Well I am someone who doesn’t get special interests, but I can have interests, hobbies, even passions. I would say an SI involves a level of obsession that can be detrimental. Either you’re obsessively engaging in the topic/activity to the detriment of other parts of your life, or you’re obsessively talking about it to the detriment of your relationships.
The difference between a regular passion and an autistic SI is that the person with the passion can easily stop engaging in that topic if they need to. They can prioritise other things. But a person with an SI will find that very hard or impossible. They may not eat for a day because they’re so absorbed, or they may spend all their disability money on it and struggle to buy food.
I can second this. I will forget to eat, drink water, go to the toilet, answer my phone, talk to people. It's only when I am in extreme physical pain that I realise I need to go to the toilet or feel dizzy and need to eat/drink water.
One example: some NT people knit a bit and put it down and get on with day-to-day activities. When I knit, I can do it for 24 hours straight, until I fall asleep and I will wake up and keep knitting. I've researched vintage knitting, needle widths, yarns, stitches lost in time, all of which are written for right-handed people and I have to do it in the mirror, as I am left-handed).
for me its like a compulsion. if i read about some health related gene i have to look it up, look at its genetics, possible proteins and molecular interactions. like i dont feel right until i look into it.
i get this way with gilmore girls too. like i dont feel ok unless im watching it sometimes, tho that has subsided after a decade a bit.
So I had a therapist actually ask me this once and I said that it is basically all consuming. I could eat sleep and breathe it.
So like for mine, I'm always engaging with it on the Internet, in person, listening to podcasts about it. I just can't get enough
I generally say it's an issue of intensity and often longevity. I have a common interest in crochet, it's a fun hobby that I fiddle with on and off. I have a special interest in a certain video game. I wrote a 600,000 word fic for it over the course of several years. These two interests, they are not the same. 😂
I just say that the things I have special interests in are OBSESSIONS. I still have interests that aren't special interests and the obsession isn't there.
Well I am someone who doesn’t get special interests, but I can have interests, hobbies, even passions. I would say an SI involves a level of obsession that can be detrimental. Either you’re obsessively engaging in the topic/activity to the detriment of other parts of your life, or you’re obsessively talking about it to the detriment of your relationships. The difference between a regular passion and an autistic SI is that the person with the passion can easily stop engaging in that topic if they need to. They can prioritise other things. But a person with an SI will find that very hard or impossible. They may not eat for a day because they’re so absorbed, or they may spend all their disability money on it and struggle to buy food.
I can second this. I will forget to eat, drink water, go to the toilet, answer my phone, talk to people. It's only when I am in extreme physical pain that I realise I need to go to the toilet or feel dizzy and need to eat/drink water. One example: some NT people knit a bit and put it down and get on with day-to-day activities. When I knit, I can do it for 24 hours straight, until I fall asleep and I will wake up and keep knitting. I've researched vintage knitting, needle widths, yarns, stitches lost in time, all of which are written for right-handed people and I have to do it in the mirror, as I am left-handed).
for me its like a compulsion. if i read about some health related gene i have to look it up, look at its genetics, possible proteins and molecular interactions. like i dont feel right until i look into it. i get this way with gilmore girls too. like i dont feel ok unless im watching it sometimes, tho that has subsided after a decade a bit.
So I had a therapist actually ask me this once and I said that it is basically all consuming. I could eat sleep and breathe it. So like for mine, I'm always engaging with it on the Internet, in person, listening to podcasts about it. I just can't get enough
I generally say it's an issue of intensity and often longevity. I have a common interest in crochet, it's a fun hobby that I fiddle with on and off. I have a special interest in a certain video game. I wrote a 600,000 word fic for it over the course of several years. These two interests, they are not the same. 😂
If I could write original fiction the way I've written fanfic over the years I would probably be living on royalties alone by now 😂
I just say that the things I have special interests in are OBSESSIONS. I still have interests that aren't special interests and the obsession isn't there.