Do you ever feel overwhelmed with your own special interests?

[ofwarren]

I cycle between about 5 or 6 different special interests through my life. I'm always interested in all of them but 1 will always be dominant at any one time.

I do the usual special interest thing where I become obsessed with the topic, research it and basically live and breath it until I become very stressed and have complete information overload. I then have a day of feeling really depressed and down about life and then my interest swaps to one of the others and then it starts again.

It's like a drug. At first it feels amazing, I do as much as I can to absorb the topic, I live and breathe it and try to 'become' the topic almost. Then I crash and burn and start all over again.

Can anyone relate to this, or something similar?

[BoardLikeAMirror]

I live and breathe it and try to 'become' the topic almost

I really relate to this. I have a long list of special interest topics and tend to turn to them especially when I am unhappy or stressed.

I instantly know, as well, when I find something that is going to be a new one - and that it will dominate my life for a glorious period of time.

[ofwarren]

@Boardlikeamirror Do you have signs when it gets to the end of that interest? Mine is stressful. I just wish I got bored and wanted to do something else rather than feeling overwhelmed with my own interest.

[ofwarren]

And do NTs just balance the things they like? Do they have like 5 things they are into and just think of them on and off?
I can't get my head round what the NT experience of interests would be.

[BoardLikeAMirror]

It's hard to explain but it's almost as though the interest turns bad at the end of a phase - it starts to feel like a nightmare - so I know I have to withdraw from it. There will be a period of nothing and then I will go to a different one. I find a new one perhaps once every couple of years and it gets added to the list.

I am all or nothing - I imagine a NT experience to be less overwhelming and not to dominate every thought - and more likely to move on or 'grow out' of things. Some of mine date from early childhood.

[BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation]

My cycling between interests seems to have settled down since menopause. I don't have the energy I used to anymore, so I have to pace myself. I do have days where I go crazy for something and am fully immersed, but I quickly get tired and it rarely lasts now. It's definitely energy related.

[ofwarren]

@BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation

My cycling between interests seems to have settled down since menopause. I don't have the energy I used to anymore, so I have to pace myself. I do have days where I go crazy for something and am fully immersed, but I quickly get tired and it rarely lasts now. It's definitely energy related.

That's very interesting. I'm hoping mine settles down a bit then.

[Hawkins001]

@ofwarren

I cycle between about 5 or 6 different special interests through my life. I'm always interested in all of them but 1 will always be dominant at any one time.

I do the usual special interest thing where I become obsessed with the topic, research it and basically live and breath it until I become very stressed and have complete information overload. I then have a day of feeling really depressed and down about life and then my interest swaps to one of the others and then it starts again.

It's like a drug. At first it feels amazing, I do as much as I can to absorb the topic, I live and breathe it and try to 'become' the topic almost. Then I crash and burn and start all over again.

Can anyone relate to this, or something similar?

Most of what you wrote I can relate too,

The differences for me are

I don't get information overload, as I break down the different aspects of the topic when I'm researching and research section by section.

I swap research projects, generally because I see a documentary or I read a snipet in the paper about x subject or see a fictional show and wonder about the real life science of it, e.g. Killer net, was my realising that serial killers existed etc

[DisorganisedAlways111]

I absolutely get this. The special interest is my main focus every day - during work i'm thinking when can I next read about it, Google it, find it on YouTube / Facebook / Instagram etc. it is my whole focus constantly and then it's like one day I wake up and i'm no longer interested. It sort of just falls off my radar.

But I do notice that if I don't have a special interest for a while I become really low and feel down, that life is boring and pointless (if it's been quite a while without one).
Then the next one comes out of nowhere and it starts again.

[FloorWipes]

I have this. It’s a hard time between interests when the magic wears off. Sometimes for me it’s because it’s become overwhelming - for example, I realise eventually that the whole thing is really too big for me to get round - and sometimes it is just bizarrely forgotten one day. Or sometimes interests overlap and one segues into another which is much happier.

[DisorganisedAlways111]

@FloorWipes

I have this. It’s a hard time between interests when the magic wears off. Sometimes for me it’s because it’s become overwhelming - for example, I realise eventually that the whole thing is really too big for me to get round - and sometimes it is just bizarrely forgotten one day. Or sometimes interests overlap and one segues into another which is much happier.

I'd say this is how it is for me too.

[Roseglen84]

I'm not sure if I belong here, but some of these posts really resonated with me.

In my case it's a vivid parallel fantasy life, which I spend an inordinate amount of time nurturing, usually around an intense crush or imagined career or alternative life. At first it is overwhelming and takes up every spare moment, I read up or watch related things and find out as much as I can about it, and these thoughts intrude on my everyday life. Sometimes it feels like when I'm at work or with friends, I'm just killing time until I can return to my imagination, but then after a while this intensity slowly wanes and I get bored, or find something else to fixate on, but there is always something.
I have had this since I was a child, and always lived more in my own head than anywhere else.

I still have friendships and a life of sorts, but I don't seem to put the effort into my real life that I do to my imagination, which has led me to a place where I have massively underachieved in many areas (career, romantic relationships). Having said that, I'm pretty content to just drift along, and would say I'm happy enough and can appear to function well in society (although am an introvert who is happy by myself for most of the time) but I know for people in my family, they are hugely disappointed that I have not fulfilled my potential or that I'm not more ambitious.

Real life seems more exhausting or something. Sorry, I'm not sure if it's the same thing really.

[ofwarren]

@RoseGlen84 Have you tried any of the online screening tests to see if you have any other autistic traits?
Your description of how consuming your interests are definitely sounds like my experience of special interests.
Try this one psychology-tools.com/test/autism-spectrum-quotient

They obviously can't diagnose you but it gives you an idea.

[Roseglen84]

Thanks OP, I don't think I fit on the autism spectrum really, many of the traits don't align with me.
I think it's more some sort of attention deficit or something, although I'm reluctant to diagnose. It's just something I have become more aware of in recent years, the tuning out of 'real' life in favour of living in my thoughts/ imagination.

I just happened to read this thread and it somewhat resonated.

[ofwarren]

@roseglen84 it's quite possible. My husband has ADHD and he definitely has a strong inner world with "special interests" too.

[PeskyRooks]

That sounds like maladaptive daydreaming @Roseglen84 I've done this since I was a child also.

[Roseglen84]

Thanks Pesky, I will have a look at that.

The issue is it can take over a bit, and like other poster's talked about, I go through cycles of intensity. My moods can be quite dependent on the whole thing: if I'm at the start of it all, I get obsessive and it takes over, but I also get a rush of purpose and adrenaline - for example researching as much as possible etc.
Then after a while when it wears off I feel a bit despondent and depressed, until I find something else to fixate on and the whole things starts all over again.

Anyway, sorry for derailing the thread!!

[Lovemusic33]

I can relate to this too.
I don’t have a diagnosis but both dc are autistic and I have many ADHD traits. I have 3 or 4 interests, one particularly takes over my life and I can easily lose a whole day (sometimes week too it) to the point my house is a mess and I’m behind with real life jobs that I should be keeping up with. I kind of know when it’s getting out of hand but i just can’t rein it in. This particular interest is kind of seasonal so when I can’t do it as much I usually move to one of my other interests although the can kind of tie into each other 😬.