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chickenhawked
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04 Apr 2013, 2:53 am

I have autism and I can't recall ever having fun. I am often satisfied, content, and happy, but I don't know if I have ever "had fun".

I'm asking this question because I have to make a decision about whether or not to continue participating in a sport--but I have nothing to compare it to. I don't know whether I am having fun or not. Is this autism-related, or is the concept of fun universally vague?

Is there something I can do to objectively (or maybe even subjectively) determine whether or not I enjoy particular things?



ThetaIn3D
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04 Apr 2013, 3:10 am

I remember having fun running around with other kids when I was little, but it's a somewhat alien concept to me now. I think you may be on to something.



goldfish21
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04 Apr 2013, 3:18 am

I have fun w/ the sports and rec things I do. I'm having a hard time comprehending not being able to experience having fun, or to not know whether you're having fun or not.. but at the same time, I'm also having a difficult time trying to come up with words to explain how I know I'm having fun, what the experience is. Hmmm.. it's such a combination of sensations, thoughts, emotions - all positive, make you feel good, smile, might be exhilarating & increase your heart rate. It's difficult to put into concrete words because so much of it is emotional & feeling oriented vs. a logical step by step process of things that occur in sequence and can be clearly defined & conveyed by words.


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briankelley
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04 Apr 2013, 3:26 am

I have fun all the time, as far as I know. A lot of the time it's something I'm doing by myself that probably only I would find fun. I always kind of thought doing something that makes you happy meant having fun? If you're enjoying doing something, doesn't that mean you're having fun? Sometimes I think it's fun just to hole up for a couple of days and just lay around doing nothing.



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04 Apr 2013, 3:34 am

My idea of fun is different from the normal idea of fun but it usually involves painting, drawing, doing something creative or maybe even spending hours in a bookshop, going to the gym, getting lost in a cities Architecture or going for a scenic walk.

I don't really see the fun in dancing around with flashing lights and drunk people everywhere.



jk1
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04 Apr 2013, 3:50 am

I think the definition of "having fun" is very vague. Some may think it's getting together with mates and drinking etc, but for some having fun could be reading a really exciting book or spending a whole day at home doing/being absorbed in something that makes him feel very positive/happy.

I guess if you want to compare one activity with another and decide which one gives you more "fun", you can probably try them both and see which one gives you more pleasure. You can try several activities and I'm sure you will eventually come across something that gives you the "fun" feeling.

If you actively feel like continuing your sport, then you should do so. If not, then you should seek something else. I don't think "having fun" can be objectively measured unless there is a way to measure the amount of endorphine or something in your brain. Maybe you can ask your doctor about determining whether you are actually having fun or not.



goldfish21
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04 Apr 2013, 4:06 am

Even if you were to break things down to microeconomics and measure the utils of satisfaction (units of measure of satisfaction ones gets from something.) of each activity, it's still not really a measure of fun, as just because one is more satisfying than another doesn't mean it's automatically or necessarily the most fun.

I think part of the issue here is that the OP is trying to define fun as a specific emotion to be felt and recognized when it's not an emotion at all, it's much more of an experience. You have fun by doing fun things, you don't feel fun or think fun. You sense it & experience it, yes, but it's not a specific singular thought or feeling that can be clearly defined. It's so multifaceted and varying from experience to experience, too. Some things are thrilling & fun, others are calming & fun - but both make you feel drastically different from one another.


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Highlander852456
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04 Apr 2013, 5:54 am

Did play a lot of computer games, pretty much any that I got my hands on, but also did play some pretty good games like flying plane simulators I could basically spend all day playing that game and I did many times and once a whole summer vacation. Was fun for me.



eric76
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04 Apr 2013, 6:03 am

I think that I tend to "enjoy" rather than "have fun". There are some things that are fun, but I seem to do them less and less.

To me, something that is "fun" tends to involve a higher than normal amount of activity and stimulation of multiple senses.

For example, when I was in high school we had some of the old round, concave signs advertising cokes such as the one in the picture here:

Image

After a snow, we would take one of the signs out to a nearby pasture, tie a rope to a pickup, and one person would sit in the sign and hold on to the rope while the others drove or rode along in the pickup with the driver. Going along at 40 miles per hour and turning results in a far higher speed for the person sitting on the sign and a great deal of force -- it can be really difficult to hold on. Running someone through a barbed wire fence or over the side of a canyon was off limits.

That was fun.

Other kids would ride on upside down car hoods pulled by a pickup. In comparison to the coke signs, car hoods are rather unexciting.

Racing someone down a dry, sandy creek bed on horseback was fun. I had a horse fall on top of me once while in a creek bed miles from the nearest house and that was fun since neither me nor the horse were injured.

Sometimes even work can be fun such as driving cattle from one pasture three or four miles to another pasture can be fun.

When I was in elementary school, I would climb up as high as I could in the big tree next to the house, grab firmly onto the branches, and then sway back and forth over and over. That was great fun. Fortunately, I never made the mistake of doing that when adults could see me do it.



alone
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04 Apr 2013, 6:28 am

I'm not so much interested in 'fun' as it not being torture. Whatever isn't torture is like fun. Like someone else said; "enjoyable" is stellar. I do have fun but it is rarely around other people.
There is alot of social pressure to be doing 'fun' things, the more you do of 'globally designated fun things' the better your life. If it is actually as fun as they are claiming then great...have at it. This is a solitary journey and the better you are at finding things you like in your personal minutes the happier you will be.



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04 Apr 2013, 6:49 am

I've certainly had a lot of fun throughout my life. What constituted as fun has differed but yeah, I definitely have and have had fun.

Now my idea of fun is browsing and posting on forums, reading a good book, play a good video game, play fun board or card games with my family. Even having exciting dreams is fun. Daydreams too. Watching a good movie or a fun series. Comics.

Fun for me doesn't have to involve laughing or much activity.


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MannyBoo
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04 Apr 2013, 8:08 am

Rather than use the word "fun", I prefer the word "satisfaction", and in that case I have had plenty of experiences of satisfaction in my life. HIking and exercising alone brings me so much genuine satisfaction and happiness.

But as for brainless "fun" in a group or a noisy mass-social situation, I have definitely had a lot of that as well, since I have been involved in the night entertainment, club and music industries in the past.

The point is, yes, Aspies definitely can and do have "fun" during specifically fun moments, at least I have.

But the downsides of ASD will eventually catch up sooner or later. It is like a vicious cycle.



Panddora
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04 Apr 2013, 1:14 pm

I want to have 'fun' so much but it doesn't happen.



ThetaIn3D
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04 Apr 2013, 1:22 pm

Yeah, I picture 'fun' as being a very active kind of horsing around, usually fairly athletic with a lot of running around and laughing. Anything less active is diverting, interesting, entertaining or enjoyable, but I think of fun as being some kind of active play with 2 or more people and no particular goal.

It looks great to me, and I used to know how to do that, but I feel like I don't anymore.



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04 Apr 2013, 2:02 pm

Having fun is when you're doing something you enjoy and you lose yourself in it and forget about yourself and your problems
or it's when you are laughing about something with another person



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04 Apr 2013, 2:32 pm

as much as fun as this guy is going to wake up from a headache.

[img][800:651]http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-S-Y_QP93V20/UVHPBdjJAQI/AAAAAAABIKk/vHAKmYzc78o/s868/H2VdTSN.jpg[/img]