Autism/Aspergers And Attachment

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I have heard that people with autism get attached to objects but not to people. When I was a little kid I did get very attached to objects, from toys and stuffed animals to things like shoes. I would throw a fit when I outgrew my shoes and my mom wanted to throw them away! She would have to agree to keep them in my closet, and then sneak them out after a few months when she thought I wouldn't notice. (But I always noticed!) I still get really attached to objects. But I also get very attached to people and animals. Maybe animals even more than people! I have trouble making connections with people when I first meet them, but if I do manage to connect with someone, I get attached very quickly, and I am an extremely loyal friend! What about you... Do you feel like you get attached to people, or just objects?
- Nicki

I tend to attach myself to people who at least treat me nice or objects I enjoy.

If you're nice to me I can be very loyal.

It breaks my heart when they decide to be jerks tho

I am the same way I get really attached to objects and I find myself ale to become REALLY attached to one person sometime 2. Growing up it was my mom then my best friend now it is my boyfriend. I have a real hard time if I don't hear from him and if our plans change or he can't come it causes a meltdown though I have been getting better with that. now I can handle him being a bit late but I still wake up and hour before he is supposed to come. I am really attached to my dog too. though she is a service dog.

I dont get attached to people much at all. I love my family, of course. I do have that attachment, but it is because certain members need me- my mom and my daughter. I don't even talk to anyone else. I get really nervous if they call for my mom and want to talk to me. I don't get lonely though, and I find that I seclude myself as much as possible in my house. It upsets my daughter sometimes, so I try to keep that tendency to a lower level. I think I do have attachments to objects, though. I want to hold on to things. I am not a hoarder or anything. I just have some happiness tied to certain things, like my dolls, computers, and art supplies. I definitely love my pets too.

i am not attached to people. i was sent to boarding school when i was 11 and everyone else at school was homesick, except me. despite being so young, i was ready to leave home and was glad that i finally "got out".
i get very attached to my cats. As with objects, I am not very sentimental but I still sleep with the same pillow from childhood, it's over 25 year old!

I get attached to people, more than I get attached to objects. It used to be that when I was still living with my parents, and some family friends, or relatives would stay for a week, or more, I'd become emotionally attached, and when the moment to say goodbye would come, I would start crying.

I get really attached to objects, like my books my collections (comics, cards, CDs). I also feel like Rain Man, if someone takes one of my things and puts it of place I feel like I´m freaking out!

I'm very attached to a select few people (my mom, my grandmother who passed away, and my best friend). I'm also very attached to my cat. I get attached to objects frequently, from squishy sensory toys to those little pumpkin-gourds they sell at Halloween.

In the psychological sense of the word "attachment" (the parent/infant bond), autistics have about the same spread of attachment styles as typical children do. The researchers testing attachment styles did have to make sure that the autistic youngsters realized their parents had left (otherwise a hyperfocused child might have scored as Avoidant despite a secure attachment).

One thing I've done sometimes is become attached to a person like they are an object. As in, it's not a attachment that's a relationship with the other person, it's not two way. But the person matters to me. The word obsession works too. Attachment to an idea. Though also there can be an attachment to things associated with the person.

I get a little attached to my games and definitely my laptop..

When I was younger, I was too attached to my toys that my parents even tried to stop me from playing toys, plus I was like a little too old to play toys but that still didn't work until I discovered online games and forums.

I get VERY attached to objects, though I will also become attached to people. Not very often, though.

I think that part of the phenomenon of being attached to objects is they seem more permanent than people, and aspies instinctively know this. An object cannot leave, tell you to go away, or reject you in any way.

Whereas people change personalities or interests, or move away, or die.

I do become attached to my books. It is the kind of sentimentality I only feel for one person in the entire world and my two cats and my plecostomus I get very upset if someone tries to rearrange my books, and it makes me uncomfortable when people touch my books while I'm reading. Especially people I dislike. I have been considering lately that I have objectified my boyfriend. Not in the "sexy idol worship" way that is so common among those who are.. not me XD but in the way that a child (such as myself) might become attached to a stuffed dog.

Hmm, it depends. I can have favourite people, much like a special interest. But I don't follow them around or always want to be around them. I suppose the fact they are usually rockstars makes it hard to do so.
I'm very attached to animals. I love being around my cats. If I had a dog I'd constantly play with it.

I get attached to objects (my mineral specimens) and I can get very attached to people. I made a few close friends in my life and when I do make friends they make me very happy and its hard to let go, when a friendship ends it affects me badly. Most of the close friends I ever made are now gone - one decided to ignore me, one died of a brain haemorrhage and two are ex-girlfriends. So I have lost far more friends them I have made.

I get very attached to things. I have slept nearly every night of my life with the same stuffed dog. Can't sleep without him (and I'm 27). I also get attached to animals much more easily than I do to humans. There are a few people I consider myself attached to, and with those people I am very loyal. But I have to connect to people somehow and that is what is difficult. I recognize that people generally build relationships around similarities, and that's OK. I have "friends" in the animal fostering program I am a part of. Talk about animals and I am fine-- beyond that, it's not happening. But that one interest (even though it's a huge interest of mine) does not a best friend make. The people I am most attached to are the people in my life who are the most like me.