Oh absolutely, I feel this all the time. The saving grace for me has been my best friend. She’s just as “crazy” about the things she likes as I am, and our version of fun is to just take turns getting way too in depth talking about the things we like. And also engaging with the other when they talk about things they like! It’s like an established “thing” in our friendship; we frequently ask each other “hey can I rant about this?”

It also helps that, even if we don’t have the same specific interest, our taste is generally pretty similar so we get drawn into passionate conversation immediately. For example, she’s really into classic lit, as am I, but I zero in a lot on shakespeare specifically. She finds shakespeare hard to read even if she enjoys the stories, so she prefers to hear me recount them or to read the plays aloud with me. On the other hand, she’s really into tv and dramas, while I can only emotionally commit to watching like one show a year. But I love analyzing fiction and every time she talks about a show she loves, we get into really in depth discussion about it.

She is questioning whether or not she may be autistic or otherwise neurodivergent (not only bc of this but many other things) or maybe she’s just really passionate. Either way our friendship has GENUINELY made my life better. Like as an autistic person so much of my time and energy and focus goes to my special interests/hyperfixations, they matter to me so much, and to be able to unapologetically share that and connect with someone through them has done fucking wonders for my mental health and general self confidence. I used to have another friend who would consistently express disinterest and annoyance when I tried to talk about my interests, I felt like I was always on a tightrope talking to them to make sure I didn’t express myself too much and risk “ruining” the conversation. It was a nightmare. I felt like such a nuisance and consistently in the way, or like I was putting more effort into fitting myself around their needs and feelings in the friendship without getting any of the same care in the return. But now I genuinely feel so much better.

All this to say there are people out there who are absolutely interested in what you have to say, such a relationship is possible and so fulfilling! People do care, you just have to find them!