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Unique Interests

E

erinvergez

New Member
Hi! My son is 15 and has level 2 autism. He is absolutely awesome and has conquered so many barriers. He has such unique interests like janitor carts, fans, antennas, and swiffer vacuums. I’m curious what some of your interests or fixations are and why??

Thanks!
 
Howdy!

I do plants. Just spent 4 hours bringing the outdoor plants inside. The water lilies go in giant vats in the basement.

Currently, I'm learning to play harp, so I'm obsessed with harps.
 
Botany
Zoology
Meteorology
Chemistry
Electromagnetism
Phytochemistry
Other scientific subjects
Doing science experiments and making my own observations
Photography especially macrophotography
Calligraphy
Poetry
Riddles
Puzzles
Cryptograms
 
FayetheAspie said:
Botany
Zoology
Meteorology
Chemistry
Electromagnetism
Phytochemistry
Other scientific subjects
Doing science experiments and making my own observations
Photography especially macrophotography
Calligraphy
Poetry
Riddles
Puzzles
Cryptograms
Click to expand...
The macrophotography is kinda a crossover between science and art I think. I always liked observing things under a magnifying glass since early childhood and a little later on being able to observe things under a microscope. The macrophotography allows preservation of a magnified view that can later be analyzed to observe miniscule details while also have a good esthetic that is good for framing on the wall.
 
Welcome to the forum, @erinvergez.

Some of my interests include:
- mental health
- lights and shadows
- animal behavior
- rocks and stones
- trees
- skulls

The "Why" for all is the same - these subjects are alluring, fascinating and I don't fully understand them yet.
 
I’ve always said that an autistic person’s special interest can be anything- and I mean literally anything! When I was younger, I was more fixated on broad topics, like dinosaurs and dogs. As I got older, I became more interested in media properties, like anime, video games, and movies. However, I don’t consider everything I enjoy a special interest. For example, I love drawing and painting, but I don’t think about it the majority of the time.
 
Hello! Sounds like your son has some cool interests. I'm ten years older than him but at that age I was picking up an interest in antique technology - or rather was teaching myself to work on that sort of thing. I learned to disappear to the barn and overhaul decrepit junk from the 1900s to the point it could be used daily.

English 3-speed bicycles
Typewriters especially pre-war models
To some extent, trains; I hate cars and love trains.
Car repair, surprisingly enough
MUSIC.
Vacuum cleaners - I have two vintage ones, one I built from parts
Vintage electric fans, motors, appliances
Clocks and watches, mostly windup ones but I like electrics as well
Kerosene lamps and vintage electric lamps
Horses!
Edison wax cylinder phonographs
78rpm records and wind-up phonographs to play them (probably my biggest interest)
Public transportation
Fabrics, machine sewing, vintage fashion
Books, reading tons and tons of books both nonfiction and literary fiction
Old houses, the creakier and less modernized, the better
Clean energy and environmentally friendly solutions to the current carbon crisis
Chemicals
Rocks
Plants
Birds
Stars at night
Poems
Inks, I like the way ink smells
Fountain pens, preferably with a good ink.
The play between medieval philosophy, classical Greek philosophy, and postmodernism
The history of the labor unions as response to the economic and social change of the Industrial Revolution
 
Right now my ASD2 son's interest is in cutting up things with scissors. He builds little sculptures with cardboard, but he cuts up other things too. We're ready for him to move onto something else, lol.
 
erinvergez said:
Hi! My son is 15 and has level 2 autism. He is absolutely awesome and has conquered so many barriers. He has such unique interests like janitor carts, fans, antennas, and swiffer vacuums. I’m curious what some of your interests or fixations are and why??

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Antennas are one of mine as well.
Also:
Electronic design/build/repair
Ham Radio
Any othet 2 way radio
microcontroller programming
Camping
Sailing
Canoeing
Hiking
Boat building
Cabin building
All the hard (non-biological) sciences
Satellite communications.
Flying drones
Native American crafting
Writing
 
Mine are all extremely autistic interests, if I do say so myself. Modular synthesizers, livecoding, sound design, audio programming, image-filter programming, microcontrollers and single-boards, and when I'm feeling squirrely, gamedev.

Whenever I mention any of these to neurotypicals... well, I don't anymore. Let's just say that :D
 
My interests keep changing, I might be intensely interested in something because it came up in a book or movie, and then something else takes its place again, and it comes back up a while later.

As a child, things were: dinosaurs, the "Warriors" book series, books in general, certain Nintendo games, dragons, nature (animals, insects, plants), a certain manga series, broken limbs (weird, I know, but the amount of times I put a "cast" on my dolls or myself, or drew people with casts on can't be counted), and probably others I don't remember right now.

Now, as an adult, things are: still books, series/movies, mental health, random science topics (mostly from biology and physics), space science and astronomy, certain animals, geography/earth science (don't really know how to call it - random things, like geographic facts, natural phenomena such as Northern lights, vulcanoes and earthquakes), psychology and why people act the way they do, true crime, religious groups and sects (sometimes), medieval times, etc. etc. etc.

The list is long. The most consistent thing are books. I am very enthusiastic and can get immersed in a very wide variety of things.

The reason why I see them as "special" interests (I don't necessarily mean autistic "special interest" here, but also not "normal" NT interests) is that I get extremely immersed and excited about them for relatively short periods of time. I'll read a sci-fi book about space travel, and for the next 3 days, all I can think about is space. Then it's blown over and something else takes its place. The intensity makes them special for me, not the duration. Maybe that's an AuDHD thing? I'm not sure.
 
The main one for me is physics started thread on here , Also industrial colour control built career on this. MInor ones like music Solving real life puzzles is big everything else ties into this. My life revolves around looking for patterns subject matter does not make any difference.
 
Welcome aboard.
I enjoy:
Coin collecting
Painting with acrylic paints
Lego
Rock tumbling (and rock hounding)
Listening to music
Electrical work, wiring, design, maintenance of electrical systems and equipment.
Reading.
 
Welcome. I never understood why i am so interested in my obsession but mine are:

Astrology
Asian cultures
Asian languages
Perfumes
Cosmetic products
 
In no particular order, for no particular reason:

Digital photography
Maps of all kinds
Computer graphics/digital image manipulation
Plastic modelling
Totalitarian systems/Mass-Authoritarian movements
Capital punishment
US Constitutional law
Foreign coins
Geography/Meteorology
Canines (domesticated and wild, particularly foxes)
Building/maintaining personal computers
Everything Linux
Science fiction film and television
Everything Star Trek
The Beatles
History of various eras and nations
Paranormal investigation/experiences
Taco fanatic
 
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