Info dumping is someone telling whoever will listen everything about a special interest. I have been know to do that a lot. It happens when an autistic or shiny (ADHD) gets very excited about their special interest and tells the listener or reader about it in detail, whether they want it or not.

A special interest is also known to some as an obsession. It is a subject area where the person is hyper focused on and cannot think about anything else.

Let’s look at what happened last night. I foster kittens and I am a veterinary technologist. A veterinary technologist is a veterinary nurse with a bachelors in veterinary technology. It is n equivalent to an LPN. Veterinary science is a special interest of mine.  Most of you know that but I am giving a little background information for new readers.

The head of the rescue that I foster through has a wellness day at her house once a week. I brought the four kittens and their mom after I was done with an important bleacher meeting (I will update when I can about that). They line the carriers up and the vet is stationed in one of the bedrooms of her house. When one cat is done, the carriers move up in the line.There were about ten cat fosters in the living room.

I am usually quiet. The head of the rescue is one of my friends and knows my background. One foster says, ” I gave a Dawn bath for fleas and then I gave Frontline. The next day fleas were crawling all over her.” She was not even talking to me. I am also a shiny (ADHD) and I could not help myself. I have been known to be impulsive. Without being invited into the conversation, I began to explain that Dawn is a degreaser and all topical flea treatments use the body oils to spread systemically. When you use a degreaser, the skin is stripped of the oils and you have to wait a week to apply a topical flea treatment. What should be done is use a capstar and then follow up with a monthly topical.

Her expression was shocked. Then she told me it made sense. I also told her Frontline isn’t as effective as it used to be. I told her to use Advantage as it works very well on my pets. I also proceeded to tell her that the topical flea treatments are neurotoxins and she should never touch it. That is why they are in tubes you squeeze out. The neurotoxins do not affect the cat or dog but can be potentially dangerous for humans. And that is why only puppy kitten revolution is safe for rabbits.

This is a great example of info dumping. Only in this case, the receiver of the info dump was very interested in it. Its not always the case. We as autistics do not always understand that the other person does not always want every detail about our special interest. Please be patient with us.

We do not like our special interests to be called obsessions. The word obsession has a negative tone to it. We love our special interests. Because we love them so much, we want to share them with the world. We may need gentle reminders to slow it down or we are giving way too much information.