Is this a normal special interest cycle/ inner world thing?

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chillchilli
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10 Jul 2014, 5:26 am

(I've read through threads here before but never actually posted, I hope this is the right place?)
I just wanted to know if this is normal for someone with ASD?

I have special interests that are tv shows (I used to have some that were books and movies but they died as I got older), and for each of them I have like an internal daydream world where I kind of pretend to be a character I've made up in that world. When I'm alone and walking or listening to music or something I just think about being that character and rewriting the events of the show to add them in. It can also be kind of world building stuff, like trying to explain to myself how a system of magic or something would work. Sometimes I'll incorporate things from other shows I watch or things that are happening to me irl. Eventually (maybe like once a year?) I'll get bored and change the character so I can start again and make everything new. I don't have any problems thinking they are real or anything like that.

I currently have 3 different shows I do this with and seem to go in kind of a cycle where I'll suddenly get really obsessed with one, wanting to repetitively watch episodes and read things about it and it?ll last for a while before eventually the next one starts again.

I?ve done this for as long as I remember and I?ve never told anyone because I always thought I was crazy, feels weird it type it out. Is this what it means when people say people with ADS have an inner world? Is it normal for it to be from tv and change periodically like that? Is this something NT people do too? I dunno, was I right all along and am I actually crazy??



franknfurter
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10 Jul 2014, 8:38 am

well, I don't know if I have ASD, but I do that, I always incorporate harry potter into mine, and add characters from other things I get obsessed with to go into the harry potter world. I don't pretend to be a character, I create a story like I would read a book.



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10 Jul 2014, 9:04 am

I do this too!



nyxjord
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10 Jul 2014, 9:11 am

I also do this with Harry Potter.. in fact, I have a whole character I have made up and have incorporated into the story.... I know my boyfriend does it with dungeons and dragons.. I think it is pretty normal. Not necessarily just for those on the spectrum either.


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10 Jul 2014, 10:06 pm

I did that when I was younger.


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VioletShadows
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13 Jul 2014, 4:49 pm

It's not something that all ASD people do, it's actually a separate thing called Maldaptive Daydreaming. I do it too, but it's mainly a focus around particular characters that changes. For a few months I might have an obsession with one, then that fades, and I'lll be only thinking about another. I'm glad they aren't real, if they were they'd probably be mad at me, lol.


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13 Jul 2014, 5:21 pm

I can sorta relate I think. I actually take a character from the movies or tv and watch a whole new movie in my mind with them as the star. As I am seeing the new show or movie (and I see it in my mind just as well as I would see it on the screen) I am able to pause it or rewind it and change things about it if I want, I will do this until I have the movie I want in my brain. Then I kinda write it to my memory somehow and I dont change it after that. Instead I can pull it out and watch it whenever I want and just enjoy the show. One of my favorite ones stars Danny DeVito. He plays a pizza delivery guy who is about to get dumped by his girlfriend unless he gets a better job. He has a one shot interview he needs to go to but his boss is making him do his delivery first to a customer who has astanding delivery. On the way there his suit in his hands from the drycleaners gets messed up in a funny scene with a bus and stuff while crossing the street. Then he makes it up to deliver the pizza but the lawyer customer who just happens to be his same size is dead behind the desk in a private practice. That is when it gets good involving two different mafia familys who are at war and both think Danny is the lawyer.

Anyway, I dont even know if that movie exists or not in real world. But for me, I have my copy I love!! !!


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wozeree
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13 Jul 2014, 8:26 pm

This is pretty funny actually, I do it as a writer when I'm trying to figure out where my characters are going.
Not sure how it can be a mental disorder (I just looked maladaptive daydreaming up), it seems they want to classify it as one.

Also, when I'm trying to figure out nearly anything, I somehow turn it into a narrative and play it in my head like a movie. IT's the only way I can make sense of things like verbal instructions.

Wouldn't pretty much every artist on the planet being doing or have done that? There have been tons of novels and movies where characters had vivid daydreams like that - think James Thurber.

I guess I could see how it could be a disorder if you did it constantly, but other than that not sure what the problem is.



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14 Jul 2014, 2:22 am

I don't know why they have it as a disorder either, as long as you know it's imaginary, why not?


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BoltOn
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15 Sep 2014, 11:47 pm

I can very much relate to this. Btw I came across your post looking for things on the general web under "autism inner world" and "internal world."

I tend to borrow things I like from TV series I have respected over the years, and incorporate these things into my own internal world. I grew up with the classic Dr.Who (ie. the Good One), and a lot of it's 70s SF iconography has stuck with me. When I feel a 'drift' from my inner world, sometimes I'll get glimpses of tall, concrete buildings on grey days (for instance).

Videos are one thing that helps stabilise my life. I can live without it, but only if I'm doing something else - like travelling.
I'm very grateful to the US for picking up the TV ball that the UK dropped years ago. I'm watching more European shows too but I'm an English speaker, too many subtitled shows in a row give me eyestrain.

chillchilli wrote:
(I've read through threads here before but never actually posted, I hope this is the right place?)
I just wanted to know if this is normal for someone with ASD?

I have special interests that are tv shows (I used to have some that were books and movies but they died as I got older), and for each of them I have like an internal daydream world where I kind of pretend to be a character I've made up in that world. When I'm alone and walking or listening to music or something I just think about being that character and rewriting the events of the show to add them in. It can also be kind of world building stuff, like trying to explain to myself how a system of magic or something would work. Sometimes I'll incorporate things from other shows I watch or things that are happening to me irl. Eventually (maybe like once a year?) I'll get bored and change the character so I can start again and make everything new. I don't have any problems thinking they are real or anything like that.

I currently have 3 different shows I do this with and seem to go in kind of a cycle where I'll suddenly get really obsessed with one, wanting to repetitively watch episodes and read things about it and it?ll last for a while before eventually the next one starts again.

I?ve done this for as long as I remember and I?ve never told anyone because I always thought I was crazy, feels weird it type it out. Is this what it means when people say people with ADS have an inner world? Is it normal for it to be from tv and change periodically like that? Is this something NT people do too? I dunno, was I right all along and am I actually crazy??



BoltOn
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15 Sep 2014, 11:49 pm

I can very much relate to this. Btw I came across your post looking for things on the general web under "autism inner world" and "internal world."

I tend to borrow things I like from TV series I have respected over the years, and incorporate these things into my own internal world. I grew up with the classic Dr.Who (ie. the Good One), and a lot of it's 70s SF iconography has stuck with me. When I feel a 'drift' from my inner world, sometimes I'll get glimpses of tall, concrete buildings on grey days (for instance).

Videos are one thing that helps stabilise my life. I can live without it, but only if I'm doing something else - like travelling.
I'm very grateful to the US for picking up the TV ball that the UK dropped years ago. I'm watching more European shows too but I'm an English speaker, too many subtitled shows in a row give me eyestrain.

chillchilli wrote:
(I've read through threads here before but never actually posted, I hope this is the right place?)
I just wanted to know if this is normal for someone with ASD?

I have special interests that are tv shows (I used to have some that were books and movies but they died as I got older), and for each of them I have like an internal daydream world where I kind of pretend to be a character I've made up in that world. When I'm alone and walking or listening to music or something I just think about being that character and rewriting the events of the show to add them in. It can also be kind of world building stuff, like trying to explain to myself how a system of magic or something would work. Sometimes I'll incorporate things from other shows I watch or things that are happening to me irl. Eventually (maybe like once a year?) I'll get bored and change the character so I can start again and make everything new. I don't have any problems thinking they are real or anything like that.

I currently have 3 different shows I do this with and seem to go in kind of a cycle where I'll suddenly get really obsessed with one, wanting to repetitively watch episodes and read things about it and it?ll last for a while before eventually the next one starts again.

I?ve done this for as long as I remember and I?ve never told anyone because I always thought I was crazy, feels weird it type it out. Is this what it means when people say people with ADS have an inner world? Is it normal for it to be from tv and change periodically like that? Is this something NT people do too? I dunno, was I right all along and am I actually crazy??



BoltOn
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15 Sep 2014, 11:50 pm

I can very much relate to this. Btw I came across your post looking for things on the general web under "autism inner world" and "internal world."

I tend to borrow things I like from TV series I have respected over the years, and incorporate these things into my own internal world. I grew up with the classic Dr.Who (ie. the Good One), and a lot of it's 70s SF iconography has stuck with me. When I feel a 'drift' from my inner world, sometimes I'll get glimpses of tall, concrete buildings on grey days (for instance).

Videos are one thing that helps stabilise my life. I can live without it, but only if I'm doing something else - like travelling.
I'm very grateful to the US for picking up the TV ball that the UK dropped years ago. I'm watching more European shows too but I'm an English speaker, too many subtitled shows in a row give me eyestrain.

chillchilli wrote:
(I've read through threads here before but never actually posted, I hope this is the right place?)
I just wanted to know if this is normal for someone with ASD?

I have special interests that are tv shows (I used to have some that were books and movies but they died as I got older), and for each of them I have like an internal daydream world where I kind of pretend to be a character I've made up in that world. When I'm alone and walking or listening to music or something I just think about being that character and rewriting the events of the show to add them in. It can also be kind of world building stuff, like trying to explain to myself how a system of magic or something would work. Sometimes I'll incorporate things from other shows I watch or things that are happening to me irl. Eventually (maybe like once a year?) I'll get bored and change the character so I can start again and make everything new. I don't have any problems thinking they are real or anything like that.

I currently have 3 different shows I do this with and seem to go in kind of a cycle where I'll suddenly get really obsessed with one, wanting to repetitively watch episodes and read things about it and it?ll last for a while before eventually the next one starts again.

I?ve done this for as long as I remember and I?ve never told anyone because I always thought I was crazy, feels weird it type it out. Is this what it means when people say people with ADS have an inner world? Is it normal for it to be from tv and change periodically like that? Is this something NT people do too? I dunno, was I right all along and am I actually crazy??



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16 Sep 2014, 6:18 am

chillchilli wrote:
I have special interests that are tv shows (I used to have some that were books and movies but they died as I got older), and for each of them I have like an internal daydream world where I kind of pretend to be a character I've made up in that world. When I'm alone and walking or listening to music or something I just think about being that character and rewriting the events of the show to add them in.

I've done that a lot, except I won't usually make up a character, I usually incorporate myself into my dream world of choice. That world can be the fictional world created by someone else, or one made up entirely by me (can be as little as just one character I make up).

chillchilli wrote:
Eventually (maybe like once a year?) I'll get bored and change the character so I can start again and make everything new. I don't have any problems thinking they are real or anything like that.

I don't exactly become bored with my scenarios, I just lose interest and stop thinking of them (not exactly the same). How long it'll take will vary, but ca a year is about right. I've never had any problem with differentiating my dream worlds from reality either, despite preferring to spend my time in my own made up world than in reality.

chillchilli wrote:
I currently have 3 different shows I do this with and seem to go in kind of a cycle where I'll suddenly get really obsessed with one, wanting to repetitively watch episodes and read things about it and it?ll last for a while before eventually the next one starts again.

I've watched and re-watched fave episodes of my fave shows over and over and read and re-read fave books and passages of books so many times, especially when I was younger.

chillchilli wrote:
I?ve done this for as long as I remember and I?ve never told anyone because I always thought I was crazy, feels weird it type it out. Is this what it means when people say people with ADS have an inner world? Is it normal for it to be from tv and change periodically like that? Is this something NT people do too? I dunno, was I right all along and am I actually crazy??

I think it's a good idea to not tell just anyone about it. I've always daydreamt a lot and I've always kept quiet about it until recently, and I only talk about it online on appropriate forums. It's the kind of thing people who don't do this can easily misunderstand.
This can be part of having an inner world, but having an inner world can also refer to having other kinds of fantasies, as well as your memories, thoughts, desires, imagination, ideas, impressions and reflections ... all the things that go on in your mind.
Some aspies have inner wolds from TV, others have other sources, including making it up themselves (and of course some don't at all). Obsessions can change. I usually don't cycle through them like that, but I can have obsessions come back later (vampires is one example of that, stories about the idea of computer games or similar coming to life is another).
No idea if NTs do this.
As long as you know what's real and what's fiction, you're not crazy.


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