The list is extensive. I’m also making sure not to include “normal” interests. Many neurotypicals have what seem like “special interests.”
We can’t assume that everyone who collected coins or rocks or had a chemistry set as a child is probably autistic.
(This article was written before the author underwent her autism assessment.)
But where does one draw the line between a regular or NT-grade interest, and a hyperfixation or obsession?
I will give a list of my special interests (past and present) in person to the psychologist who assesses me.
These will be all the interests that were really odd, such as the way car trunks curve up at the ends on some sportier models.
I was intrigued by this at around age eight and called them “curve-ups,” yet outside of that very narrowed interest, I had NO further interest in cars.
For a short time I collected twistie ties — those ties for the plastic bags that bread or dinner rolls come in. I thought their different colors were so cool.
During college I definitely had had an obsession with schizophrenia, mental hospitals and mental patients.
I’m pretty sure my brief obsession with the freak death of athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili in 2010 will sound quite autistic.
Here I was thinking my hyperfixation was just some kind of morbid curiosity fueled by a lifelong interest in brain trauma.
But the more I think about it, the more I realize that this could be a classic example of a brief, intense fascination on something that few people would get so absorbed in.
Kumaritashvili was on a luge training run for the 2010 Olympics when he miscalculated a turn.
The luge flipped, catapulting him out, sending his helmeted head slamming into a metal beam.
The crash was caught on tape (but not the beam impact). I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I viewed it on YouTube — over and over and over — including in slow motion and in freeze frames, carefully analyzing his body positions as he flew out of the overturned luge and towards the unseen metal beam.
There were two different angles that the crash was caught on tape, and one of them showed his body as it was being ejected upward against the run-wall. I viewed this on pause for prolonged periods.
In the real-time footage, you could hear the loud “DING!” of his helmet slamming into the beam which was out of film range.
In my venture of compiling my special interests list, I emailed my brother and texted my sister, asking if they could remember any “obsessions” of mine in childhood.
I have this strong sense that the list is incomplete, so I need their help.
However, I disguised my question as research for an article I’m writing on “creativity and intelligence.”
They have no idea of the real objective. They have no idea I’ve officially begun the evaluation process (I’ve already filled out a lengthy questionnaire, and the in-person evaluation has already been scheduled).
My sister responded she could recall only two obsessions: sharks and window shades (which were already on my list).
I told her to please send any more that might come to mind, even if two weeks later.
She then texted, “Ohhh wait I possibly remember very young you having an extreme interest in cracks in a sidewalk and sidewalks in general.”
You can’t get more autistic than THAT! (Well, maybe you can, but you get the point).
I have absolutely no memory of this fixation, which suggests it occurred when I was no older than preschool (my sister is two and a half years older).
At the time that I was a young child, when autism was associated with severe behavioral and communication problems, nobody would have ever suspected that their very verbal little girl’s fascination with sidewalk cracks might mean autism.
Some special interests can also go unnoticed, like my intrigue over those little pom-poms on cars of people who were just married. They’d fly off as the cars went down the main street that my house was on.
I’d see them on various lawns, run over and grab them. I’d even step outside the house just for this purpose, eyes scouting out all the lawns, wondering what the color would be of the next “fuzzie” I spotted.
I’d get really excited when I saw one in someone’s yard. I’d run onto those properties and pluck off the latest fuzzie. The white ones were so cool!
This is one of those grey-area special interests, because it can pass as a normal “girlie” behavior.
Additional special interests (or what seemed like autism-grade interests) on my list include: Kahoutek Comet, a child abduction case in Cleveland, OH, facial deformities, gravitational biology, wood chipper deaths, seizures from head trauma, racial mixes, first name spellings, big thick ponytails, hypothermia, flicker fusion rates and why it’s wrong to hold onto a treadmill.
Update: This article originally appeared on medium.com. The author underwent the assessment and was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. She celebrated by buying autism themed tee shirts and rainbow color leggings!
