General Autism Discussion

I'm on a Discord server for autistics that literally has a channel called "the-inevitable-train-channel." There are a handful of people active in that channel, but not me, as I'm not into trains.

The founder of the server is a woman who was given crap when she was a kid for, among the usual autism-related things, being into a "boy's hobby" like trains.

People with Autism often have special interests that they're very fixated on. It's not uncommon for these interests to be things others might regard as dull, childish, or geeky.

Trains are an example of a nerdy interest that the layman might find dull.

For my part I have no special interest in trains. Maybe if I spent some time learning about trains I would be, I suppose they're neat.

My special interest was/is mostly dinosaurs. It does change over time, for example there was a long stretch I was really into astronomy, currently interested in history around WWI Iish.

The factors autism has is that it means people are more likely to take hobbies to an unusual level/obsession and that they are less likely to notice and act on social stigma around hobbies that would make a neurotypical personal switch hobby.

Trains also may be especially interesting to autistic people due to their (in concept) regimented, planned, logical and predictable behaviour. Such traits are going to resonate with a lot of autistic people.

I heard it was more transportation technology rather than trains per se. Aircraft, for example.

I don’t have that interest but I DO prefer trains to airplanes due to my fear of flying…

Airplanes... I know someone on a Discord server who's really into them! She also talks about her car a lot, and cars in general to some extent.

I'm not entirely sure what it is, but most forms of transport do seem like very "suitable" special interests. I suppose since there's a lot to learn about them, loads of different types with various fun facts, some more detailed engineering if that's your thing, you can get miniatures, if you're in the right area you can make a trip to go look at real ones, just ticks a lot of the boxes. And of course the more popular a hobby is, the more likely you can find other people who share your interest. There's also a degree of confirmation bias, since trains especially have a bit of a reputation you're more likely to notice it, while other hobbies may go unquestioned.

I'm not particularly into trains myself, but I do think they're neat. My flatmate is very into trains, and I'll happily listen to him talk when he's infodumping about them (he's not diagnosed autistic, but I wouldn't be surprised). I'll sometimes find myself watching a video about trains, there's definitely some interesting stuff there.

That said, I live in the UK so here any appreciation of trains has to fight against hatred for the way our train companies are run.

I'd say trains are probably a common special interest because:

• Trains are in a middle ground of being kind of neat but also prosaic and utilitarian. In essence, dull enough to the layman to be a niche interest, but cool enough to be a popular niche interest.

• Trains are toyetic by nature, which means children are often exposed to them.

• Trains being toyetic also means that they provide endless collectible goodies you can get into.

• There are lots of different types of trains.

• Trains are complicated mechanical devices which means that there's a very big rabbit hole there; once you get into trains you likely find lots of minor details interesting one can be fascinated by.

Oh, I already know this part: I was just wondering why it was trains.

First of all, thanks for the answers, truly fascinating!

Secondly...uhh...I'm already diagnosed with ADHD and maybe I should check my psychiatrist to see if I also have undiagnosed autism...

I had a lot of train stuff as a kid and it just kinda stuck.

Hmm. My grandfather was a railway engineer who left several toy train sets. I always chalked it up to that.

I've noticed for years that Asian media (Anime, Manga, Japanese games, and more recently Korean and Chinese comics) have gained a similar reputation to trains as a major obsession in people with Autism.

As an autistic man myself, guilty as charged.

I'm autistic and I'm neutral on trains, honestly.

...Huh, I never really noticed it yet.

Honestly, I personally love trains mostly because railoads and other forms of public transportation are fundamentally important to any society.

...Also, I can actually read books in trains.

I love trains because I don’t have to worry about falling to my death if the engine stops working.

My friend Amy has an interest in travel, and she points out that due to heavy regulations, commercial flights are the safest form of transportation right now. Generally, companies (Boeing possibly excepted right now) recognize that if their planes are seen as unsafe, they lose a massive ton of money from customers being afraid to fly on them. So, Boeing excepted, they don't mess around.

My grandfather was interested in trains and because of that I believed he was slightly neurodivergent or at least the start of neurodivergent in my dad's side of the family.

Mechanisms are extremely satisfying, especially mechanisms that behave logically but unintuitively.

You guys think there’s a close link between Autism and Anxiety? I basically have both.

Autism does seem to have a slew of various co-maladies. I think anxiety is on the list as well.

I'd assume that autistic life experiences cause anxiety, not autism itself.

I think it can certainly go either way; I won't go too deep into my own case but I both am autistic and have been diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder, and after some introspection I think I can kind of distinguish between different types of worries which may well come from different sources. Some of the things I worry about (e.g. socializing, relationships) seem quite standard for autistic people, whereas others aren't. There is also what I think is a fairly common thread for anxiet, whereby it would be reasonable to be somewhat worried about whatever thing, but I'm far too stressed about it to the point of it impairing my functioning.

As said above, autistic life experiences can be quite anxiety-inducing, so it probably exacerbates things for anyone prone to anxiety disorders. Autistic people may also be more likely to seek psychiatric help and thus get diagnosed, although I'm not sure about that one.