How do you tell an interest is over and how do you cope?

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PixieXW
Deinonychus
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09 Jun 2013, 11:54 am

Like many people I usually have one very strong special interest which is on my mind almost all the time.
However in about November last year I had a total mental breakdown of sorts and have become ridiculously anxious over everything regarding my special interests. If I don't think about my interest for a few hours or don't feel like writing or watching something I get really upset and can't make myself do anything else. It's like I can no longer tell when an interest is over and also I am terrified of doing other things, such as watching tv programmes which are not related to my interest and again wanting to watch something else makes me really upset. I've totally lost the ability to decide what I actually want to do and what I don't.
I often force myself into doing something related to my interest in hope it will make me want to spend more time on the interest which it sometimes does and sometimes doesn't.
I'm no longer able to go with the flow. I can't watch tv, read or draw without being fixated on whether what I am doing is related to my interest or if it's related to a possible new one.
I've also got issues with Anxiety and depression, and I take fluoxetine to help with this but it hasn't changed things for me.
Has anyone else ever had something like this before? How do you deal with fading interests and how do you stop it from effecting every day of your life?
please help if you can!


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Thelibrarian
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09 Jun 2013, 12:01 pm

Pixie, my lifelong special interest has been to understand our socio-political world, and how things came to be. This has been a life-long passion of mine, and one I suspect I will have for the rest of my life.

I do have all manner of more ephemeral special interests though. What I do when I begin to lose interest in them is to lose interest in them. It's hardly for naught though, as I retain that knowledge or skill I acquired.

What I don't see is the point in beating myself up when I begin to lose interest in something. I let it go and soon I have something else to take its place. It's a matter of following my bliss.



Sanduru
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12 Jun 2013, 10:30 pm

It is called Hyper Sensory Perception. Too common on Aspies. I've had that once.

It is commonly mistaken by bipolarity though, people with schizophrenia also happen to have some of HSP.

So it's normal.

How do you cope with it you ask? Doing nothing, it will, fortunately, fade away on Aspies.

What I did is to free my mind and let it empty. Then I started to do whatever the heck I felt I wanted to do and after 2 months of hearing all my desires I just got tired of it all and my previous interests I had for all my life returned. Back to normal, It was too easy.

If you feel the anxiety I felt when I didn't want to do what I like anymore, it tends to be because of external influence (e.g. people constantly telling you that you should do diff things, but what they mean is do all that normal people do so we can share with you our common and mainstream hobbies and music that don't make us tired)

The End



PixieXW
Deinonychus
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21 Jun 2013, 10:30 am

Sanduru wrote:
It is called Hyper Sensory Perception. Too common on Aspies. I've had that once.

It is commonly mistaken by bipolarity though, people with schizophrenia also happen to have some of HSP.

So it's normal.

How do you cope with it you ask? Doing nothing, it will, fortunately, fade away on Aspies.

What I did is to free my mind and let it empty. Then I started to do whatever the heck I felt I wanted to do and after 2 months of hearing all my desires I just got tired of it all and my previous interests I had for all my life returned. Back to normal, It was too easy.

If you feel the anxiety I felt when I didn't want to do what I like anymore, it tends to be because of external influence (e.g. people constantly telling you that you should do diff things, but what they mean is do all that normal people do so we can share with you our common and mainstream hobbies and music that don't make us tired)

The End


Wow I've never heard of it before! That is a big break through for me and it means so much to know it will end. It's been around eight months!! ! Now but hopefully now I know what it is I can get somewhere. I used to get very stressed over how I never used to be like this and was happy to chop and change. I am so so happy I know this now. Thank you so so, much. I wonder if the length of it has anything to do with the fact I have anxiety on its own as well. Wow.


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Sanduru
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01 Jul 2013, 11:28 pm

It depends... I don't how much it will last on you but don't let people get you. Just try to relax...

I kinda have anxiety issues but not so much... Maybe it has something to do with the length... Hope you can go back to normal soon.

What I tried to say though is that those desires of changing your routine will be gone. But autistic people will always have sensory perception issues. So maybe it will come back. Every Aspie has those possibilities.

Maybe this will help you?


http://books.google.com.ar/books?id=RCQ ... =html_text

I didn't read it all yet but maybe that's the best information you can find.