I remember teaching you the term "perseveration". The year was...*checks*...2014, and the only terminology you'd known for it previously was your birth family calling them "crazes". So that's another little piece of the elephant.
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>>I find myself using "special interest" for past perseverations and "hyperfixation" for current ones. I think... I think "special interest" doesn't sound as intense as what I feel when I'm currently perseverating on something?
I've heard rumours that people, when describing their past, tend to use the vocabulary they had at the time. (This being most obvious in toddlers, who are expanding their vocabulary very quickly.) That might be part of it.
And yeah, "special interest" always felt a little mild to me, not a suitable term for the-kind-of-emotion-people-write-songs-about. But I've never been sure how much of that is just imprinting on my first term for it. Thus far I've found myself much more willing to do-as-the-Romans-do with "special interest" than with "hyperfixation", but then I've also had more time to get used to that one. (The power of a name works only once.)
(And, for that matter, my perseverations do seem to be milder these days? Possibly my brain adapted to [me being reluctant to have them because I found their early stages overwhelming].)
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>>Do other autistic people go through a bunch of special interests in a row?
I do (or at least I did back in the day: it's less obvious now), but that does seem to vary between people, yeah.
no subject
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>>I find myself using "special interest" for past perseverations and "hyperfixation" for current ones. I think... I think "special interest" doesn't sound as intense as what I feel when I'm currently perseverating on something?
I've heard rumours that people, when describing their past, tend to use the vocabulary they had at the time. (This being most obvious in toddlers, who are expanding their vocabulary very quickly.) That might be part of it.
And yeah, "special interest" always felt a little mild to me, not a suitable term for the-kind-of-emotion-people-write-songs-about. But I've never been sure how much of that is just imprinting on my first term for it. Thus far I've found myself much more willing to do-as-the-Romans-do with "special interest" than with "hyperfixation", but then I've also had more time to get used to that one. (The power of a name works only once.)
(And, for that matter, my perseverations do seem to be milder these days? Possibly my brain adapted to [me being reluctant to have them because I found their early stages overwhelming].)
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>>Do other autistic people go through a bunch of special interests in a row?
I do (or at least I did back in the day: it's less obvious now), but that does seem to vary between people, yeah.