What Are Autistic Special Interests Like?
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- Опубликовано: 24 июн 2021
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Хобби
My special interest has been Power Rangers for 30 years. I will never let go of that show, it is my safe place.
So true. I'm an undiagnosed autistic. I've had lots of 'special interests' and sometimes get so engrossed in them that I dont eat, drink use the loo, sleep etc until I really need to!
I got obsessed with playing GTA past a reasonable "gaming age". I could not stop, as you said, didnt eat, loo, sleep. It was only until a few weeks that I had to forcibly stay away from it. I felt like I could die. I now know Im autistic and helps a lot explaining why when I find "passionate" hobbyists I make them look like enthusiast noobs. Its like binge watch elevated to the 10th power. And then one day you just move on 😂
Smart phones help. With media interests you can pursue them whist eating, peeing, etc.
@@webspecyes indeed
@@webspecbro my special interest was also gta…but mostly with the storymode..i literally knew everything about each character, the whole story, every game cheat and everything. it literally took over my life I couldn’t go a day without thinking or replaying it
I was diagnosed in with highly-functional autism/Aspergers and tourettes in 2007 and my special intrests are history wich works as an umbrella to my other interests/hobbies like music, nature, philisophy, poems, traditional archery, leather artcrafts, simple boardgame development, and i have even created my own fantasy RPG world.
As an autistic person myself, I feel that special interests are very stigmatized by a lot of neurotypical people, even by some therapists and counselors. Yes, they can become unhealthy if they end up taking over the person's life to a point they forget to eat, do schoolwork, or keep up with friends but this comment is more focused on how people seem to treat special interests (at least from my experiences). Growing up, I felt like people were telling me to blend in instead of being myself. I came to learn that when I grew up that their focuses seemed to be more on keeping order in traditional social situations, not what makes the autistic person happy. I'm not saying they knowingly do this, they just seem to have the mentality that there is a "right" and "wrong" way to socialize. Now don't get me wrong, getting uncomfortable by a dirty joke or a mean joke, for instance, is totally valid. However, being uncomfortable by me talking about my love for a book, movie, or video game just makes me feel like garbage. It's one thing if I talked about it so much that I took up the entire conversation, but it is another thing if it was brought up maybe once a week. What people don't seem to understand is that what is socially acceptable is a man-made construct, but some people treat it as if it is divine law. It also can vary from culture to culture what is considered socially acceptable. So, all-in-all, as long as you're not hurting anybody or taking up the entire conversation I don't see anything wrong with special interests. I absolutely love mine and can't imagine my life without them. Some of mine are Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Total Drama (yeah, judge me all you want), 80s stuff, The Lion King, etc.
I loooooove Buffy. Have watched it a million times! ♥️
I’ve never been diagnosed with autism but I’ve always had special interests, when I was a kid I was obsessed with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I would watch and rewatch it every day and it’s all I wanted to talk about or do to the point where I wasn’t allowed to go over to friends houses because I’d just want to bring the dvd and watch it.
When I was a teenager I was consumed by watching Quentin Tarantino, I couldn’t get enough, always watching his films, going to sleep listening to his interviews, it was constant. And somehow nearly every conversation I had seemed to turn into something related to Quentin Tarantino 😂
These days I’m into Apple and the Apple Vision Pro headset. And spend all my time learning about it as much as I can.
I always felt so alien because of my special interests, because I didn’t often meet people that also had intense interests and passions. I thought I was weird and obsessive. But then I came across the term special interest and it just clicked and made sense.
I relate to this video so so much. It’s so awesome to hear about your special interests because I can relate it so much to mine and it feels nice that it’s kind of somewhat normal for some people to have these deep attachments to the things they’re interested in.
I laughed to myself when you mentioned the in between of special interests because I was thinking about that myself recently, how weird it feels to not have a special interest and feeling a kind of identity crisis. And then when something does come up and I get attached to it it just comes up out of nowhere.
Special interests ive had throughout my teenage life - i hyperfocus intensely on each of them, which for me has been quite detrimental in terms of basic needs but also hella fun haha
Makeup
Tanya Burr
The Beatles
Drawing
Van life/how to build a van to live in
State capitals and countries
Drug policy
Determinism
Minimalism/sustainable fashion
Feminism
Writing poems/short stories
My emotions (understanding them)
Avatar the last airbender
Harry Potter
Deathnote
Dan and Phil
Music/guitar/songwriting
A recent one - the Grenadian socialist revolution
Oooh we share so many of these! The most annoying one for me is that I can't drive, but know exactly how id kit out a van to live in 😂
Get death note black edition
Really good to have videos in which autistic people talk about special interests. There are lots of videos about the problems we face (and those videos are necessary) but not enough about the pleasures and special interests are a big part of that. As well as the pleasures from just enjoying an interest a lot of valuable research on TV and other topics has been done by people with autism and their findings have been useful to many others.
I relate so much to not having the ability to get merch for the one thing constantly on mind and just the urge to collect whatever can be related.
For me it's The locked Tomb series and I go in circles of how I feel frustrated that I can go to the mall and see merch in stores for Hello Kitty or Harry Potter but not characters or references I love infinitely more from the book series that has absorbed my mind. It made me look to etsy, and I've just been persuading people who want to gift me things to look to etsy for merch and not amazon since there is no tlt merch there. Anything related is all fanmade, not largely produced by corporations for etsy, and to me, it makes it even more special in a way
I gradually started dressing like the characters, too. I was in denial about why I was wearing only black all the time. It's because it's custom to wear only black for certain characters as for a shadow cult in the books. I was trying to tell myself it's a normal color to wear and my taste was naturally changing, but my family was on my tail after I got another black dress for my collection or I thrifted one two many black sweaters and shirts.
Even for music, I started fixating on a certain artist because they made a fansong and soon I've listened to all their music and enjoy whatever they release and even talked my friends into listening to them as well. Since the first fansong they released, they have made more music songs and other fansongs for other media that I got myself into just from the music. It really is hoping to hoping in interest of what is connected rather than just being restrictive all the time like it could be.
Very interesting video.
I had a lot of them:
Guitar
Metallica
Ocd cleaning
Bonsai
Gardening
Making bread
Survivalism
Tiny house / yurt living
Knitting
Hiking
Yoga
Growing herbs
Board games
Solo board games
Reading the Bible entirely
It keeps me busy from this insane world. And im sharing some of them with my kids. Lol. Take care.
I love this video, its so educational and so comforting. You explained it so well and it truly feels like i just talked to a friend about this topic. Im 18 and I have only recently started realising some things about myself that didnt feel quite right when i compared myself to other people and this video truly helped me unnderstand myself more and the fact that I have been having special interests my whole life without realising why I became so obsessed with one thing for a period of time that it was all I could think about, make stories about, make fanfiction about draw and so on. Here are a few things that have been my special interests over the years !
The 12 dancing princesses or barbie in general, this was when I was a small child
Lord of the rings, wanted to buy the ring many times and it was all i could think about
Star Wars, still a special interest and I even became a fanfiction writer cuz I couldnt keep my thoughts and ideas to myself i had to write them down cuz i was thinking so much about them
Harry potter
Anime
Juuzou Suzuya
Black Clover, Asta in particular
Mxtx stuff, I had a period where I was obsessed with each of the series so MDZS, TGCF and SVSSS i immedietely bought wei wuxians flute just to have it cuz it brought me a lot of comfort
Genshin Impact, a huge special interest especially Venti it went to that extent where I dyed my hair just to look like him
BL, boys love
drawing
Writing fanfiction and my own stories
Blue Exorcist
Star Wars Rebels, my longest and strongest special interest
Avatar the last airbender
These are just some I can remember. I also had a lot of sensory issues with food and textures as a child and even to this day. I get easily over stimulated when it comes to different textures and a lot of the times things seem a lot louder than they should be and it makes me irritable and nervous. Im currently thinking about bringing this up with my therapist to see if I fit in the diagnostic chart. Once again thank you for the awesome video, take care of yourself !
My most obvious weird interest as a kid was the element bromine. I learned chemistry in order to create it. It is a stinky reddish orange gas--very poisonous. My obsessive interests generally revolved around "spiritual essences" that I couldn't get enough of. I would meditate on specific stars, crystals, or plants. Outwardly my interests appeared normal enough, because I was astute enough socially that I didn't try to share them. In school, I pretended to be a science nerd, but underneath I was a total mystic. I majored in biochemistry as an undergraduate, but inwardly was more of a medieval alchemist.
My special interest has been video games throughout my entire life. Not just playing games; *everything* about games. I write fanfictions for games I currently play, I did a high school report on my lord and savior Shigeru Miyamoto, I cried for hours after hearing about Satoru Iwata’s death, I dressed up as a murloc for Halloween, I would even be so mesmerized by the Turok 64 intro as a baby that I’d watch it from my crib on repeat which gave my mom time to do what she needed to do. It’s literally a part of me far beyond being considered a hobby. I can function regularly and I’m capable of working, but I genuinely cannot go without playing a game for at least a few hours a day.
One day, my neurotypical ex and I were talking and the topic of him cutting back on gaming came up. I told him that’s a great idea and that I’d definitely join him in going a few days without gaming if I could. When I said that, he was really confused, like I was saying that I didn’t want to cut back. So, I explained the entire concept of autistic special interests using another one of our friends with autism as an example, whose own interest is dinosaurs. He said this gem:
“Can’t you just change your fixation?”
No. If I could do that at the drop of a hat, then I would shift my interest towards housework for the day and give my house a power wash. I further elaborated that asking me to not game for an extended period of time would be like telling said friend to stop talking about dinosaurs. I don’t think he understood in the end and instead thought that I sit around at every waking moment just playing video games and eating Doritos with a trusty liter of Mountain Dew by my side.
I do agree that I should regulate my time, but the whole asking me, someone he knows has autism, if I can change the interest I’ve had for literally my entire life really made that completely ridiculous.
There’s a reason why he’s an ex, I guess.
Hi, autistic teen here!
Back when I was 10, I knew I had autism but I didn’t realize I had a special interest in the car brand, Jeeps.
I could tell you the exact model, what year it was released, and the history of Jeeps.
I also had a special interest about the show SpongeBob… wow
Now my special interest is Mario and I tend to accidentally talk about it too much…. And spend all of my allowance on Mario plushies and action figures.
You'd love it at my house! There's like 4 jeeps in my yard, one of them works😂. Grand Cherokee.
I love it. She started out talking about special interests, then she switched TO her special interests. I can identify.
My special interests are obscure media and voice acting.
Community is one of my special interests. I have watched the series more times than I can count, both with my family and on my own. I use quotes from it all the time, whether they fit the context of what is happening or not. I am constantly explaining plots of episodes and jokes to my gf and friends. I remember crying during the episodes where Abed felt ostracized, like the one where Troy and Britta are on a date and Abed and Annie are in the dreamatorium and she tells him he doesn't care about other people's feelings. It's to the point where I even enjoy season 4, no matter how out of character everyone is and how few of the jokes land compared to other seasons. Sometimes when I have an issue with my appearance like having my shirt inside out or something and someone points it out, I will say "I have to go to the bank today". It's a huge part of my life and I am so worried I am going to get tired of it.
Love to see someone being positive about special interests! I can definitely relate to what you said about episodes that make you cry, guess who's current special interest is the anime Made in Abyss 😅 My favourite special interest was Laser Quest which lasted 8+ years, and I was lucky enough that that was the way into work for me, working in a Laser Quest arena which I loved - the Simpsons episode where Homer works in the bowling alley just feels like my life, right down to having to leave because that industry just doesn't pay enough to live on
As a kid it was Harry Potter. Now, it is human behavior, neurology, spirituality, psychology, and just everything about why humans are how we are and the many differences we have.
Am autistic, had the assessment last year.
My special interest is watching Blake's 7. I have watched this series beginning to end like 50 times or more now. Three scenes always bring me to tears: the death of Gan, the death of Zen(it is silly, the character is just a wall of lights voiced by an actor: I, I, I have failed you, I am sorry) and the final 5 minutes of the final episode.
i’ve been coming to terms with the possibility that i might be autistic, and i’ve been looking into professionals to help with that. (i don’t have a problem with the possibility of being autistic, of course, it’s just a lot to finally, potentially, have a name for what’s been going on with me my whole life.) but i’ve been struggling with it because i couldn’t really recognize any special interests in myself as they’re commonly described. i needed this video very badly; the emotional way you described your connection to your special interests and what they are - both by definition and emotionally to you - helped me pinpoint a lot of my own. thank you, deeply and truly. i feel much more confident in following up with a professional and seeking community!
Always glad to be a help! Best of luck getting everything figured out, it is a LOT, but it’s also so good to be able to know yourself more! 💕
It's world war 2 era tanks, metal, video games (it tends to be a "video game of the month" type thing, it's Skyrim right now) and miniature wargames for me, i spend what feels every waking moment thinking about, learning about or otherwise totally invested in one of those things.
Love! Yes!
I'm not yet diagnosed with autism, but with ADHD.
And in the last 3 years, since my diagnosis the thought dawned on me that its not everything.
I always thought that Some of my traits were just not normal, but now, way into my current special interest, it's getting real obvious for me.
In front of our house a huge building was demolished since last year, and when the big excavators started working in front of our windows, I watched - first I sat there, drawing the passengers and people that where watching, noticing that they really were excited, and the man operating the excavator was excited. Then, I became really excited. Since end of October last year. And now they're gone. And I did cry before in anticipation, and I'm crying again and again. It's just missing.
I loved the excavators (I had favourites) and I liked one worker most. Not in a romantic way, but I liked to just watch him. Just them being there and working felt so good. And I felt I got to know them.
Now, it's a bit like there is no handlebar/railway in my life. How is it supposed to work?
I try to deal with it with drawing. And maybe I'll take a trip to another construction site soon.
I was never into machinery, do not even have a driver's licence.
Love the jacket and your hair, you sound really happy and positive, which is great.
And now me, special interests:
Science fiction, all media.
Drawing, do it for a living as well.
Architecture.
International travel, from Japan to Argentina.
Photography, travel and architecture.
Sports architecture.
Music.
Writing short stories.
Writing humorous tales, jokes.
Anime.
Military equipment.
Jet fighters.
Warships.
Hovercraft, Christopher Cokerell is a hero of mine.
Singing, been a member of male voice choirs.
Jordan Peterson
Mindful Divergence aka Autistic Alice.
Lawn mowing video.
Engineering, infrastructure, transport.
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.
Those are the main ones, I have several more, like real ale pubs.
Why Did you like Jordan Peterson are you conservative ?
@@gstone8255 no, I'm a Saddler's fan, and I don't ascribe to any political ideology. I hate politicians, they're scumbags, frauds, narcissists and many more awful things. If I met a politician who was on fire, I wouldn't waste my piss on them.
I have an absolute obsessions of collecting football programmes with over 2 thousands, I still know the score and team changes and every programme missing from from any season back to the 1940's without a note book.... I can get really bothered if I can't find a specific one at any one time. Everything is meticulously organised. So i guess it falls into 'special interests.' No one else is allowed to move my stuff lol.... Colours and old school printing styles fascinate me ( sad lol )
oAnther one is a zero focus on world belief system... Sometimes I get amazed people talking about the two subjects don't know things I do. I\m really interested in the neuropsychology about the zero focused collecting.
I’ve actually had several as everyone else and frequently think of them at least once each day :) it’s quite lovely actually, being very varied. Yo when you say Inbetween, it’s been like that for me for AGES! I’ve been waiting for my favourite game to come out, and more niche stuff + I still need to play games I want to play that I know make me excited! 💖💖 I love how you say “go to certain bits and focus on them.” I’m sort of interested in The Amazing World of Gumball and finished watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recently ^^
So good to see someone else with special interests in TV shows! Mine is Nighty Night & pretty much anything written by Julia Davis, I could talk about her for hours. Not long ago I would say it was Glow - the fierce women, the 80s aesthetic, the music, I definitely relate to living and breathing the era of your favourite show 🤩
Always look forward to your videos Dana, you are smashing it 💚
Oooh I’ll need to check it out! I loved Glow too, took me a little to get into it but then I was REALLY into it!! Super glad it’s not just me that commits to the whole era 😂
Thank you so much 😭😍 It’s so bizarre to me that there are people watching and commenting, but it’s totally fantastic! Thank you!! 💕💕
I feel like my special interests have more negatives than positives. I love Gesaffelstein and I know he is releasing a new album soon because he's coming back to Coachella after five years but I don't know anything about the album yet and it's making me angry. I also love Mike Dean and he actually saw one of my posts in November and we talked a bit and after a while when he didn't say anything I felt betrayed. Then there are other ones that I just feel bad about for no reason. I've been scrolling social media a lot looking for updates. I think I need to find a show or something else to be interested in for a while so I'm not bored out of my mind.
Avant Garde Jazz music of the 50’s and 60’s, japanese made steel frame bicycles mid 70’s-early 90s, india, permaculture, dark ambient techno, james jamerson…. I also love dr who!!!
I think I’ve watched a lot of videos of you talking about your struggles (which are important, relatable and helped me understand my struggles too) so I wanted to say its so nice to see you happy and excited!
my newest special interest is other's special interests lol
so here's mine:
birds
ants
dinosaurs
public transportation
trains
football
tennis
chess
autism
cheese
history
geography
sociology
philosophy
astronomy
politics
conspiracy theories (i never believe them but they can be so fun)
mario kart (specifically playing competitive rn, yup that exists)
sim city
FIFA
need for speed
hotwheels
transformice (even have gameplay videos on my channel)
goodgame empire
hazbin hotel (more specifically the songs)
star wars
lord of the rings
harry potter
hunter hunter
jurrasic park
father ted
some are kinda general terms bc i have many specific interests related to them
probably more i cant remember, but I'm definitely keeping this list for the rest of my life now, honestly should have done one already
Thanks for the really informative video you've definitely helped me to understand it and you're incredibly likeable too! I do have to say though - Life on Mars is way better than Ashes to Ashes ;)
I just liked as you said it made you smile.
I basically dressed as Dean winchester for years, with screen accuracy
That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to be fair 😂 I still have a few too many plaid shirts left over from my Supernatural days! Those boys had style
I'm a 40 year old autistic man and my special interests are:
Doctor Who
Father Brown
Murdoch Mysteries
Brokenwood Mysteries
The Back to the Future films
The Harry Potter films
Young Sheldon
Christmas music
Fishing
50s and 60s Rock N Roll
Christmas films
Romantic films
Horror films
At times i feel like i want to get into things, but as a kid alot of times any time i would start to love something it was taken away or destroyed by my parents.
So when i see people talking about anything they are passionate about im like yes please tell me more. Plus it gives me a chance to not have to talk lmao i have a hard time ending conversations.
I love the movie premium rush and I looked up the bike and bag, but I still cannot find the chain and lock. Im also obsessed with snow because of metal gear solid
How does this video not have more views or likes??!
My new special interest is funky jackets after watching this video
My special interests have varied over the years, but the one that has stuck with me since I was 10 has been The Muppets.
I'm not an astrophysicist, but ask me about Neutron Stars, I dare you.
I'm not a writer, but ask me about Frank Herbert's "Dune", I dare you.
I'm not a film director, but ask me about "Blade Runner", I dare you.
I'm not a CGI expert (any more), but ask me about CGI, I dare you. (or just visit my gallery at Behance)
...
Blade Runner had way too much narration. It basically ruined the movie for me.
@@cerealbowl7038 There's like 6 or 7 different cuts of the movie. I suggest you watch "The Final Cut" from 2007, which is considered best version and has no narration.
@@MiroslavHundak Epic.
What's something you wish people knew about Blade Runner that most don't? It's one of my favorite films of all time. What did you think of 2049 then?
@@jfriday6654 I'm not sure. One of my favourite moments in the movie is when Roy Batty does his iconic speech before dying. Interesting thing about that speech is that it wasn't in the script. It was something that Rutger Hauer came up with and Ridley Scott was impressed enough to put it in final cut.
I also liked 2049 a lot. The cinematography was amazing, but I didn't expect anything less from Denis Villeneuve. The story was also very good, but I didn't feel like characters, other than K, were developed as much as they might have been.
My many special interests if anyone cares;
Kieran from Pokémon (Yes, I have a fictional character as a special interest)
Splatoon
The legend of Zelda
Pokémon
Murder drones
SpongeBob
Out of all the two that I am most obsessed with are Splatoon and Kieran (that’s why they’re at the top)
Good video👍 D&D and Pokémon cards currently for me
my special interest is trains especially heavy freight trains since i was 2. i can't shake trains man and i know alot about them too i love SD70ACe's ES44ACs ET44's SD40-2s etc i could go on forever
I've loved doctor who since the 70s I even write my own stories and I have a lot of doctor who DVDs and video tapes and toys. And I know a lot about doctor who.
I don’t really know if I have Autism, but here are my special interests.
Countries and geopolitics
Breaking Bad
Moonshining
Banjo music
Bushcraft and nature
History
Wars
Construction and building
Woodworking
Lifting weights
Religion
There really are some days where I am hyper focused on one thing for the entire day, this happened especially when I was a kid.
seraphine from league of legends is a special interest for me. i didnt even fully realize it until watching this. she has a star on her face as her character design.
i got a face tattoo just like her, it was my first tattoo and i have bo regrets lol
I'm from Brasil and when I found out about Doctor Who I found it to be bit childish but very intriguing. And learned to love it as much as liked Star Trek, Babylon 5, El Chavo del 8 and Os Trapalhões. Unfortunately I don't have BBC here or some other channel or stream service that has it. So I find that the RUclips documentaries about it fascinating: the initial creation, the regenerations, the actors, the directors, the companions, K9, the wilderness years, the hunt for the lost episodes and many other aspects about it. But to me the main aspect that make it so relatable is the creativity to do it on a shoe string budget for many years.
BUT...
Please do not confuse me for a misogynist, I loved the fact that they finally decided to change the character to a quirk well dressed mature woman.
BUT...
I've heard that unfortunately Jodi Whitaker's Doctor Who became shallower and more commercial. Something that older regenerations where not or at least not blatantly so. What do you think about it? Have you seen that 5 hours YT doc about it?
And should K9 be back or not? :)
Honestly, I don’t understand what a lot of fans are complaining about when it comes to Jodie’s run on the show. For me, the Capaldi era very nearly killed it, and the second Jodie took over i went back to feeling all the magic, whimsy and exciting adventure that I did while watching as a kid! This time with a budget for some better effects 😂
I haven’t watched many documentaries about it in the last couple of years, I may have seen it years ago if it’s older, but I could do with a rewatch anyway! I have a real soft spot for K-9, I don’t honestly think he’d add anything to the show currently, but it’s always good to see him return!
@@DanaAndersen It's OK. I'm the one who likes people who overanalyses shows, specially if they have a left-wing vibe in them.
Im obsessed with person of interest, night of the living dead, and a few others
Changes all the time but two of my big ones now are classic rock and sex education
Have you seen The Prisoner 1967? That has a huge fandom and for very good reason.
Oooh I haven’t, I’m on a life on Mars rewatch currently but I’ll add it to my list!
Life on Mars was ace. It is interesting that someone that didn't live in the 70s enjoyed it. I liked it when he met his old ginger cat. As a multiple ginger cat owner myself.@@DanaAndersen
my special interest as an autistic person is VERY competitive pokemon / VGC
A fan like noise started at approximately 7:58.
Yes, a fan-like noise, and the volume went up.
Want to hear to my special Intrest ?
Yeah
Just an interesting point of view I have but the Doctor in Doctor Who his name isn't The Doctor. If you listen carefully he has said over and over again "I am known as the Doctor." You wouldn't say that if your name was The Doctor. First ever episode Ian calls him Doctor Foreman and the Doctor goes "Doctor? Doctor who? What's he talking about?"
Just thought I would share that.
female special interest you can still get a bf. Male special interest you have little to no chance of a gf.
It’s funny because I’ve had men I knew in real life tell me this, and I thought at the time it’s much more likely they didn’t have a girlfriend because of the way they treat women.
@@DanaAndersen Theres no treating women either way. File not found. Only 16% of autistic males ever date.
@@DanaAndersen No evidence that autistic males view women any worse than neurotypical.