Fighting your special interests (you vs. your interests)

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Interests can be great. But if they begin consuming too much time, they can actually ruin one's everyday life and one's life in the long term.

There is this dilemma between doing what you should be doing to better your situation vs. doing what you feel most like doing (typically a special interest or an activity related to some of them).

How do you successfully go about doing what you should be doing instead of what you would prefer to be doing?

The honest answer is I have not been successful in fighting my special interests.

Cinema in one of mine rather then feeling guilty and odd about it I just embrace it now.

Going to a Cinema I have to find out how many screens it has how big the screens are what sound system.

I could go on I think you get the idea.

Well, that's a hard one. If I had my way, I would just be getting TGM buses all day every day (TGM buses are my special interest), but I've got to go to work, which is local, and nobody on this planet understands me when I say ''I wish I had a job where I have to get a TGM bus to''. I know they have a point of not understanding that but to me getting these buses is something that makes me happy.

So going to work is what I SHOULD do.
Getting the buses in what I PREFER to do.

I suppose most people would prefer to do things they enjoy rather than things they should (have to) do.


TGM is the name of my favourite bus company, by the way.

I believe you are right. There just seems to be a big variation in how good people are at doing the things they should be doing.

Interests consuming too much time is the real big issue for AS-people, I think.

I am trying to turn one of my special interests into a profession.

I know so much about mine that I'm sure that knowledge is valuable and one day if it's my job then I can do it as much as I want.

(Or maybe that's just my excuse to be obsessive without guilt! I hope not though.)

I just don't feel comfortable if I don't spend a certain amount of time on my interests, and then I can't be able to do other things.

Most of the things I should be doing (obtaining food aside) are related to my special interest.
Problem solved.
Everything else, I build into my routine.

But it's not even *preferring* to do something. With my special interests, I can't NOT do them. It's like my brain just doesn't even know how to not make everything about them.

Most of the time, its like I try to stop thinking about my special interest so that I can do homework, but if I'm not thinking about my special interest I just can't focus on the homework, no matter how much adderall I'm on. And I end up just feeling trapped. So i figure I'll just work on my special interest because then at least I'm being useful in some way.

If I were to fight my special interests, I wouldn't be celebrating my autism and I'd also be very miserable.

cant fight it XD i would like to know

Why fight it if it's something you like?

The only way I do it is to make sure what I should be doing is my special interest. Luckily my special interest became computer programming and I was able to work in that field. Lately it has become writing and so I just tell myself that writing is what I should be doing.

If it steals too much of your time...there are some things you have to do to be happy...like taking care of yourself. It's not healthy if you only do things you like all the time, but not things that are beneficial to your life.

I got in trouble at my job for doing my special interest at work. It's hard to make a living with what I'm interested in.

Lots of different ways.

Wearing a watch that beeps every hour so I know how much time has passed, using a day timer agenda type schedule book to keep track of things I need/want to get done, making healthier habits some of my special interests so I don't have to force myself to spend time on them, rewarding myself with time to do what I really enjoy after getting some stuff done that I don't want to do, and having a "why," or two or three when it comes to bigger goals I want to achieve. Having a reason bigger than myself to accomplish something helps keep me on track with working towards it & avoiding sinking too too much time into a special interest that doesn't serve me in accomplishing what I want to.

I'm not aways successful with everything, as I do still tend to waste too much time online especially, but whatever - I'm a work in progress & always will be. As long as I keep moving forward and getting better at the things I need to and want to, it's all good.

My special interest is anime. I have the urge to watch it all the time, but I limit myself to 2 - 5 episodes per day because I live with some close-knit family members and I would feel bad if I didn't spend a lot of time with them.

My special interests ARE me.