Is it for someone with AS to stick to some hobby obsesively?

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Or do i also have OCD?
My thing is swordsmanship. I started when i was three and i have stuck with it since. I always took it very seriously but my parents always discounted it as just an obsessive behavior resulting from my AS that they view as a mental deficiency. I dot disagree necessarily, i couldn't stop if i wanted to. But i don't see why it was viewed as a negative. I trained from sun up to sun down my entire childhood, it affected my schoolwork it affected my relationships, or lack there of, and it affected some friendships. I don't regret a single day of training though, im rather pleased with my skill now. I can face several opponents at a time and have begun training my own students in Bushido, i discovered philosophy through swordsmanship and i feel it did more to develo my character positively than my parents.

Do you have a thing that is your thing, and if so what is it?

At the age of four, our son could identify a dozen different plants by their Latin names. At the age of 16 he fronted his Saturday job nursery's stand at a major UK Garden Show. At 27 he works in a large nursery and runs a fizzing horticultural website. Despite the interruption of school (!), I think his persuing of his obsession has been relentless and highly rewarding.

This is one of the gifts of AS. The ability to focus on a special interest or hobby to the exclusion of other things means people with AS can become highly proficient and/or knowledgeable in ways that are vastly more difficult / impossible for NTs.

Swordsmanship sounds cool. A person with such a special interest living a few centuries ago may have become a renowned warrior or king. Today a very a capable martial artist and instructor....

I prefer the term, Special Interests and yes, The Kinks have brought me a lot of happiness for 28 years.

I miss my PS3...

I've been happy since 2002 when Ratchet and Clank first came out.

No, the obsessions in OCD are not anything like the obsessions in AS. For example, a person with AS is obsessed with psychosis, will research psychosis because they are interested in it, a person with OCD will research because they worried that they have it. People with OCD DO NOT enjoy their obsessions ONE BIT.

Having a hobby you are obsessed with is NOT OCD. The obsessions in OCD cause anxiety for the person. They perform acts called "compulsions" to rid the obsessions. For example, if a person with OCD is obsessed about getting a disease, they may check themselves for signs of the disease to make sure they don't have it. They will often have the repeat this action several times.

Anyway, I have OCD and AS. My special interests are cats and a band called "Great Big Sea". My past special interests have been a radio host named "Jian Ghomeshi", one of my favourite teachers (he didn't mind), Toy Story, a book called "The Outsiders", roller coasters, ferries, planets, school and Winnie the Pooh. I don't really want to get in my OCD obsessions.

Billy Idol bought me happiness for 3 years!! ! What a difference he made in my life! Hopefully I stay with this obsession or special interest forever!! !!

My obsessive hobby is one which I enjoy and hate at the same time. I feel as though while it is a creative outlet for me and a good form of escapism, I also feel it is a rather pointless and crippling.

My obsession is lighting design in theatrics. Specifically, if there is a famous band I like who have an elaborate stage and have production staff where they really do take their design seriously, that's where I become highly fascinated and observe each and every concert of that band of a particular tour through fan videos on youtube. I will observe how each song changes over time and try to work out their decisions for a particular lighting design and use of colour. I will notice very minor faults such as a specific light not functioning correctly, or maybe a single pyro out of several not going off if the band has pyros. I often sit and lie down and just dream up my own lighting designs, sometimes similar to ones I've seen which I liked but with my own preferences, sometimes completely alternate ones to songs because I just disliked them, and sometimes for songs which weren't played.

I am absolutely crazy about visuals which match music. There are other interests I have which relate to that such as music visualisers and video editing, but lighting really is my obsession. However, it's not something I always enjoy, in fact it sometimes does the exact opposite. I often feel like I'm wasting my life away simply by observing lighting. I feel as though it's such an odd and unique interest that it's not something I can just share with anybody. Sometimes I compulsively just sit and watch concert videos analysing lighting for hours on end, to try and escape depressed feelings. But at the same time, it causes me them too. It's embarrassing for me to talk about generally, and I feel hopeless about getting into it as a career as well. :/

Obsessions were and will always be my strongest autistic trait.

From what I've experienced (think I might have both)

Special Interests are something you love doing, it just seems appealing and fun and you need to know more. There is always a positive feeling or connotation.

But OCD obsessions or compulsions are more of a thing you do not want to do, but feel compelled or obligated to.
There is always this feeling of an apocalyptic looming doom. If you do not do it, something might go terribly wrong. Or it will just feel wrong and really mess with your thoughts and head.

And also for me my OCD compulsions are more about physical actions, while my AS special interests are always mental.

I have had the same main interest since I was 2 or 3 year old- cars. Now, 38 years later, I am the best mechanic I know and I also drive for a living. However, I have also had other mild to moderate interests over the years which I have obsessed over for a period of time as well. I just always come back to cars because of their extreme logic (that I find comforting) and the way they act as my window on the world without me actually having to interact with it much.

Most people on the autistic spectrum have those obsessions - called special interests.

For example, I have HFA and I've had many special interests over the years, but the main one for me, and longest lasting, has been music. Mainly playing it. My life literally revolves around it - it's my main source of income (through teaching private lessons, playing live shows with my bands, and busking), and almost every waking moment I'm doing something that has to do with it. Most of my posts here on WP mention it, as well.

Mine has always been with movies and related to it and it was called OCD and AS. But my interests have never been the same from childhood because they change over time and I move onto something else. I have also been obsessed with odd things too which I don't want to get into and I was obsessed with video games in my teens and used to research them and read about it. Back then I never hated my obsessions until 6th grade. I was also obsessed with cleaning and wanted everything in the house clean, I think that was more OCD but it's been blamed on AS too. Now I am not as obsessed about it as I used to be and little bit of clutter doesn't bother me.

Maybe if I was not made to be ashamed of my obsessions and if I was allowed to talk about them, I wouldn't have hated having them and wished I could get them out of my head. That's what made it OCD. But yet they relaxed me and I enjoyed it. I guess as an apie if you realize your obsessions are taking over and you wish you could control it so you start to resent having them, then it becomes OCD by professionals and they say it's part of AS. I think that was the case with me. Someone on here did say autism can lead to OCD and I agree. Maybe that is why they say OCD is part of autism. Sometimes I still don't want my obsessions in my head so I guess it becomes OCD then.

With me I seem to be both because I enjoy something but at the same time at other times I don't like it and wish I could just stop it but I can't. Something relaxes me but I also know it's a problem so I end up wishing I didn't have that obsession. I will also compulsively listen to the same song over and over or watch the same scene over and over related to my obsession and I can quit whenever I want to.