interests, followed by Sonic...

Abstract Logic, is that a Chaos Emerald?

It happens to me, as well. Usually there is some barrier that presents itself, but often times, it is because I just get super bored with it. Sometimes I will pick them back up, but at others, when I'm done, I'm just done.

The only times I don't really have an interest my depression is at its worst. I do not love those times.

I have several core interests that I stick to, and most of my other interests are related to that. Or related to defining aspects of my life.

My interests can sometimes last for very short periods before I switch to a new interest. Like Verdandi though, when I get depressed sometimes I can go without focusing on any interests at all for a short period.

I normally have several at once and for a long time. I will shift focus more onto one, at the moment psychology but will still think about the other one. I can also get side tracked by a variety of new information I come across and I may spend days thinking it through before returning to the current one.

It varies for me. Sometimes I'm able to transition from one obsession to another quickly and easily. But more often than not, there is a period of down-time between one obsession and the next, and it feels like torture for me since I am an artistic person and I derive everything I create from my obsessions. The worst was when I went about a year and a half of not having an obsession, or more accurately, of being stuck on a burned-out obsession and having a terribly difficult time finding a replacement for it. That was between mid 2008 to early 2010.

Are people still lablel aspie if they have a special interest but purely use that interest as an escape from their problems ?