Recently I read an article and my aspie-sense started tingling. I might even make this an on-going series of articles that have nothing to do with autism/Asperger's but actually... might have a lot to do with it depending on your perspective.
Anyhow; the article I read was this
In short, it?s a study that shows that a lot of people will lose interest if they monetize their interest/hobby (eg. Turn it into a job/career) and this aversion or disinterest to said hobby might prevail even if you take away the monetary reward system afterwards.
So, why does this make my aspie-sense go ring-ring?
We, as aspies deal in absolutes. If you don?t work like that, good for you. I can?t be held accountable for the full 100% but a vast majority does, and as such I think it?s fair to state ?we?.
With that, those absolutes, comes something like obsession. I think that by now I can put a label on most regulars here and state at least one strong interest, or maybe even obsession for everyone.
This should in some sense be our strong point. Our selling point even. Many of us would like to get employed and deal with something on a daily basis that we feel comfy with. Something we know stuff about. And probably stuff we know a lot about. Yet the danger I see here, within the autism community in general is our narrow interest. Dare I say really narrow and specific interest even?
These interests keep many of us from depression and have some kind of sense of being. I?m not saying my purpose in life is to paint figures, but I feel perfectly fine in doing so and I like it if people appreciate my work. The same can be said about a lot of things. However, it?s also one of the crutches that keeps us sane and happy. Imagine you have 1 strong interest and you lose that? Then what? You need to find a new interest, which might not hold up. On top of that, your job, that you got because of that interest, will suffer and in the end you might end up without a job as well as a depression because you have a hard time finding something fun to do again.
I think that study proves a certain risk for people like us. Looking at myself I?m pretty much totally disassociative with anything I don?t care about, let alone if it?s a job of sorts. So please? give me something I know something about (and care about), yet the concept of paid labor will also mean that I have a certain standard to keep up. How can I keep up a decent standard in specific field if I lost interest?
Mind you, it?s just something I was thinking about and how it affects people with narrow obsessions. It?s in no way proven this is a hazard for autistic people, but it surely made me think about it a bit more
Anyhow; the article I read was this
In short, it?s a study that shows that a lot of people will lose interest if they monetize their interest/hobby (eg. Turn it into a job/career) and this aversion or disinterest to said hobby might prevail even if you take away the monetary reward system afterwards.
So, why does this make my aspie-sense go ring-ring?
We, as aspies deal in absolutes. If you don?t work like that, good for you. I can?t be held accountable for the full 100% but a vast majority does, and as such I think it?s fair to state ?we?.
With that, those absolutes, comes something like obsession. I think that by now I can put a label on most regulars here and state at least one strong interest, or maybe even obsession for everyone.
This should in some sense be our strong point. Our selling point even. Many of us would like to get employed and deal with something on a daily basis that we feel comfy with. Something we know stuff about. And probably stuff we know a lot about. Yet the danger I see here, within the autism community in general is our narrow interest. Dare I say really narrow and specific interest even?
These interests keep many of us from depression and have some kind of sense of being. I?m not saying my purpose in life is to paint figures, but I feel perfectly fine in doing so and I like it if people appreciate my work. The same can be said about a lot of things. However, it?s also one of the crutches that keeps us sane and happy. Imagine you have 1 strong interest and you lose that? Then what? You need to find a new interest, which might not hold up. On top of that, your job, that you got because of that interest, will suffer and in the end you might end up without a job as well as a depression because you have a hard time finding something fun to do again.
I think that study proves a certain risk for people like us. Looking at myself I?m pretty much totally disassociative with anything I don?t care about, let alone if it?s a job of sorts. So please? give me something I know something about (and care about), yet the concept of paid labor will also mean that I have a certain standard to keep up. How can I keep up a decent standard in specific field if I lost interest?
Mind you, it?s just something I was thinking about and how it affects people with narrow obsessions. It?s in no way proven this is a hazard for autistic people, but it surely made me think about it a bit more
