#i am rewatching su for the 4th time again

[rotten-pain]

Hyperfixations and special interests as they apply to me; a person with both ADHD-C and autism.

Hyperfixations:

I'm not sure if I've experienced hyperfixations specifically, I hear they can take over so much of ur focus that u forget about ur own needs. They tend to be short lived, a few days to a month or so. I don't think I've experienced this much?

Unless I take away the whole interest aspect, then hyperfixation is when I get deeply invested in doing something, especially after a long episode of executive dysfunction preventing me from having hobbies. Today I've been hyperfixating on sewing, bc I want to make a bat plush. It started out with me attempting to make a pattern, realizing I need to relearn how patterns work, then spiraling into that and listening to/watching sewing videos for a few hours. I'm making mashed sweet potato now tho cuz all that was interrupted for me to do chores, which I continued watching sewing videos, then it transitioned into a plaster mold sculpture video?

Special Interests:

I ain't a huge fan of the term, so I shorten it to "spin" in my tags.

I've heard that special interests, like hyperfixations, are intense all-encompassing interests, sometimes described as becoming a whole part of ur personality like I am pretty well known for bein bonkers about rats, they make me extremely happy and I love learning about them and interacting with them. I think rats are rooted in my childhood interest of animals as a whole, which started with zaboomafu followed by wild krattz and included many other kids cartoons, which also includes my interest in cartoons! I dislike watching much else besides kids cartoons. Following the topic of cartoons; when I was 9 I discovered MLP:FiM and it became a very strong hyperfixation as well as an 8 yr and counting special interest, where at the time I refused to let my family watch anything but my little pony until I'd reach the maximum amt of episodes released at the time, and then it was a few years before I became invested again and have occasionally rewatched it and at some point I must have caught up with everything I missed in the years following.

I don't think MLP branches out to anything, but returning to the root of cartoons, I was introduced to Steven Universe through my former best friends as an 11 year old, 2 twins who are always late to leave class when my sculpture class fills in. They introduced me to SU: A very queer psychology filled fun little cartoon that starts with wacky adventures and ends in therapy. They had also introduced me to Warriors by Erin Hunter (of course) which reminds me that since I'd learned to read at 7 years old, I'd been both hyperlexic and very invested. In 4th grade I became invested in the unwanteds series, which I only had just finished the 7th book of the first series in HS bc the middle school had not renewed it and I had only read the 1st book in 4th grade. Which also reminds me of my former fixation on that filthy TERF media: HP. I will not elaborate.

Minecraft has made me very happy for many years; I think it started when I was 8 or older and my dad had bought us RC tablets on which he'd paid for MC PE. We were only allowed a 1-2 hrs time limit on them, but me and my 2 sisters would play multi-player creative mode.

When I was 11 or so, mom had a laptop that our former step sibling had downloaded many games on, which I consider my first genuine introduction to gaming. Back to minecraft: they had downloaded minecraft of course. I would sneak moms laptop and phone in the middle of the night, turn on her Hotspot, and play online all night. Then put them away and proceed to stare her down until she woke up from feeling her eyes on her, bc I was a creepy kid.

Speaking of creepy, I also loved scary stuff. I snuck out to watch stuff like the leprechaun in the middle of the night behind my dad's couch, I vividly remember the scene of that thing chewing off a man's ring finger. I remember watching chucky as well, but with my dad's permission, and likely many others that I don't remember. One of my favorite books/series were the "Scary Stories to tell in the Dark" I LOVED the movie too. Fantastic. Goosebumps is ok, my sisters loved it for a bit, but eh it's pretty cheesy. Courage the Cowardly Dog will always be a favorite of mine, the Scooby-Doo series' are pretty rad,

Anyway Both together;

I feel like they've been combined in many cases, I seem to keep interests for many years but they cycle back around. Maybe that's hyperfixations, idk. Like minecraft, I get heavily into it, then get burnt out and move onto something else before coming back to it after whatever amount of time I need.

Rats tho, rats are love. Rats are life. Rats are baby.

anyway infodumping is clearly a need bc that's all I've done all day [exaggerated]

#autism #autistic #actually autistic #adhd #infodump