Hyperfocusing, Special Interests, and Procrastination

As an occupational therapy student, one of the hardest classes I'll have to take is Anatomy, and I'm taking it right now. Aside from the sensory hell I experience from the bone saws, the embalming fluids, and... other fluids, it hasn't been quite as bad as I thought, but I'm always nervous when we get to the exams, so I'll usually try to study a lot to compensate. 

This weekend, instead of being responsible and studying for my upcoming exam, I realized about halfway through the day that my cat absolutely needed a costume for Halloween, and I spend the next three hours going to the store, buying yarn, and knitting him the beginnings of an Ewok hood to match my Leia cosplay. I did get about five good hours of studying in that day, but in-between those times, I was playing Minecraft, watching NCIS, and trying to think of meals I could eat that would maximize time playing and minimize time spent cooking. I would consider this weekend relatively productive, but obviously it would have been moreso if I hadn't taken those breaks to knit, play videogames, and watch tv. I'll let you know if it affects my grade, but for now I think I'm okay.

This rather timely example encouraged me to focus on the topic of special interests and hyperfocus for this week's blog post, since both of these things were involved in my procrastination techniques this week, so I'll be explaining what these are, how they affect many autistic people, and how they affect me specifically.

What is a special interest? 

Special interests are very significant interests that an autistic person may have. It could be anything, a specific book series or tv show, animals, even autism itself, although the stereotypical example would be trains. For an autistic person, this special interest is super important and meaningful in their lives. Their interest in this thing can drive them to engage socially when they might not otherwise, and it can encourage them to spend more time on a project because it's focused on this topic. Special interests are often treated as a bad thing by doctors and harmful therapies, but they can actually be great for helping us connect with others.

A good example of this would be my brother's interest in art and anime. He's really skilled in creating things, and recently he started making his own cosplays, which he's taken to anime conventions to share with others. My brother isn't the most extroverted of people, and he's usually ready to leave a get-together after ten minutes, but he seeks out anime conventions and actually made some friends at one because he was able to focus on his interests, share them with others, and find other people with similar interests. Special interests are amazing because they open these doors, giving us motivation to reach out when we might not in other areas. 

A few things to clarify: special interests are unique to the autistic community. If you are not autistic, you can have an interest and a passion, but it isn't the same as a special interest, and that's okay. 

Also, some people might say, "If you can do this for your special interest, you should be able to do it for other things." This would be referring to large social gatherings, spending prolonged time focusing on school, or other things that we might struggle with. For a non-autistic person, this may be true, but it isn't necessarily true for us. Why is this? 

 One major reason for this is what psychologists would call a "spiky cognitive profile," which basically means that while autistic people may be extremely gifted in some areas of mental processing, they may be below average or requiring more help in other areas. I had this myself in my diagnostic paperwork, and for me, it means that I do really well in nonverbal mental reasoning and in face-to-face communication, but when I had to do tasks with low mental effort (boring), or tasks that involved discerning emotions from written text, I struggled. It is literally harder for us to do easier tasks than it is for us to do harder tasks, and if we're bored by a topic, that means it's that much harder for us to do well and engage in that subject. 

Another reason we find non-preferred tasks more difficult is often because of sensory issues. Special interests can act as almost a buffer when we're faced with loud environments, lots of people, or something that we'd usually find unpleasant. With my brother's example, his dislike of crowds was put on hold because most everyone in the crowd was wearing a cosplay from an anime he'd seen, and nearly half of them complimented his chainsaw man cosplay. Ask him to go to a concert, on the other hand, and that buffer is gone, and instead of being able to focus on his interests, he's only able to focus on the stuff that makes him miserable, whether it's the forced social interaction, the base, or the flashing lights. When we went to a convention together, he was still ready to leave a little before me, but his special interest in cosplay kept him interested far longer than he would have been otherwise.

Hyperfocus:

Now that we've talked about special interests, I'll go into the topic of hyperfocusing, which is very similar, but with some variations. Hyperfocusing is an experience shared by many neurodiverse people where someone may struggle to regulate their attention, and instead of spending their time on their responsibilities, they focus intently on another thing and have trouble pulling themself away from it. This is basically what I was doing this weekend, spending three hours knitting a hat for my cat instead of studying for my anatomy exam. 

Like a special interest, if we hyperfocus on the right thing, it can lead to a lot of success in that area, but part of hyperfocus is usually having difficulty regulating that attention, either positively or negatively. Hyperfocus is similar to flow, but more intense, and can often lead us to forgetting bodily needs, like eating, hydrating, or taking much-needed bathroom breaks. 

Hyperfocus and special interests sound pretty similar, so it can be hard to differentiate between them, but I'll try to help. Hyperfocus is a state of being; this weekend when I was overly focused on my knitting instead of my homework, I was hyperfocusing. However, the next day, that desire to focus intently on knitting wasn't quite as intense, and I haven't continued working on that project yet.

In comparison, when looking at my special interest in knitting itself, I still greatly enjoy knitting and am interested in learning new patterns and trying new things, even if I'm not knitting right this second. My special interest continues to exist even when I'm not engaging in the activity, but hyperfocus is used when actively pursuing the subject I enjoy. It's like how I can have a favorite movie, and it'll still be my favorite movie when I'm watching something else, but when I do watch that movie, I am very focused on it, and I enjoy it greatly.

Unlike special interests, hyperfocusing isn't limited to autistic people, but is an experience shared by many in the neurodiversity community, especially ADHD-ers. An argument could be made that people with ADHD also experience special interests, but this is an opinion that would vary from person-to-person, so I would mostly stick to calling it hyperfocusing when talking about ADHD. There is a lot of overlap between these two neurotypes, and I'll probably talk about that sometime later in my blog.

Continuing on the topics of special interests and hyperfocusing, as an autistic person, I can often hyperfocus on my special interests, meaning that my attention is focused solely on these topics, and I have difficulty pulling myself from them. I've had this tendency throughout the years, so I thought I'd spend some time talking about how these interests have varied throughout my life, and how they affect me today.

When I was little, my favorite movie was Peter Pan. I probably watched that movie a thousand times between the ages of two and five. I went to go see Peter Pan 2 when it came out in theaters, and I wasn't even three years old at the time. As I got into elementary school, those interests shifted to cats, Pokémon, Star Wars, and the Warriors book series. I got through many a boring math class by reading during note-taking time. My special interest in Warriors meant that I visited the school library two to three times a week, and it meant that I had an outlet for when I felt unchallenged and unengaged in school. Not every autistic kid has this outlet, and instead of spending math class reading, they may have acted out and been diagnosed before the age of 20. However, the early 2000's wasn't a very friendly time to be diagnosed with autism, so I don't mind too much that it took me longer than most to gain a diagnosis.

When I got into middle school, I was still interested in Star Wars and Warriors, but these were put on the backburner as I was introduced to anime and fanfiction. I also had a brief One Direction stint thanks to one of my friends introducing me to their music. In high school, I got pretty busy and didn't have much time for new interests, but I did discover Marvel movies, and I still enjoyed Star Wars. For a little bit there, I think I was able to hyperfocus on school itself, and this lasted long enough to get me named Valedictorian when I graduated (this title is utterly useless, by the way). 

Today, I would say that my current special interests are still Star Wars and sci-fi movies in general, but I've also developed significant interests in disability studies, psychology, autism itself, and some interests in theology. I don't think I have a special interest in occupational therapy specifically, but my other interests drove me to pursue this field. This blog itself was made because of these interests, and hyperfocusing on them is great because it can help me do well in this field. 

Hyperfocusing, like special interests, can have its benefits. When I am given an assignment where I can focus on my interests, I spend more time and energy on it than I would otherwise, and I usually end up with a better grade. I've discovered that intentionally choosing these topics for assignments can help me both enjoy the process and get more done. 

A few last notes: 

As integral parts of the autism diagnosis criteria, special interests can be very significant in the lives of autistic people, but they aren't as simple as a personality trait or a hobby, and we aren't always in control of our hyperfocus on these topics. These interests help us connect to other people, and spending time focusing on our interests can be a great way for us to recharge. Not all autistic people have a special interest, but we can still be autistic, and our thoughts and feelings should still be valued. 

If you wouldn't stop a non-autistic kid from talking about their interests, don't stop us from talking about our interests. And if we talk about our interests for longer than a non-autistic person, remember that we're not doing it to monopolize a conversation or to be a jerk, we're doing it to share our excitement and passion in the hope that you'll find joy from it like we do. 

Special interests and hyperfocus are often misunderstood, so I hope that writing about this topic was helpful in teaching others about the importance of both these things for autistic people.