Aspie Obsessions

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I think this forum is becoming an obsession for me, even though I have only been here two days. It's literally all I think about . What is/was your most intense special interest or obsession? What defines a special interest for you?

I have not been Dxd so I can't really call anything a special interest but this forum and the information has definitely consumed me. If I do have special interests apart from the obvious pleasure I get from it , the defining indication for me would be the negative side i.e. knowing I spend too much time on it when I should be doing other things but this usually comes as hindsight so maybe not a special interest .

You can have a "special interest" even if you're not diagnosed with Asperger's.

Isaac Newton had a "special interest" in gravity; he wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's.

Writing software. Especially stuff that has to do with Machine Learning or AI. I decided this morning I'm going to write my own voice controlled AI (been writing software for a long time though - that's not new). I asked Google Assistant to find me the closest Starbucks on the way to work. The dumb thing would only tell me it was five miles back the way I had come. How is that helpful?! There is no technological reason it could not have done what I want.

I think you can definitely call this forum a special interest. Believe me, I have been through why you are going through right now in regards to ASD. You think about every possible symptom, and at first you think you show some of them, but then you obsess and analyze your traits more and more to the point where you convince yourself you never had them at all. You feel like you are subconsciously faking your symptoms; that you didn't have them before you started reading, or that you had them, but they went away. Every time another person who is supposedly NT displays an aspie trait, you start to doubt yourself again. You feel like you have every single other disorder on the planet besides ASD. Believe me, I know how you feel in regards to special interests and "clinically significant" - everything that is subjective. I'll just say I got through all this doubt and I think you will too. I hope this made some sense lol and I hope you can stop doubting yourself; diagnosis or not .

Wow, that's a great special interest! I think your voice controlled AI will be a lot better than stupid Google Assistant .

This board is just procrastination for me. Most of the time, my obsessions are really negative and related to anxiety, or they are just procrastination.

Ok, no, it's not that bad...but I seem to have more of the OCD obsession kind than the positive aspie/flow one...

Do you really think it's the same ? Didn't Newton have signs of Bipolar ?

I get what you mean. I have a lot of bad obsessions related to my OCD, and those can really suck. Normally my positive obsession end u becoming negative if I start obsessing about whether it is a "real" interest.
(couldn't resist not putting a happy smile)

There are many, many things I'm really interested in, like music, concerts, geocaching, computer science, literature, psychology, swimming...I also get obsessed about them sometimes, but actually in a much more healthy and "normal" (NT) way than the negative stuff I get obsessed about (where I simply cannot put an end to it, cannot eat, cannot sleep etc.)

My point is: you can have a "special interest" in something without having a diagnosis at all.

Or without even having a disorder.

The "disorder" lies in whether the "special interest" interferes with your overall functioning.

Newton had signs of lots of things. We'll probably never know what he "really had" as far as a disorder is concerned.

Special interests can be confusing .

But they ARE interesting, aren't they?

I am the only one here who's interested in a lot of things? I cannot even stand listening to only one style of music, I will never get people who do

Blimey , I just noticed your age , I wish I was as knowledgeable as you when I was 13. What you said makes a lot of sense but I doubt I'll stop doubting until after the assessment or if I just go cold turkey on trying to Dx myself.

There are times, truthfully, when I ONLY feel like listening to music from the 1960s.

But I feel, in general, that I'm interested in a wide variety of things.

Though most of these "things" are of a bookish orientation, rather than a practical orientation.