Our Special Interests Part 3

Welcome back to the Audacious Aspie! Today we finish up looking at the Respectfully Connected article on the low-down of the passions/obsessions/special interests of people with the Autism/Asperger condition, written by someone with Autism (the author), and now being covered by someone with Aspergers (me). That’s a lot of A’s surrounding one article. The article itself is huge, a love letter to the authors obsession (and why not?) while also educating people on the what and how of Autistic/Asperger passions. While I would love to cover the article more, I must move on to other topics to keep things interesting, but if you wish to read more, search respectfully Connected and Special Interests.

 

Back to the topic, the author mentions that his obsession’s acts like, for the author, a release. Merely physically touching the authors lego is a stress release, not to mention the clacking sound of block hitting block. When the author starts building, the world just melts away, until it’s just him/her and the blocks. However, there are days that the author does not have a passion, and those are the worst. The author would feel a loss of interest, focus and nothing exciting to look forward to.

 

To get out of the rut, the author would try to revisit old obsessions, seeing whether they would stick or not, perhaps going as far as to fill up a tub or pool of the particular passion, dive in, swimming around smiling and laughing (that's how I would imagine it anyways, hopefully there would be nothing sharp or bony involved). Sometimes it will stick, other times not. That is when the author plays the waiting game, waiting for another passion to paint itself purple, slap the author in the face and sing happy days are here again.

Imagine filling up a tub as long and wide as this one with your favorite passion. Heaven right? Unless it’s knives, or swords, or construction materials. But other than that...

 

But until then, the author would just wait patiently, knowing that another special interest would soon come along, new or old. And without fail, one always did. The author does not find his/her special interests “restricted, fixated or abnormal” (Paragraph 10), rather, they are “energizing, restorative and serve an important function” (Paragraph 10). They allow the authors brian to do what it does best. What would that be? Don’t know, but if it’s anything like my brain, it’s fretting, worrying, and telling me that my stomach is empty.

 

Will, that does it for this post, and for the article as will. Next week, we will go back to look at a topic that will have a big impact for the Autistic/Asperger community, either good or bad. This time though, we’ll take a look at it from a different kind of light. Should be interesting. Until then, this continues to be, the Audacious Aspie.     

 

University lesson number 1: always, always use multiple sources to back up your argument on, or to research, a topic. Or at least aim for the minimum amount of sources allowed by the professor, but don’t tell the professor that.