An autistic special interest is an area of highly focussed interest, sometimes also called a passionate interest. Essentially, it is something an autistic person is deeply engaged with, passionate about, or knowledgeable on – and while passions and hobbies are important for everyone, it’s helpful to understand that for autistic people, a special interest is more than a hobby and can actually be integral to their wellbeing.
Here are some of the ways that special interests can be a crucial component of autistic mental health.
1. They are a way to decompress and reset
It’s common for autistic people to experience sensory and demand overload, resulting in feelings of anxiety or overwhelm. This can be triggered by a number of things, from loud or busy places, to uncomfortable emotions and even routine social interactions.
An autistic person with sensory sensitivities takes in more or less sensory information from the world around them than a non-autistic person. For example, light might feel harsher, sound more invasive, or temperature change more uncomfortable. All this sensory input, along with cultural expectations, social demands, and masking (hiding neurodivergence in order to fit in socially), can leave autistic people feeling overloaded and burnt out. Worse yet, it can lead to meltdown.
Special interests are really useful in helping to relieve some of this demand and sensory stress. They can provide a form of escape and create the feeling of a safe space for you to calm down, reset, and replenish your energy.
2. They boost energy
Which leads into the second way special interests support wellbeing. You might have heard of energy accounting – this is a way of checking and balancing your energy levels as an autistic person. It involves writing out two columns; one listing activities that most effectively boost your energy (energy deposits), and the other listing things that drain your energy the most (energy withdrawals). Then add a score against each one based on how much it impacts you. Whenever you engage in any of these activities, check your total score for that day to see if you’re depositing as much energy as you’re withdrawing. For example:
If you score going shopping as -6 in the withdrawal column, you would need to then engage in an activity you scored at 6 or higher on the deposit side, in order to replenish your energy afterwards.
To try energy accounting yourself, you will need to adapt the list to include activities that are the most impactive to you personally. The idea is to check how much energy you are ‘withdrawing’, and make sure you do other things that actively restore your energy again afterwards. As autistic people get a lot of joy from special interests, these activities often score highly and are a good way to off-set the energy you are spending elsewhere.
At times, you may feel too drained to take part in your special interest. In that instance, it can be helpful to consider other low demand ways of accessing it, like reading about it or creating a Pinterest board about it. Even those gentler ways of engaging with it can give a bit of an energy boost.
3. They boost self-esteem
Special interests are something that an autistic person deeply enjoys, so engaging in them releases endorphins and can lead to feelings of autistic joy. This in turn has a positive knock-on effect to self-esteem and all-round mental health.
Regularly engaging in an activity to this level often results in advanced knowledge or skill in that area, which is great for boosting self-confidence. It’s empowering to do something you are good at and feel confident in.
You may even find other people look to you for your expertise and guidance as you know so much about your special interest. It’s completely up to you if you share your knowledge; you might prefer not to, and that’s completely ok too.
4. They help to build relationships
Special interests can provide an excellent talking point with others, where you can share your passion with friends or family through conversation – they may even want to get involved themselves. But if they aren’t especially keen on your special interest, active listening (where they listen attentively but don’t contribute to the conversation) is another effective way to deepen your personal bond with someone.
You can also engage in your special interest while spending time with loved ones through parallel engagement. This means you each do separate activities you are interested in, but share the same space while doing so. For example, you could share a room while one of you reads and the other does crafts. It is a way spending more time together even when your interests are different.
You can also make new friendships and connections through your special interest by connecting with others who share that passion. This might be online, through a club, or just chatting about it with people you meet. Of course, it’s totally up to you if you use your special interest to connect with others – it is just as valid as a solo activity, which is preferable for many autistic people.
5. They provide familiarity and routine
Regularly engaging in the same activity can create feelings of familiarity, predictability, and structure. If you know your interest well and it instils a sense of joy or calm, it can be a great thing to embed in your daily routine.
Routine and structure can be very important to many autistic people, so embedding your skills and interests into your own routine is really helpful in supporting your needs and mental health.
When building your routine, you can refine and adjust things as you need to until you find what works for you, but do try to make it a priority to include your special interest regularly.
Key take aways
Don’t underestimate the importance of your special interest if you do have one. It’s easy to put other demands ahead of it, but don’t feel you need to deprioritise it. It is as important as other health activities like exercise and nutrition, and by making time and space for it, you are actively supporting your own wellbeing.
And finally, if you don’t currently have a special interest that’s also ok, not every autistic person does have one. If you would like to develop one, it’s perfectly possible to discover new passions that can turn into a special interest. For more information on this, you can watch the Special Interests Divergent Voices episode listed below, which explores how to develop a new passion.
Related content:
• Divergent Voices: Special Interests
• What is autistic joy?
• Energy accounting
