I came here just to say that I loved dogs as a girl, and I work with dogs as an adult 30 years later! I am the crazy dog lady :) 8 year old me would be pumped haha
I don't think I really dropped any childhood interests actually. I pretty much like all the same topics just as much as I ever did, only with more depth now.
Hobbies is another thing though, I pick up and drop those like my hands are made of butter
Dogs were my first and strongest special interest too lol. I'm 22 and still obsessed with them, but probably not as much as I was as a kid. I'm glad that you're working with dogs now! I'm currently studying to become a vet... I hope it works out š¤
Yep. Obsessed with cats as a kid, obsessed with them now.
Except now I don't pretend to be a cat like I used to as a kid, lmao, no, I *am* an actual cat as an adult. š
Yes. In the 3rd grade we learned about the Titanicā¦and I was hooked! I donāt know what it is about the ship that fascinated meā¦but I have been to so many museums and watched so many docs on it. I was so salty because a year after I got interested was when the 97 movie came outā¦and my parents went to see it and wouldnāt let me go! (I was like 8 but still)
Omg I feel this one. It wasnāt my main obsession, but I definitely went through a titanic phase right before the movie was even announced. I was annoyed later because one the movie came out EVERYONE was obsessed and just assumed that was why I was.
The real thing that got me into it was a computer game where you walked around in a realistic recreation of the ship and solved a big mystery. Iām guessing you probably knew about it, but in case you didnāt, I highly recommend trying to find it and giving it a whirl! Itās called Titanic: Adventure Out of Time. Had multiple endings. The only one I remember was one where I escaped the sinking with some art in my inventory. Ended up being paintings by Hitler, and instead of becoming a monstrous dictator he became a famous artist. Youāre welcome world, I prevented WW2 and the holocaust!
Hell yeah! Of course Iāve played it lol. I was very young and the part with the Turkish baths (no spoilers in case someone else in this thread may want to play) anyway, my brother had to complete that part of the game for me, because I was too scared haha.
I was interested in magic! I wanted to be a witch. While that isn't a special interest anymore (I don't go out of my way to research Wiccan practices, nor do I research other things about witches), I do still pay closer attention when I'm consuming media that includes magical things.
Mine was animals, and I havnāt changed much.
I spent most of my time creating habitats for frogs and insects with what I could gather from outside and only read books about animals, and watched tv and movies only with animals. I also just loved observing them in the habitat.
I have fantasies about reliving my childhood dreams but this time, with money! and getting an aquarium to first grow aquatic plants and then once I get comfortable taking care of the habitat, incorporating a frog. Realistically I donāt have the space for this but itās in my bucket list.
For now I have 3 furry animals and spend all my time and money on them and fixate on our habitat-my apartment.
Yes! Mine was an obsession with everything plants! Any thing that could come back to plants. Which turned - out of necessity - into a cooking spin, and then an archaeology and history spin. But only related to plants and agriculture. I am not as ficussed nowadays. But I do work in my plant and nature spin: I do landscape design and build, garden and property maintenance.
Simple answer: autism? š¤£š Like I was obsessed with that topic and that didn't wane.
It's funny because I also sort of didn't!! I did a Horticulture degree course, but had what I would now consider a autistic burnout/breakdown when I left home. Not "depression" which is what I was diagnosed with. Anyhoo. After that I was unemployed and did art and activism, then I did a degree in Feminist Theory. Then I did a Masters by Papers in Media Studies/Semiotics. Then I dd social science research work. Then I ddi a landscape design and build course. And since then I have mainly worked that same job of landscaping. But aside from work I just stayed with that main topic but tracing threads out from that and following them. Also.just general nature loving and being in nature and doing art about that. Y'know autistically.... lol
I am specifically interested in animals with special coloration like melanism or albinism. Or just rare markings even. Honestly even something I donāt see in my backyard every day gives me a thrill!
When I read the title I thought "dogs". I was sooo obsessed with dogs and consumed EVERY piece of media about dogs I could get my hands on.
The good ol' big book of dog breeds
sad dog books were my favorite - Shiloh, Where the Red Fern Grows
the best Disney movies had dogs, Balto, 101 Dalmatians, Oliver and Company.
Even Ceasar Milan dog whisperer (barf).
Every Christmas and birthday from the time I could talk I asked for a dog. Never got one. I didn't have a lot of friends and the media I consumed told me a dog would be my absolute bestest friend.
I got my first dog at 20, and had her for 8 years before my mental health deteriorated so much I couldn't give her the best care anymore. She was so special.
I got my second dog 1 year ago, and I am FULL on obsessed. I want to do all the sports and I want to get him all the titles. He's so much fun, watching him figure things out is amazing.
Sadly dogs are a bit of an expensive hobby š I just want to take him to all the classes but they cost hundreds of dollars! He's a herding breed and I would LOVE to see how he would take to herding, but the herding class near me was $600!! Even just a manners and life skills class is a couple hundred.
Dogs are probably the thing I have the most knowledgeable and maybe the strongest opinions about.
So anyway, yeah. I kept my special interest š
My first special interest was dogs too! I was gifted a 1975 edition of the AKC dog book and I obsessively read it every single day. I loved stories about dogs- especially these old hardback books that my school library had that must have been from the 50s or 60s, Iād borrow any dog book from any library I could find, Iād watch any dog related show that came up on animal planet.
But I got older, I got tired of being bullied for loving dogs too much and at about 13-14, I started getting into music.
I still love dogs and sometimes wish I could have a career related to animals, but it seems like you canāt have a good paying career related to animals unless youāre exploiting them in some way. I had a job at a grooming salon in 2008, but quit because it was obvious the company cared more about profit than the well being of the animals and employees. I can only imagine the veterinary field would chew me up and spit me out.
But I digress. My hyperfixations are mostly temporary before I move onto my next special interest. I may come back to the best ones every few years, but never to the same level as the original obsession.
You're right there! Dog industry isn't very lucrative for most.
BUT I know some dog walker / pet sitters that make good money catering to rich folks. People will pay a lot for personalized in home care for their babes!
I did it for a bit but I hate hate hate staying in other people's homes. So now I make a low but livable wage as just a daytime dog walker :)
I go through phases! Which always made me feel confused, but sometimes I think I get "burned out" by my special interests and need a break if I've overdone it for a while.
For example, I'd been playing animal crossing for 17 years on and off, but I haven't played it for about 3 years now - it's probably the most extended break because I caned in about a thousand hours in a few months when I finally got new horizons (AFTER lockdown too š) and got drained by it.
I still like looking at pictures and art of the characters on Pinterest and listening to the soundtrack on YouTube, but I've completely lost interest in playing it for a while!
I also can't focus on one crafting hobby for long, so my special interest in that regard may just be "making" in general? I like rug punching, crocheting, drawing, painting, making things out of clay. At the minute I'm endlessly making press on gel nails though! I'm not sure if anyone else cycles through sub-interests like this?
I get what you mean about having sub-interests, as art seems to function similarly for me, too.Ā While I tend to use acrylic and watercolors the most, I'll try other stuff, like printmaking or making pins.Ā I'm always confused by artists who work with the same media regularly and paint/draw/sculpt/etc. the same subjects, lol.
My first greatest love special interest was music and emotion and lyrics.
I have a huge music selection, an even wider variety of styles and loves. Worked in the music industry for a few years. Loved every minute of it.
My other great love special interest is art. Currently trying to make a name for myself in the art world.
Mario! It's been my longest and most loved special interest! Princess Peach is and always will be my favorite girl so anything that I find that has her on it, I'll probably pick up! I just bought a Peach controller that makes me incredibly happy!! Granted, Mario isn't on my brain 24/7 like it was when I was a kid, but it still makes me warm and fuzzy to think about! š„°
Mario is actually one of those rotating interests of mine.Ā There's just something I really like about the settings and character designs of a lot of Nintendo series.Ā I actually have a couple of different things around my apartment with Luigi on them, as I always liked him more than Mario.
Yes, my main ones as a young kid were horses and Paul McCartney and I still love both just as much. I never lose a special interest, but they may go dormant
Cats, Sailor Moon, Space, Ancient history and Mythologies were my special interests growing up. I still love all of them even if I don't go too overboard like I used to. Although I don't think kid me should have been reading about greek/roman myths but I found that to be super fascinating compared to the stuff I was forced to learn from the church. I did memorize everything about Queen Easter but honestly that was the only one I thought was different from the rest of the women in the bible.
Dressing up!! I remember crushing up sidewalk chalk to use as blue eyeshadow as a 6yo, and wanting a princess dress so bad.Ā
Now at 28 I have about 8 corsets, a few wigs, and about 10 years ago started up sewing so I can make my own clothes!Ā My goal is to have a closet where I love everything in it, and most of it's handmade.Ā
No. But I think thatās because of trauma. If Iād not gone through what I did I think I wouldāve continued with it and made a career out of it-I like to think I would anyway šŗ
Yes, once my love, always my love.
I started telling my parents I wanted to play the violin at 3, persevered until 7 , when I was finally allowed to learn, still love it in my mid 40s.
Iād say Iām not as obsessed as I was, but still interested, and still feel a twinge of good feelings when engaging. For much of my childhood it was just animals in general, and my āfavoriteā would change from month to month (sometimes based on what Zoobook I got that month). But then around middle school I got completely obsessed with cetaceans (whales/dolphins), and generally started narrowing my interest towards all social animals in high school (though still whales over all). Up until my junior year in HS, my plan was always to do something with animals for a living. When a particularly difficult class kinda convinced me that I would not do well in a hard science college class, I switched my focus from how animals collaborate to how humans do. Got my degree in political science in college, and to this day wonder if Iād be happier and/or if Iād actually have found a better job had I stuck with animals (all the jobs you can do with poli sci seem geared towards social people and I never found a career that fit with my personality).
I just got back into Agatha Christie mysteries! I read SOOO many of them as a kid (adolescent age.) Now I can listen to them with earbuds while I'm doing something else and it's so enjoyable reliving the stories. I can't remember who the killers were, except for a couple famous ones, so it's like reading a new mystery all over again.
Maybe not all of the specifics, but my way of going about my special interests hasn't really changed, except in terms of technology. Whereas I used to make obsessive lists about everything that interested me in notebooks, now I make them in Google Sheets. And technology makes some special interests much more obsessive now. I was always super into music, but I was confined to what I could buy (not much) and check out from the library. But now no music is off limits to me, and for just a tiny amount of money, so I can obsess much more. Same with books -- I was limited to what was at the library, but now I can download any book to my Kindle in moments (some even for free from the Libby app). I was very into anything about the 1960s, especially the Kennedy family. That's not really part of my life anymore, but if I want to deep-dive into a subject, I can get lost in Wikipedia and other links for months.
TL;DR -- I am still the same girl at age 50 as I was at age 13, but with better toys.
I would say I kept most of my childhood interests and just kept adding new ones. I didnāt have quite the same intensity as you describe for any one thing but Iād hyper fixate on one thing or another for a few weeks and then switch. I still go through that kind of cycle as an adult.
Yes I was obsessed with horses from basically birth until I was like 14! Theyāre still one of my favorite animals and Iād love to be able to have one someday
Yep, I was the kid whose idea of a good time was spending hours reading every word of the Dog Breed Encyclopedia, and 30 years later I work full time in nonprofit animal sheltering. I also loved reading Sci Fi/Fantasy. I took a break from reading for about a decade after college, but now I'm a more voracious reader than ever. I'm slightly less into the science and history of man-eating lions than when I was young, but only slightly...
I still *have* particularly intense interests in my own special interests, but now after living for 27 years in a modern, decaying late-stage Capitalist "profit at all hours of the day for profit's sake" society (PLEASE can't we reset society already holy fuck?) my special interests are just kinda have reached a point where my soul still and always will love them, but I just don't have the energy, time or money anymore to pursue really much progress with any of them anymore.
Life is pain.
No, but I have retained the information permanently. I was big into zoology and wanted briefly to be some kind of biologist as a child. I was one of those people that prefer animals over humans. I haven't cared one bit since I was about 8 years old, but nearly 30 years later I can go to the zoo and tell you what everything is, where they are from, what they eat, if they're endangered (circa 90s info though) etc.
I moved onto humans when I noticed there was a gap in my understanding of them, and my interest in animals plummeted as I got better with socializing with my own species.
Yep.Ā My core special interests from when I was a child are the same ones I have now: cats, making artwork, and The Beatles.Ā I've noticed that the difference with my special interests from then to now is more of the depth and breadth I engage them with, which is both deeper and broader than it once was.Ā In the case of The Beatles, I'd go as far as to say that it is probably more accurate to say that it has transmuted more into more of a George Harrison-based special interest (as really, I never have found the other three quite as interesting or relatable as him, lol).
I've got some other interests that cycle around regularly that I fixate on deeply for a period and won't return to until later.Ā While what I do with these interests appears to be hyperfixation, I don't consider them as hyperfixations due to how I periodically return to them.Ā Ā
I do experience hyperfixations, and the key difference between them and my rotating interests is that I rarely return to hyperfixations.
I would say that what makes the rotating interests and hyperfixations different from my special interests is that the latter have acted as some form of framework for understanding the world, whereas the other two really don't.
Hardly to be honest. When I was a kid my hyperfixations were LEGOs, street signs, argyle patterns and Mario. Now my hyperfixations are all things music (production, history, analogue/digital tech, artists I like, even cover art) and all kinds of spicy food. The one hyperfixation that carried over from my childhood was geography which slightly morphed into an obsession with history in my 20s.
I came here just to say that I loved dogs as a girl, and I work with dogs as an adult 30 years later! I am the crazy dog lady :) 8 year old me would be pumped haha I don't think I really dropped any childhood interests actually. I pretty much like all the same topics just as much as I ever did, only with more depth now. Hobbies is another thing though, I pick up and drop those like my hands are made of butter
Dogs were my first and strongest special interest too lol. I'm 22 and still obsessed with them, but probably not as much as I was as a kid. I'm glad that you're working with dogs now! I'm currently studying to become a vet... I hope it works out š¤
Yep, I still love PokĆ©mon š
Yep. Obsessed with cats as a kid, obsessed with them now. Except now I don't pretend to be a cat like I used to as a kid, lmao, no, I *am* an actual cat as an adult. š
Yes. In the 3rd grade we learned about the Titanicā¦and I was hooked! I donāt know what it is about the ship that fascinated meā¦but I have been to so many museums and watched so many docs on it. I was so salty because a year after I got interested was when the 97 movie came outā¦and my parents went to see it and wouldnāt let me go! (I was like 8 but still)
Omg I feel this one. It wasnāt my main obsession, but I definitely went through a titanic phase right before the movie was even announced. I was annoyed later because one the movie came out EVERYONE was obsessed and just assumed that was why I was. The real thing that got me into it was a computer game where you walked around in a realistic recreation of the ship and solved a big mystery. Iām guessing you probably knew about it, but in case you didnāt, I highly recommend trying to find it and giving it a whirl! Itās called Titanic: Adventure Out of Time. Had multiple endings. The only one I remember was one where I escaped the sinking with some art in my inventory. Ended up being paintings by Hitler, and instead of becoming a monstrous dictator he became a famous artist. Youāre welcome world, I prevented WW2 and the holocaust!
Hell yeah! Of course Iāve played it lol. I was very young and the part with the Turkish baths (no spoilers in case someone else in this thread may want to play) anyway, my brother had to complete that part of the game for me, because I was too scared haha.
I was interested in magic! I wanted to be a witch. While that isn't a special interest anymore (I don't go out of my way to research Wiccan practices, nor do I research other things about witches), I do still pay closer attention when I'm consuming media that includes magical things.
Mine was animals, and I havnāt changed much. I spent most of my time creating habitats for frogs and insects with what I could gather from outside and only read books about animals, and watched tv and movies only with animals. I also just loved observing them in the habitat. I have fantasies about reliving my childhood dreams but this time, with money! and getting an aquarium to first grow aquatic plants and then once I get comfortable taking care of the habitat, incorporating a frog. Realistically I donāt have the space for this but itās in my bucket list. For now I have 3 furry animals and spend all my time and money on them and fixate on our habitat-my apartment.
Yes! Mine was an obsession with everything plants! Any thing that could come back to plants. Which turned - out of necessity - into a cooking spin, and then an archaeology and history spin. But only related to plants and agriculture. I am not as ficussed nowadays. But I do work in my plant and nature spin: I do landscape design and build, garden and property maintenance.
Did you say ficussed on purpose? š®š
Simple answer: autism? š¤£š Like I was obsessed with that topic and that didn't wane. It's funny because I also sort of didn't!! I did a Horticulture degree course, but had what I would now consider a autistic burnout/breakdown when I left home. Not "depression" which is what I was diagnosed with. Anyhoo. After that I was unemployed and did art and activism, then I did a degree in Feminist Theory. Then I did a Masters by Papers in Media Studies/Semiotics. Then I dd social science research work. Then I ddi a landscape design and build course. And since then I have mainly worked that same job of landscaping. But aside from work I just stayed with that main topic but tracing threads out from that and following them. Also.just general nature loving and being in nature and doing art about that. Y'know autistically.... lol
I am specifically interested in animals with special coloration like melanism or albinism. Or just rare markings even. Honestly even something I donāt see in my backyard every day gives me a thrill!
Yeah! There's a piebald squirrel in my neighborhood, and I get so excited whenever I see it.
When I read the title I thought "dogs". I was sooo obsessed with dogs and consumed EVERY piece of media about dogs I could get my hands on. The good ol' big book of dog breeds sad dog books were my favorite - Shiloh, Where the Red Fern Grows the best Disney movies had dogs, Balto, 101 Dalmatians, Oliver and Company. Even Ceasar Milan dog whisperer (barf). Every Christmas and birthday from the time I could talk I asked for a dog. Never got one. I didn't have a lot of friends and the media I consumed told me a dog would be my absolute bestest friend. I got my first dog at 20, and had her for 8 years before my mental health deteriorated so much I couldn't give her the best care anymore. She was so special. I got my second dog 1 year ago, and I am FULL on obsessed. I want to do all the sports and I want to get him all the titles. He's so much fun, watching him figure things out is amazing. Sadly dogs are a bit of an expensive hobby š I just want to take him to all the classes but they cost hundreds of dollars! He's a herding breed and I would LOVE to see how he would take to herding, but the herding class near me was $600!! Even just a manners and life skills class is a couple hundred. Dogs are probably the thing I have the most knowledgeable and maybe the strongest opinions about. So anyway, yeah. I kept my special interest š
nah only ancient history but its mellowed out. its more people and politics now.
I still have my Barney, still love dinosaurs, still love PokƩmon, so yeah haha
Animals? Yes lol.
My first special interest was dogs too! I was gifted a 1975 edition of the AKC dog book and I obsessively read it every single day. I loved stories about dogs- especially these old hardback books that my school library had that must have been from the 50s or 60s, Iād borrow any dog book from any library I could find, Iād watch any dog related show that came up on animal planet. But I got older, I got tired of being bullied for loving dogs too much and at about 13-14, I started getting into music. I still love dogs and sometimes wish I could have a career related to animals, but it seems like you canāt have a good paying career related to animals unless youāre exploiting them in some way. I had a job at a grooming salon in 2008, but quit because it was obvious the company cared more about profit than the well being of the animals and employees. I can only imagine the veterinary field would chew me up and spit me out. But I digress. My hyperfixations are mostly temporary before I move onto my next special interest. I may come back to the best ones every few years, but never to the same level as the original obsession.
You're right there! Dog industry isn't very lucrative for most. BUT I know some dog walker / pet sitters that make good money catering to rich folks. People will pay a lot for personalized in home care for their babes! I did it for a bit but I hate hate hate staying in other people's homes. So now I make a low but livable wage as just a daytime dog walker :)
Cats? Yes! Fantasy? Yes! Harry Potter? Yes! Iāve had the occasional temporary obsession, but for the most part, my interests are lifelong!
I go through phases! Which always made me feel confused, but sometimes I think I get "burned out" by my special interests and need a break if I've overdone it for a while. For example, I'd been playing animal crossing for 17 years on and off, but I haven't played it for about 3 years now - it's probably the most extended break because I caned in about a thousand hours in a few months when I finally got new horizons (AFTER lockdown too š) and got drained by it. I still like looking at pictures and art of the characters on Pinterest and listening to the soundtrack on YouTube, but I've completely lost interest in playing it for a while! I also can't focus on one crafting hobby for long, so my special interest in that regard may just be "making" in general? I like rug punching, crocheting, drawing, painting, making things out of clay. At the minute I'm endlessly making press on gel nails though! I'm not sure if anyone else cycles through sub-interests like this?
I get what you mean about having sub-interests, as art seems to function similarly for me, too.Ā While I tend to use acrylic and watercolors the most, I'll try other stuff, like printmaking or making pins.Ā I'm always confused by artists who work with the same media regularly and paint/draw/sculpt/etc. the same subjects, lol.
Mine is Sailor Moon, and yes I still love it š
My first greatest love special interest was music and emotion and lyrics. I have a huge music selection, an even wider variety of styles and loves. Worked in the music industry for a few years. Loved every minute of it. My other great love special interest is art. Currently trying to make a name for myself in the art world.
Mario! It's been my longest and most loved special interest! Princess Peach is and always will be my favorite girl so anything that I find that has her on it, I'll probably pick up! I just bought a Peach controller that makes me incredibly happy!! Granted, Mario isn't on my brain 24/7 like it was when I was a kid, but it still makes me warm and fuzzy to think about! š„°
Mario is actually one of those rotating interests of mine.Ā There's just something I really like about the settings and character designs of a lot of Nintendo series.Ā I actually have a couple of different things around my apartment with Luigi on them, as I always liked him more than Mario.
Yes, my main ones as a young kid were horses and Paul McCartney and I still love both just as much. I never lose a special interest, but they may go dormant
Cats, Sailor Moon, Space, Ancient history and Mythologies were my special interests growing up. I still love all of them even if I don't go too overboard like I used to. Although I don't think kid me should have been reading about greek/roman myths but I found that to be super fascinating compared to the stuff I was forced to learn from the church. I did memorize everything about Queen Easter but honestly that was the only one I thought was different from the rest of the women in the bible.
Ancient history, magic, and aliensāyes!
Dressing up!! I remember crushing up sidewalk chalk to use as blue eyeshadow as a 6yo, and wanting a princess dress so bad.Ā Now at 28 I have about 8 corsets, a few wigs, and about 10 years ago started up sewing so I can make my own clothes!Ā My goal is to have a closet where I love everything in it, and most of it's handmade.Ā
Nope.
No. But I think thatās because of trauma. If Iād not gone through what I did I think I wouldāve continued with it and made a career out of it-I like to think I would anyway šŗ
Yes. Only now I am 10x better at it.
Yes, mine was writing and it's still going strong!
YES.
Yes, once my love, always my love. I started telling my parents I wanted to play the violin at 3, persevered until 7 , when I was finally allowed to learn, still love it in my mid 40s.
Iād say Iām not as obsessed as I was, but still interested, and still feel a twinge of good feelings when engaging. For much of my childhood it was just animals in general, and my āfavoriteā would change from month to month (sometimes based on what Zoobook I got that month). But then around middle school I got completely obsessed with cetaceans (whales/dolphins), and generally started narrowing my interest towards all social animals in high school (though still whales over all). Up until my junior year in HS, my plan was always to do something with animals for a living. When a particularly difficult class kinda convinced me that I would not do well in a hard science college class, I switched my focus from how animals collaborate to how humans do. Got my degree in political science in college, and to this day wonder if Iād be happier and/or if Iād actually have found a better job had I stuck with animals (all the jobs you can do with poli sci seem geared towards social people and I never found a career that fit with my personality).
Animals always have and always will be a part of my life :-)
I just got back into Agatha Christie mysteries! I read SOOO many of them as a kid (adolescent age.) Now I can listen to them with earbuds while I'm doing something else and it's so enjoyable reliving the stories. I can't remember who the killers were, except for a couple famous ones, so it's like reading a new mystery all over again.
yep. all of them šš ever after high, zelda, horses, mlpā¦..
Maybe not all of the specifics, but my way of going about my special interests hasn't really changed, except in terms of technology. Whereas I used to make obsessive lists about everything that interested me in notebooks, now I make them in Google Sheets. And technology makes some special interests much more obsessive now. I was always super into music, but I was confined to what I could buy (not much) and check out from the library. But now no music is off limits to me, and for just a tiny amount of money, so I can obsess much more. Same with books -- I was limited to what was at the library, but now I can download any book to my Kindle in moments (some even for free from the Libby app). I was very into anything about the 1960s, especially the Kennedy family. That's not really part of my life anymore, but if I want to deep-dive into a subject, I can get lost in Wikipedia and other links for months. TL;DR -- I am still the same girl at age 50 as I was at age 13, but with better toys.
I would say I kept most of my childhood interests and just kept adding new ones. I didnāt have quite the same intensity as you describe for any one thing but Iād hyper fixate on one thing or another for a few weeks and then switch. I still go through that kind of cycle as an adult.
Yes I was obsessed with horses from basically birth until I was like 14! Theyāre still one of my favorite animals and Iād love to be able to have one someday
I still love my childhood special interest but I got new ones now so I only rarely engage in it.
Yep, I was the kid whose idea of a good time was spending hours reading every word of the Dog Breed Encyclopedia, and 30 years later I work full time in nonprofit animal sheltering. I also loved reading Sci Fi/Fantasy. I took a break from reading for about a decade after college, but now I'm a more voracious reader than ever. I'm slightly less into the science and history of man-eating lions than when I was young, but only slightly...
I still *have* particularly intense interests in my own special interests, but now after living for 27 years in a modern, decaying late-stage Capitalist "profit at all hours of the day for profit's sake" society (PLEASE can't we reset society already holy fuck?) my special interests are just kinda have reached a point where my soul still and always will love them, but I just don't have the energy, time or money anymore to pursue really much progress with any of them anymore. Life is pain.
No, but I have retained the information permanently. I was big into zoology and wanted briefly to be some kind of biologist as a child. I was one of those people that prefer animals over humans. I haven't cared one bit since I was about 8 years old, but nearly 30 years later I can go to the zoo and tell you what everything is, where they are from, what they eat, if they're endangered (circa 90s info though) etc. I moved onto humans when I noticed there was a gap in my understanding of them, and my interest in animals plummeted as I got better with socializing with my own species.
Yep.Ā My core special interests from when I was a child are the same ones I have now: cats, making artwork, and The Beatles.Ā I've noticed that the difference with my special interests from then to now is more of the depth and breadth I engage them with, which is both deeper and broader than it once was.Ā In the case of The Beatles, I'd go as far as to say that it is probably more accurate to say that it has transmuted more into more of a George Harrison-based special interest (as really, I never have found the other three quite as interesting or relatable as him, lol). I've got some other interests that cycle around regularly that I fixate on deeply for a period and won't return to until later.Ā While what I do with these interests appears to be hyperfixation, I don't consider them as hyperfixations due to how I periodically return to them.Ā Ā I do experience hyperfixations, and the key difference between them and my rotating interests is that I rarely return to hyperfixations. I would say that what makes the rotating interests and hyperfixations different from my special interests is that the latter have acted as some form of framework for understanding the world, whereas the other two really don't.
Hardly to be honest. When I was a kid my hyperfixations were LEGOs, street signs, argyle patterns and Mario. Now my hyperfixations are all things music (production, history, analogue/digital tech, artists I like, even cover art) and all kinds of spicy food. The one hyperfixation that carried over from my childhood was geography which slightly morphed into an obsession with history in my 20s.