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Is there always a tendency towards math or other pronounced interests in people with autism?

V

Vesta

New Member
I wonder if a person can have autism even if they don't have some particular, all-consuming passion for anything? When I took the Asperger's Autism test, I often encountered questions like, "Do you find numbers fascinating?" I've never felt that way. I'm not really a fan of either numbers or words.Although I just suspect that I have autism, it seems that without this tendency, I fall out of the spectrum. I asked a friend who has been diagnosed with autism, and she said that in childhood she was absolutely obsessed with arithmetic
 
Everyone is different. We have a few geeks and nerds here in this forum but that's by no means the majority of us. People are just people. Autism doesn't define your nature or your natural abilities.
 
There is no “always” with us.

Keep reading what people have to say across the forums. You will see that we can be somehow similar and very different at the same time.

Even professional diagnostic criteria has room for variation.
 
Rodafina said:
There is no “always” with us.

Keep reading what people have to say across the forums. You will see that we can be somehow similar and very different at the same time.

Even professional diagnostic criteria has room for variation.
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I just came across a list of different traits of autism, and it said that one of the mandatory traits is a strong obsession with something that can take up a lot of time.
 
Vesta said:
I just came across a list of different traits of autism, and it said that one of the mandatory traits is a strong obsession with something that can take up a lot of time.
Click to expand...

That one doesn't work for me and I'm on a disability pension because of my autism. There's only two things that come close:

If I'm reading a book I become engrossed in it to the point that I simply fail to notice anything happening around me.
I spend a lot of time playing video games.

That's it. Other than that I never stuck with any one interest for very long. I never felt the need to collect things either.
 
Vesta said:
I just came across a list of different traits of autism, and it said that one of the mandatory traits is a strong obsession with something that can take up a lot of time.
Click to expand...
The professionals using the DSM-V do have some discretion when diagnosing anything in there.

I’m not here to say whether you are autistic or not. I have no idea. Just saying that there is no “always” even with professional diagnosis.
 
I can't remember what the criteria were now, but when I got my diagnosis there were 6 key criteria they were looking for and matching any 3 of those would mark you as autistic.

I hit all 6. Bingo! :)
 
Vesta said:
I wonder if a person can have autism even if they don't have some particular, all-consuming passion for anything? When I took the Asperger's Autism test, I often encountered questions like, "Do you find numbers fascinating?" I've never felt that way. I'm not really a fan of either numbers or words.Although I just suspect that I have autism, it seems that without this tendency, I fall out of the spectrum. I asked a friend who has been diagnosed with autism, and she said that in childhood she was absolutely obsessed with arithmetic
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I see patterns, not really numbers unless they repeat. No fixation with numbers. I am proof that you can be autistic and in the lower percentiles in math as well. For me it's photography and camera gear, and I get deep into my other interests like cooking, paddle boarding, etc.
 
velociraptor said:
I see patterns, not really numbers unless they repeat. No fixation with numbers. I am proof that you can be autistic and in the lower percentiles in math as well. For me it's photography and camera gear, and I get deep into my other interests like cooking, paddle boarding, etc.
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But your uniqueness is also related to logical thinking, isn't it?
 
I'm somewhat stereotypical in being a tech/science nerd, and I have had some lifelong intense interests (I'm 67).
 
velociraptor said:
I see patterns, not really numbers unless they repeat. No fixation with numbers. I am proof that you can be autistic and in the lower percentiles in math as well. For me it's photography and camera gear, and I get deep into my other interests like cooking, paddle boarding, etc.
Click to expand...
I also see patterns I call it connecting dots, Have strong aptitude for mathematics, not into proofs like using my ability to visualize over doing the math. Even in my previous job colour control every body else looked at the numbers I looked at the visualization of the numbers. actually could do both.
 
velociraptor said:
I have no idea. I have been told I am detail oriented in a way that is unprecedented for most and when I collect things I am extremely granular.
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I was anal about accuracy when collecting data no fiddling, You will see this in my covid data. No making the data fit to support a hypothesis. The data is the data.
 
Ronald Zeeman said:
You mean bacteria , the term germs is too generic, or not specific.
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Germs may apply rather well to my movie collection. Some titles more than others.

1753304875600.webp

I will leave it to you to decide.
 
Ronald Zeeman said:
Boy what a collection, really dirty.
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The problem with trying to collect ALL the zombie films ever made is there are some real humdingers out there. Thankfully, I'm just collecting and not watching. Not sure if this counts as autistic obsession or straight up mental illness.
 
I have dyscalculia, so I really hate the stereotype that autistic people are all good at math. I had to get special help with math when I was in school. When I was in grade 3 I used to cry almost every day because I couldn't understand fractions and division or remember all the times tables from 2 to 9. I had problems telling time on a non-digital clock until I was 13. I was really good at reading, writing and speaking as a kid but I felt that those things were easy and anyone could do them but only smart people were good at math. My computer doesn't even seem to think dyscalculia is a real thing because whenever I type the word I get that angry red worm underneath it because I supposedly spelled it wrong.

Do I find numbers fascinating? I guess I like the number 8 because it kind of looks like a snowman.:)
 
I had difficulties with math too. But until the fifth grade everything was more or less normal, but then the teacher changed, When I went to the blackboard, she was angry at me for my slowness and in general rarely called me
 
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