Changing special interests?

Post Reply New Topic

Summary: Have any of you aspies ever thought of and been successful at forcing yourself to have a new special interest? More specifically to be able to take advantage of that aspie trait and use it to help you by having the new topic as a special interest so that you could do better at something that you needed to do.

In detail: For people with Asperger's, do any of you think that it would be possible to change your special interest to something else that isn't a real big interest to you but something that if it was your special interest would be able to help you out a lot with your school work or career or something to that nature?

For example I'm a senior in high school taking a two year junior and now my second year as a senior program on computer networking (Cisco). I need to get my "A+" and "Network+" certifications. I don't have a real big interest in the topics related to each of them but don't get too bored by reading and learning about them most of the time. Anyway I'm trying to somehow see if I can force myself to get them to be one of my "special interests" or obsessions so that I can be able to learn lots of complex things about them and be able to remember it also and at the same time have fun doing it. This way I would be able to do very well taking the tests for both of those certifications. The school will pay for me to take each of the two tests and it's like I think over a hundred dollars per test to take it. However if I fail it then I have to pay the school for the test and then pay to take it again later until I pass it. So I want to be able to pass them both on the first try so that I don't have to pay for it. This is why I want to try and make learning everything I need to know about them into a special interest of mine.

Right now my main special interest is helicopters so I love to learn all about them and I like the ones with the Fenestron tail rotor setup and all and understand that to get one of my own like that I'll have to come up with at the very least for a new one $3,000,000 plus everything else related to operating it and insurance and the pay for the two pilots if I wasn't able to be one of them and everything else. So I like them very much and could spend hours reading about them and talking about them and all that. If I were going to be given a long test about them, then I would be able to research all about them and memorize details and feel that I could do an excellent job on such a test.

SO if I can just make my A+ and Network+ stuff as interesting as helicopters are to me then I would be all set but how to actually make myself truly interested in them isn't going to be an easy thing to do if it is even possible.

For example in class I can think about helicopters but be able to also stay focused on what I am doing so I'm not daydreaming about helicopters all day and missing things in class, maybe my medication helps with that but anyway that is not a problem. ALSO if I need to know a lot about networking for some test or something I can FORCE myself to read a lot about it and memorize stuff to help me with the test and not usually get bored by spending hours on end doing so. BUT even in doing that I don't feel truly interested in it and don't have fun doing it and it's by no means something I would look forward to doing to the point where I would be eager to get home and study. Of course I'm not quite like that with helicopters either, right now I like them but am not collecting more information about them but I do every once in a while but feel that like I said before if there was a test I had to take on them I’d be able to research loads about them and remember it all and have fun doing it.

So I guess what I am getting at is wanting to know if anyone has ever attempted to take advantage of their "special interests" and force it to change to something different that you didn't really have a big interest in but were able to do so and still like doing it? Has anyone ever been able to do this???? Maybe I'm the only one that thought of doing such a thing but I figured that probably wasn't true so I posted about it.

I have never had much luck with this, to my irritation...but with me, I want to break away from my main obsessive interests to learn about other things that have always made me curious... like space and alchemy...but right now, my obsession seems to be these forums and aspergers books which is annoying... I cannot seem to just turn off my laptop and sit and read a book to learn more.

Hmm, well I sure hope that I can find a way to change mine. If I do I'll be sure to post about it.

xxrobertoxx,

Don't I WISH I could freely switch interests! When you find out, PLEASE let us know! I've been lucky that I have a great event memory, am curious, and STILL do some research. It's a shame so little is known about the brain and it has to be so complicated. I have studied it a LOT! Even learned some GREEK because of it! I learned a lot about the heart, etc... I also learned about vitamins, diabetes, various diseases, computers, aeronautics, electronics, etc... BTW the test center I went to for M/S was ALSO a flight school that rented aircraft!

I'm not entirely sure at what level the cisco exams go to. the only applicable things I have dealt with are networking standards and UNIX and WINDOWS specifics. I CAN, however, give you some VERY good advice!! !! !!

No matter WHAT level the exams go to, do *****NOT***** take the class until you have:

1. Read the books.
2. Tried the tests at http://transcender.com/!

That will do MANY things for you!

1. Give you the basics.
2. Give you an idea of what to study and weak points.
3. Possibly save you a LOT of time, hassles, and MONEY!

BTW If you can pass the transcender tests using logic based on a general level of knowledge on the subject, you are almost GUARANTEED to be able to pass the tests. Actually, the tests DO have a full money back guarantee!

They ALSO have COURSES for Cisco!

BTW I DID take the transcender tests for VB, SQL, and MCSD! The two soon discontinued winarch tests that had NO valid study method available from ANYONE, including microsoft press, were the only ones I didn't pass with 95% or better!

Actually, you may decide NOT to take the course! I studied the manuals, used the products, bought the transcender tests, and passed. All together, the tests cost approx:

SOFTWARE FREE or EXISTING!
TESTS 4*~$150=$600
BOOKS 4*~$30= $120
TESTS 5*100= $500(Failed one arch one NOBODY could help on, and they soon discontinued!)
EXTRA TIME TO PASS: about 20 DAYS!(I took my time with about 1 every 4 days)

So how much would a class cost? Well, courses cost over $4000, and took FAR longer!

Steve

BTW the winarch test I had trouble with covered development criteria setup by M/S but not documented and contrary to M/S own statements elsewhere and their own software! Yet ANOTHER reason to hate M/S!

I've never tried this, but it sounds like you're willing to make this happen. And that's the biggest step you can take!

Sometimes it happens for me. But at some other point in time, I get re-obsessed with my old obsessions.

I have always wanted to learn Boilogy ---I just can't read the second page --- ITS BORING!! ! --but I want to learn it!!

---I just wish every book was on DVD --when the learning process is visual,, then even Biology is interesting. -I just wish there was like a little banner on the bottom of the screen, Popping up formulas and Concepts, while the visual explanation was going on - then I woudl be a genius!!

Yeah. It just all depends. I can be excited by others, so a very good teacher can redirect me. I can't seem to manage it on my own, and the thrill begins to fade eventually.

There are some in here on this forum which wreckon they have learnt the secret to learning ... I would love it if they would divulge.

YIKES! ANOTHER way we're alike. That is my SAME problem. I have LOTS of other things I should do. LUCKILY, I really DO learn things practically by osmosis! I could hear a NOTE on TV that causes my mind to just spin and connect facts and find some other piece of info, or take a shower and debug a program without even thinking conciously, or see a word in the forum and find out something new. A jerk in another forum tried to make fun of aspergers, and THAT is how I found out about it, for example. All of the above have happened. I also do try to do puzzles, study languages, etc... Still, I spend WAY too much time here. 8-(

Steve

I find that all things I was ever interested in have been accumulated in my memory bank as stored knowledge. My interest in cats has been a constant throughout my life. My interest in Roger Bannister is not new, although it was with the release of the movie Four Minutes that I really began to accumulate information about his life.

I have recently begun progress on things I have wanted to do for a long time. I am proofreading and readying by book on my cat Samantha and my other pets, past and present, for publication.

What would the point be otherwise? People have ACTUALLY tried to say I have an interest in computers because my father does, and that is the reason I know so much!

The fact is I learned a lot BEFORE that, and far more than my father knows about those areas even today(even by his own admission), before even learning all I knew that he knew about those areas.(Except for REALLY antiquated information).

My knowledge of computer systems prior to 1966 is relatively perfunctory, and that is where my fathers REAL strengths are. I have concentrated mainly on 1969 and later, but that bleeds to about 1966. Anyway, a LOT of people comment about how I know so much.

When the AIDS scare happened, I learned enough about it you might think I was afraid of getting it or something. I always knew I was in the lowest risk group for AIDS, I finally would out why. Most here are in that same group. Anyway, some people asked if I was a doctor when I explained why claims that they would find a cure for it in 5 years, or that the baboon transfusion, etc.. would work, were RIDICULOUS! I EVEN mentioned how they had been trying to find a cure for HSV and HPV since at least the 50s! SUPPOSEDLY they FINALLY found a vaccine against some variants of HPV only a few years ago. THAT is the vaccine they now offer to some young females to fight cervical cancer.

I have the same level of knowledge about other things like heart problems and diabetes.

Steve

This has happened to me before, although: I wanted to be in Business Administration. What got me to snap out of my interest in Business Administration was boredom and I recognised that it was impractical what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to build the first condensed network, I should say: The first High Speed Condensed Network.

Thanks for all the info, I might actually have to do that. Sorry it took so long for me to respond to your post.

I recently went to a competition for a club at my school on computer networking and studied a lot for it and felt that I did great on the written test that we took with all the kids that placed top in that of their school on networking tests with those top kids in the entire state of Ohio. Like I said I felt I did well ont hat test and it was only out of 36 people but I didint' even place in the top 10. However the kid that I studied with got 3rd place and gets to go to nationals competition in NYC. I was the 2nd to last to finish because of the way I think and all and it is a timed test and if my score was the same as another kid got then they pick the one that got done first and since I was the 2nd to last to finish that doesn't do very well for me. That's probably why I didn't place and I wasn't happy about that but the world can't just change for me alone so I accepted that I didn't place and didn't get all mad about it but I was sad about it. Somehow this made me take a strong interest in my networking class now and I like reading and studying from my teachers book. So it seems that I've developed that as a special interest because I wasn't happy that I didn't place in that competition. I had been trying to get real interested in netowrking before and forced myself to learn and study about it but didn't really like to do it. Now I do and I'm real happy about that.

SO I guess it is true that you can't really force yourself to have a new special interest but it seems that some things can influence and cause you to get a new one and that seems to have been what happened to me. Since I wasn't happy that I didn't place in the top 10 it made me want to study a whole lot so that I would be able to think faster about it so that something like that wouldn't happen again because of how long I took to do the test. Now I have fun reading the networking books. SO I'm very happy about this, it's definately a new special interest of mine and I find myself not caring as much about helicopters, sure I still like them and all but I'm not always wishing that I had millions of dollars so I could buy one.

I think that's EXACTLY what happened to me after I spent hours and hours studying for a test and didn't do so well on it because of the amount of time that I took to take the test even though I felt that I did a good job on it. This made me sad that I take long to take tests and so I wanted to learn so much about cisco networking so that it wouldn't happen again. It always seems that if it is a special interest then I can remember all kinds of stuff about the topic quickly. So I guess you could say that kind of "excited" me to be deeply interested in networking. Now I go home and read about it every day and even look forward to doing it and it's fun so I'm glad that this happened, not that I didn't place but that the whole thing made me more interested in networking and this will really help me out when I take my Network+ exam.

WOW, GLAD TO HEAR IT! I wish you the best of luck. If you REALLY have trouble, etc... You are welcome to PM me. Let us know how the interest lasts, etc...

Steve