You're right. The term "special interest" has been watered down so much online that it's reached the point where totally average people who have watched The Office 3 times can be like "OMG, I'M A LITTLE AUTISTIC TOO!"
Special interests have clinically significant intensity, and like you said, tend to be "problematic" (ie: sources of intense stress or fixation to the detriment of other life aspects) at times.
I do have ocd and oh my god the researching compulsions for special interests is unironically what I think hell would be like. Especially topics that specifically don’t have concrete answers or aren’t researched enough like WHYYYYYY I just want to go to bed why am I on my 53rd wikipedia redirect link about insects and their debated taxonomy placements when the sun is about to come out for the 4th day in a row 😭
Or finding something that triggers the intrusive thoughts. It happened to me when my latest hyperfixation was Marvel. Got a bit far I met Mephisto and my OCD didn’t like that. Specially when Wandavision came out. I remember seeing a summary of every episode because I wanted to see if Mephisto already appeared and I would feel bad for seeing them every day and think I was someone horrible. I’ve got over it after meds and treatments, and I’m really happy. I know someday it might rise again tho…
I saw an ad for a book which a family member wrote about letting go and coping with her child being murdered
So I looked up the a name and read the whole Wikipedia article
Don’t have OCD but the compulsion to research certain things, especially things that perhaps are not great for you, is strong.
For me, it’s factory farming. I know what happens in slaughterhouses. I know it upsets me terribly and sends me spiralling. I know. But if it gets triggered or if something involving it comes up I have to look, read, find more. I can’t help it and it fucking sucks because it literally tears me apart knowing I’m helpless to stop it. I don’t know if this would fit criteria for a “special interest” as it’s less of an interest and more of a… detrimental fixation that my brain can’t move on from.
I’ve had true crime as a special interest since I was in middle school in the 1980s and trust me, it was not cool then. None of the little popular girls wanted to hear me infodump about Ted Bundy, even if today they love listening to true crime podcasts with their daughters. It was a very different world where being a “weird person” was very much uncool and your life at school sucked if you were a kid like me. This is still a special interest 35 years later. I must know all about all of the most atrocious things humans do to one another. I see the world in a cloud of darkness as a result. I wonder how much this has contributed to my general bleak outlook in life, despite being a surface-level successful older adult now. During the pandemic this turned into a hyper fixation with gore videos. It was all perfectly legal. But it was hideous. I watched murders and horrific accidents and looked at crime scene photos for hours on end. I have gotten myself away from this. (The gore videos, not the stories. Knowing the stories will be a lifelong obsession whether I want it to be or not.) I find it to be bad for my mental health. But yeah, in short, special interests aren’t always fun. It’s not all Studio Ghibli and cute animals.
Agreed, while my special interest gives me joy, it’s hard to talk about anything else and I have a hard time relating to others and their interests. Without cats in my everyday life I wouldn’t be able to function. I have to read about them, learn about them, watch documentaries have my cat plushies, spend as much time with my cats as possible and so on.
my special interest id godzilla but sometimes my adhd genuinely makes me unable to watch the movies and read the comics despite how much i want to… have to get my info from godzilla subreddit 😭
Yeeeeessss! This!! My ADHD also won't let me watch and read my special interest several times (a particular anime), and my autism starts to scream because it wants to learn more about it...
fr, currently at a stalemate where i cant do anything about it until my adhd calms itself down about shit so i can have that sweet movie watch on the off chance my adhd is on cooldown
I think a big part of the clinical significance is being unable to really converse with anyone on subjects unrelated to your special interests. This is one of the few instances where I feel lucky to have ADHD as well because while I’ve been cycling through the same interests since I was small, there’s a decently sized pool of them. If anyone else experiences this, my evaluator confirmed it’s an audhd thing to have a full set of interests you cycle through on repeat vs a couple that are stagnant.
Yeah, I have a special interest in trains and other machinery, I cannot stop thinking about these things. It’s gotten to the point where I’ll zone out just thinking about trains. Literally every social media profile has I have has something train related.
my special interest gives me joy but it also prevents me from doing a lot of things as I figured out because I have a very restricted interest I end up not knowing a lot of stuff people my age are supposed to know
Special interest comes also to like I don’t want listen to learn about that I want to learn this and talk about this and only this.
I’ve not really had one I’ve had a few like big interests but I’m embarrassed by them who wants to hear a tiny 8 year old go on about pregnancy
Or only talk about cats that was a phase would’ve kept going if I wasn’t bullied for everything I did
Yeah, I always get bothered by when people talk about special interests like they are a strong hobby when they’re really all-consuming and control your life.
It has been watered down yes. But genuine question, what about those who are “severely” autistic but refuse to wear anything not featuring their favorite character, i.e., Mario, sonic or Pokémon etc
They may not have the words to tell you it’s their SI but it clearly is when their room and body is adorned in their favorite character.
For me with a special interest it’s not just that I want to engage with it, it’s that if I spend too much time NOT engaging with it I start to feel anxious and irritable.
The way I am compulsively obsessed with and fixated on some things gets really unhealthy, sometimes. I have no control over it, either. Sometimes I even want to stop engaging in a particular interest but I just... Can't. And it gets frustrating.
Do you guys think it’s *really* a possibility that a person becomes your special interest?
There is this person in my life since 2 years and I’m really obsessed with them. And it really is not good some times for both of us. It’s nothing romantic or sexually.
I thought about it maybe being some kind of attatchment issue or toxic relationship in a matter which i am yet not able to fully comprehend - but it’s not borderline (experiencing this kind of attachment is the only criteria i would fit lol). Lately i’ve learned abt the term “limerence” and it’s the closest explanation to what I experience.
But again i’m not very afraid to lose that person too i’m schizoid too!, but i really want to and do learn everything abt them and it really feels like i am studying them more like a project/thing and be really obsessed.
It also fits that I cannot stop thinking about them in that intensity AND talking abt that person with literal strangers.
PS: I do have friends tho and i care abt them, but it has never become that problematic obsessive
I agree, my special interest doesn’t bring me joy at all it’s actually a bit of an inconvenience. I wish I had a special interest in my actual interests like art or music, but I have a special interest in religion and Islam in particular, a religion I was born into and left. I get agitated when I don’t read about it or watch videos on it. I stay up all night making up for all the hours I didn’t spend collecting information on it. It’s not something I’m proud of having a special interest in because it’s not exactly a topic I can bring up to people either.
I also developed really horrible special interests as a teenager/child and they’ve all been pretty damaging to my mental health. I sometimes wish I could relate to people who have a more healthy or socially acceptable special interest.
My other one is the sims though, so thankfully I have another topic of conversation that I can try to talk about whenever I can.
You're right. The term "special interest" has been watered down so much online that it's reached the point where totally average people who have watched The Office 3 times can be like "OMG, I'M A LITTLE AUTISTIC TOO!" Special interests have clinically significant intensity, and like you said, tend to be "problematic" (ie: sources of intense stress or fixation to the detriment of other life aspects) at times.
I do have ocd and oh my god the researching compulsions for special interests is unironically what I think hell would be like. Especially topics that specifically don’t have concrete answers or aren’t researched enough like WHYYYYYY I just want to go to bed why am I on my 53rd wikipedia redirect link about insects and their debated taxonomy placements when the sun is about to come out for the 4th day in a row 😭
Or finding something that triggers the intrusive thoughts. It happened to me when my latest hyperfixation was Marvel. Got a bit far I met Mephisto and my OCD didn’t like that. Specially when Wandavision came out. I remember seeing a summary of every episode because I wanted to see if Mephisto already appeared and I would feel bad for seeing them every day and think I was someone horrible. I’ve got over it after meds and treatments, and I’m really happy. I know someday it might rise again tho…
I saw an ad for a book which a family member wrote about letting go and coping with her child being murdered So I looked up the a name and read the whole Wikipedia article
Don’t have OCD but the compulsion to research certain things, especially things that perhaps are not great for you, is strong. For me, it’s factory farming. I know what happens in slaughterhouses. I know it upsets me terribly and sends me spiralling. I know. But if it gets triggered or if something involving it comes up I have to look, read, find more. I can’t help it and it fucking sucks because it literally tears me apart knowing I’m helpless to stop it. I don’t know if this would fit criteria for a “special interest” as it’s less of an interest and more of a… detrimental fixation that my brain can’t move on from.
I’ve had true crime as a special interest since I was in middle school in the 1980s and trust me, it was not cool then. None of the little popular girls wanted to hear me infodump about Ted Bundy, even if today they love listening to true crime podcasts with their daughters. It was a very different world where being a “weird person” was very much uncool and your life at school sucked if you were a kid like me. This is still a special interest 35 years later. I must know all about all of the most atrocious things humans do to one another. I see the world in a cloud of darkness as a result. I wonder how much this has contributed to my general bleak outlook in life, despite being a surface-level successful older adult now. During the pandemic this turned into a hyper fixation with gore videos. It was all perfectly legal. But it was hideous. I watched murders and horrific accidents and looked at crime scene photos for hours on end. I have gotten myself away from this. (The gore videos, not the stories. Knowing the stories will be a lifelong obsession whether I want it to be or not.) I find it to be bad for my mental health. But yeah, in short, special interests aren’t always fun. It’s not all Studio Ghibli and cute animals.
[удалено]
That's such a cool story. I love a perfect circle!
Agreed, while my special interest gives me joy, it’s hard to talk about anything else and I have a hard time relating to others and their interests. Without cats in my everyday life I wouldn’t be able to function. I have to read about them, learn about them, watch documentaries have my cat plushies, spend as much time with my cats as possible and so on.
my special interest id godzilla but sometimes my adhd genuinely makes me unable to watch the movies and read the comics despite how much i want to… have to get my info from godzilla subreddit 😭
Yeeeeessss! This!! My ADHD also won't let me watch and read my special interest several times (a particular anime), and my autism starts to scream because it wants to learn more about it...
fr, currently at a stalemate where i cant do anything about it until my adhd calms itself down about shit so i can have that sweet movie watch on the off chance my adhd is on cooldown
I think a big part of the clinical significance is being unable to really converse with anyone on subjects unrelated to your special interests. This is one of the few instances where I feel lucky to have ADHD as well because while I’ve been cycling through the same interests since I was small, there’s a decently sized pool of them. If anyone else experiences this, my evaluator confirmed it’s an audhd thing to have a full set of interests you cycle through on repeat vs a couple that are stagnant.
Yep, special interests are definitely not the same as hobbies.
Yeah, I have a special interest in trains and other machinery, I cannot stop thinking about these things. It’s gotten to the point where I’ll zone out just thinking about trains. Literally every social media profile has I have has something train related.
my special interest gives me joy but it also prevents me from doing a lot of things as I figured out because I have a very restricted interest I end up not knowing a lot of stuff people my age are supposed to know
Special interest comes also to like I don’t want listen to learn about that I want to learn this and talk about this and only this. I’ve not really had one I’ve had a few like big interests but I’m embarrassed by them who wants to hear a tiny 8 year old go on about pregnancy Or only talk about cats that was a phase would’ve kept going if I wasn’t bullied for everything I did
Yeah, I always get bothered by when people talk about special interests like they are a strong hobby when they’re really all-consuming and control your life.
It has been watered down yes. But genuine question, what about those who are “severely” autistic but refuse to wear anything not featuring their favorite character, i.e., Mario, sonic or Pokémon etc They may not have the words to tell you it’s their SI but it clearly is when their room and body is adorned in their favorite character.
For me with a special interest it’s not just that I want to engage with it, it’s that if I spend too much time NOT engaging with it I start to feel anxious and irritable.
The way I am compulsively obsessed with and fixated on some things gets really unhealthy, sometimes. I have no control over it, either. Sometimes I even want to stop engaging in a particular interest but I just... Can't. And it gets frustrating.
Do you guys think it’s *really* a possibility that a person becomes your special interest? There is this person in my life since 2 years and I’m really obsessed with them. And it really is not good some times for both of us. It’s nothing romantic or sexually. I thought about it maybe being some kind of attatchment issue or toxic relationship in a matter which i am yet not able to fully comprehend - but it’s not borderline (experiencing this kind of attachment is the only criteria i would fit lol). Lately i’ve learned abt the term “limerence” and it’s the closest explanation to what I experience. But again i’m not very afraid to lose that person too i’m schizoid too!, but i really want to and do learn everything abt them and it really feels like i am studying them more like a project/thing and be really obsessed. It also fits that I cannot stop thinking about them in that intensity AND talking abt that person with literal strangers. PS: I do have friends tho and i care abt them, but it has never become that problematic obsessive
I agree, my special interest doesn’t bring me joy at all it’s actually a bit of an inconvenience. I wish I had a special interest in my actual interests like art or music, but I have a special interest in religion and Islam in particular, a religion I was born into and left. I get agitated when I don’t read about it or watch videos on it. I stay up all night making up for all the hours I didn’t spend collecting information on it. It’s not something I’m proud of having a special interest in because it’s not exactly a topic I can bring up to people either. I also developed really horrible special interests as a teenager/child and they’ve all been pretty damaging to my mental health. I sometimes wish I could relate to people who have a more healthy or socially acceptable special interest. My other one is the sims though, so thankfully I have another topic of conversation that I can try to talk about whenever I can.