Part 1 – Dedicated interests and Alexithymia
by Claire Browne
Alexithymia – differences/difficulty in identifying and describing own emotional state
Autistic inertia – difficulty starting, stopping, or changing state – a natural result of being monotropic
For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, monotropism is an affirming way to explain autistic and ADHD cognition. It is an autistic derived theory initially proposed by researchers Dinah Murray and Wenn Lawson in the early 1990’s. We as autistic people have an interest based nervous system focusing on a single or a few attention tunnels (as opposed to multiple) leading to very immersive experiences. Conversely, polytropism describes a way of thinking where non autistic people/non ADHD people can switch their attention between multiple sources of stimuli or interests at any given time. Being polytropic is often expected in society particularly in school or work, this can create barriers for us as monotropic people.
As an autistic person, I feel everything intensely. There’s no choice to opt out of absorbing information or simply skim the surface – depth is my default. This natural inclination to dive deep is very well explained by monotropism. Being monotropic shapes everything I do, from how I communicate, to feelings of big joy when I listen to the same song repeatedly for hours on end. I think understanding monotropism is crucial for any autistic person and the people who may support us – for me it connects lots of of my experiences in a way that makes total sense.
In this 2-part blog series I aim to explore being monotropic further and its implications for mental health. The first instalment will delve into the role of dedicated interests for autistic mental health, and the potential loss of purpose that comes when a once active interest no longer captures our finite attention. Additionally, I will question whether being monotropic (amongst many other factors) is related to the high co-occurrence of alexithymia in the autistic community. A recurring theme throughout this blog will be that passions and accessing flow states are fundamental to autistic wellbeing.
The title of this blog series was inspired by the fact that when I feel an emotion, it feels like there will never be a time when I may think or feel differently. This is monotropic processing – an intensity of focus wherever my attention is in that moment. Other possible feelings are blocked out by a hyperfocus on my current experience, which can sometimes be great for me as it means living very much in the present and experiencing big joy or being attuned to small details that other people may miss. At the same time, it also means that I loop back to past experiences and conversations a lot. For those of you reading this, I may appear to have contradicted myself but being monotropic is all about intense singular focus on anything that captures our interest/ attention including the past, present and future. If you find analogies helpful, think of being monotropic like chewing gum – our attention is very good at sticking to things, but it is difficult to be pulled away.
Knowing that my attention is ‘sticky’ and defined by my interests because I am monotropic is very useful. Having an interest based nervous system is great, there’s nothing quite like getting sucked into a flow state where everything else around me fades into the background (an infinite black hole comes to mind). However, this intensity of being makes me ponder what would happen if one day I was no longer interested in autistic experiences and exploring that via blogging. Most people regardless of neurotype are encouraged to follow their interests, whether it be when picking subjects to study at school, deciding how to fill free time, or contemplating career changes but for me as an autistic person (and my fellow neurokin) I am not merely following my interests, they are the core of my identity and everything I do. This is one of the reasons why info dumping is central to autistic culture – passions are so much more than hobbies. They are a direct and beautiful result of our monotropic cognition. When our interests pull us in so strongly, it stands to reason that the prospect of losing them may be anxiety provoking or stressful for many autistic people including myself. I currently can’t imagine being interested in anything other than autistic experience and I don’t think there is enough emphasis on the mental health impact of losing passions as autistic people.
Some autistic people have multiple rotating or long-lasting passions that spark energy and enthusiasm but others like me have one or two at any given time. Neurokin, if you are like me and have a singular abiding interest with which your life revolves around, I would suggest keeping a list of past passions. Past passions that once sparked flow states and excitement may do so again and keeping note of them may help you to avoid the uncertainty of finding a ‘hook’ that your monotropic brain can latch on to.
The opposite of monotropic is polytropic, polytropic people can switch their attention easily between multiple interests and information streams. Think of someone who frequently changes the TV channel, polytropic people are generalists and can move between multiple channels at short notice. Unlike polytropic people, we as monotropic people are specialists and therefore need ample time to transition between states of attention. This is why the experience of or potential of losing an interest may have bigger implications for our mental health – we may not be able to switch to something new immediately or find a much-needed purpose easily.
Thanks to high profile autistic led social media accounts, the importance of dedicated interests is beginning to be explored in an accessible, relatable, and appealing way, gaining significant attention from both autistic people and non-autistic people alike. This is really valuable and further highlights how as monotropic people active passions are integral to our everyday life.
Another important implication of being monotropic is anticipating any potential interruptions to a deep attention tunnel. Personally, I delay doing tasks and activities a lot to minimize the likelihood of someone else or something else pulling at my attention. As autistic people this is necessary and natural, so much so that not being able to do anything other than one planned activity in a day has become affectionately known as ‘waiting mode’ in online community spaces. Waiting mode serves several functions including allowing us to mentally prepare and predict the outcome of events or use our hyperfocus exactly how we want or need to. Unfortunately, this need to do nothing prior to doing one thing is not well understood. Therefore, when we are in waiting mode, our lack of activity may be misinterpreted as being disinterested, laziness or even low energy. However in reality, we as autistic people are prioritising in our instinctive monotropic way.
Alexithymia, ‘delayed’ emotional processing or monotropic processing?
A common topic of conversation in the autistic community is alexithymia. Alexithymia is the name given to differences/difficulties identifying and describing your own emotional state and derives from ancient Greek to mean ‘without words for emotions.’ I have never really related to the explanations of alexithymia as I am never without words, instead maybe human emotions were never meant to be encapsulated within the limits of the English language. This is one of the reasons why stimming is so important – emotional expression is often instinctive!
Despite the fact I don’t resonate with descriptions of alexithymia, I know many other autistic people do and I understand how having knowledge about and naming our experiences is powerful. Besides, not many people are expecting a monologue about the limits placed on human expression after simply asking the question ‘how are you?’ When explored through a monotropic lens being without words for emotions makes perfect sense. Pulling our attention away from anything that has caught our interest takes significant intent, effort, and time, therefore reflecting on our internal state may feel overwhelming. Being flooded with signals from your own body after being in a monotropic flow state can feel confusing and therefore conveying your own feelings to another person may seem impossible. It is quite well known that we as autistic people may forget to eat or drink when hyper focusing as all our attention is tuned in on that task and once out of a flow state emotions may feel unpredictable as our monotropic mind slowly acclimatises to an inevitably polytropic environment.
For us as monotropic people, being in polytropic environments is often the default and whilst we can try and make changes to those external spaces to suit our neurology, reflecting on our own internal state and emotions requires a juggling of attention and energy that may be in short supply. This is what can lead to ‘delayed’ emotional processing, but instead of comparing our way of being to non-autistic people or imposing a timeline for feeling, I think our experiences of emotions (and ultimately everything as autistic people) can be much better understood through a monotropic lens.
Finally, I hope this blog emphasises how our passions as autistic people are so much than hobbies and the importance of understanding being monotropic for our own mental health.
References:
Autistic Village 