What Are Autistic Special Interests Like?

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!

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 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.

My special interest has been Power Rangers for 30 years. I will never let go of that show, it is my safe place.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

My special interests are obscure media and voice acting.

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.

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.

I love it. She started out talking about special interests, then she switched TO her special interests. I can identify.

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!

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

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 !

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 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.

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.