Interest obsessions.

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How is the obsessive interest of a person with asperger different from any other person(NT) out there who is interested in movies, dancing, cars, sports or any other activity? I would think that its a pretty normal thing, only with an asperger person who is socially inept, the interest gets more focus. I myself have a certain topic that enters my mind mostly every day. This cant be an asperger only thing. Please tell me alittle about your obsessions.

My friends call my obsessions 'the topic of the week'.

They can fluctuate from domestic politics to mind/body philosophy to Japanese culture to healthy cooking - honestly, I wonder if collecting knowledge can in and of itself be an obsession? I like to make myself as knowledgeable as I can on as many subjects as I can. If a topic comes up in conversation that I'm not familiar with, I'll research it until it is familiar.

My obsessions do tend to change every few months, though. I don't have one overwhelming topic of focus, and I find that I can be enthralled with something for weeks and months and then suddenly become bored with it.

I definitely have the 'rambling about special interests to the detriment of reciprocal social interaction' thing down pat.

Sure, everyone has interests/hobbies and with NTs that just fits in along with everything else they do - but with us, it often is everything else.
Hence "obsessive interest".

[Edit: that really isn't very clear. I mean that an obsessive interest often replaces everything else, instead of slotting in amongst everything else]

NTs have TONS AND TONS AND TONS of small interests on the side and their major interests are not all that strong either.

i find it very difficult to have more than one interest at the same time.When something is in my head that is all i will think and obsess about.I have had many various obsessions over the years ranging from video games to sports.However i obsessed over a sport i could no longer play due to the yips and it is a very diffucult and painfull affair.Anyone else would of gave up by now but due to my obsessiveness i am putting myself through hell to regain that sport and getting very badly depressed over it whilst doing so.

There are three main things that make up my personality. The Internet which started out as just computers in the Mid 80s, my viewing of the summer and winter Olympics and my intense love for The Kinks which both started at the same time. I don't know what happened to me hen I was 9, but it sure set the course for the rest of my life.

I don't really think an Aspie having an interest is any different than an NT's interest, either. Like the original poster said, we might become more focused on a particular subject but....other than that there is no difference.

For me its music. The only Aspie like part of my interest is that with bands I like I can tell you the band member's names, what year their albums came out, what record labels they were on, record producers, studios, who they're endorsed by, etc. Stuff I don't think most NT's really care much to look in to. But for me its like I NEED to know these things. I also arrange my cds in alphabetical order starting with the first album that was released from a particular band to the most recent. That seems to be the most logical way to arrange cds as it makes it easier to find what you're looking for.....but when I tell other people this they look at me as if I'm insane.

I think maybe we're more into the informational aspect of what we're interested in, at least I am. Whatever my current interest is, I can absorb and memorize an enormous amount of detailed information about it in a fairly short period of time. Then I feel the need to talk about it to everyone, which can be very difficult not to do.

My experience of NT's who have interests in the same topics as I do, is that they are not interested in learning a lot of information, but are interested in an experience such as going to a game or in being attached to a particular person or team. Attachment to a celebrity, dancer or sports team is something that makes absolutely no sense to me at all and I have never understood the appeal. I have also never talked to an NT who rattled off facts about his/her favorite subject, which is something that I do a lot even though I know it's not socially good, because I enjoy it. Actually, because of the qualitative difference of my interests, even when they are topics shared by other people I find my special interests to be very lonely affairs, whereas it seems that NT interests usually result in some sort of social connection with other people.

I cycled through many obessions growing up. This post of mine, again, has warped into a hugely long and detailed monster of too many details, and doesn't even contain all of the obsessions I have had. So I don't blame you if you skip reading it.
But I really don't want to shorten my post because all of these obsessions and details had a huge impact on my life and I spent time thinking about them and typing them up.

At age 4, I would make my parents play the Little Mermaid movie over and over everyday on the weekend and/or after preschool and always sing the songs. I also watched the Land Before Time and Fern Gully and Feivel Goes to America dozens and dozens of Times. I also had a set of many nursery rhymes my parents had to sing with me before I went to bed, every single night. If they forgot one, I reminded them which one they forgot, and they had to sing it.

At age 7, I read many books on cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) and drew every single species. I would make lists of the species and write out their entire scientific nomenclature, from kingdom and phylum, to group, order, species and genus. When I brought my journals in the car with me, I would make note of the front shapes of various vehicales that passed us on the road, draw their shape, and write which species it looked most like. I filled other drawing books that I called my journals with hundreds of drawings of them (the animals, not the vehicles.) I must have filled 4-6 books with at least 60 pages each on both sides. I obsessively drew them up until I was about 13 years old. I drew them in school, on the bus, in the car. I got picked on at school all the time, and in 5th grade one boy put that blue Elmer's Glue on both palms of his hands, and for no reason and out of no where during class slammed his hands onto both pages of a large drawing of a pod of orcas attacking a blue whale that I drew, closed his hands, crinkling the pages, and tore one away. A switch went off in me and I got SO mad. I jumped up, screamed what I guess could be called a raging warcry, and leaped onto his back, wrapped my legs around his waist, and proceded to rear choke him with my arms. I didn't get in trouble because the teacher saw what he did and I was her favorite. Maybe that speaks to the level of my obsession a little bit.

I also obsessed over Ace of Base at that time. Spending hours each weekend day and at night after homework and other things that needed to get done, singing their songs over and over and over again in my room, sometimes dancing to the music, and other times while reading books.

Then at age 12, I obsessed over pokemon, learning all the names, drawing some, playing the gameboy game, memorizing the entire pokerap, and collecting the cards and trading with my friends without knowing how to play it.

I also began, or rather, rediscovered my curiosity about dinosaurs, which I drew a lot as a child. I read books and books about them, what families there were, their diets and habitats, which period they lived it, how many millions of years the species lived for, which species were related to each other, which ones evolved into which other ones. I even made an alphabetical list of lots of obscure dinosaur species names. I am still intensely interested in them and own 5 books on dinosaurs and watch all the science shows about them.

I also temporarily obsessed over the elements of the periodic table. I would list them in aphabetical order, put them into groups of related characteristics and others with rhyming names, whether I knew how to pronounce/spell them properly or not (like neodymium and praseodymium) At one point, I think I actually could names almost all the elements.

From ages 10-14, I obsessed over listening to Billy Joel music, even thought I only ever heard the songs on the 3 Greatest Hits albums and Storm Front album.) I memorized We Didn't Start the Fire in one day, I took my walkman with the cassette tape of the albums to summer camp with me, even though my step-mom told me not to, on vacation, listened to the CD's (when I got them) while I did my chores. I had such a vivid imagination, that I actually had scenes playing in my head of the songs as they played. And I dreamt the entire We Didn't Start the Fire song before I even memorized it. Weird!

During that time, I began to get interested in foxes. I would constantly draw them and make up "characters" that were foxes that had names and personalities and everything. I began drawing wolves, too, which are now my favorite animal.

Then at 15, I obsessed over the Offspring, a band from California. I had to know all their whole names, ages, what town that were born in, where they lived, what other bands they were in, their hobbies, and memorized all their songs. I started playing guitar because of them and learned about 40 of their songs on guitar (the ones on their Splinter album I taught to myself just from listening to the album). I also copied and pasted pictures I found of them online and made dozens of collages in my computer's paint program. See? To anyone outside of this forum, that type of obsession would creep people out. But it was just satisfying a simple curiosity to me.
After that, I started wanting to know all the names of the members in other bands I liked and what town those bands were from. That continues to this day.

In 2003, I obsessed over WWE wrestling after my father served at a security guy for the wrestlers' dressing room at an event where older famous wrestlers were at. I got into the dressing room to meet them and told Jim Duggan that at age 2, I would run around my house holding my baby bottle over my head like he did with a 2 by 4, and yelled "HOOOOO!" like he did. That event started my obsession with WWE, which I had occasionally actually watched over the years. I needed to know how old my favorite wrestlers were (and by favorites, I mean, like, 30 or so different wrestlers,) how long they'd been wrestling, where they been trained, what circuit they'd been part of, where they were from, how tall they were, and what their real names were, because most of them use stage names. Then I obsessed over the Hardy Boyz, especially Jeff. And, again, not the creepy obsessed, the OCD obsessed. I even dyed my hair rainbow because I thought it looked really cool when Jeff did it. But I stopped watching wrestling 3 years ago.

Throughout high-school, I listened to Y100, a local radio station of mine that no longer exists. I would listen to the funny morning talk show each morning and record sections of it. At night I had trouble falling asleep because at any given moment, I just HAD to know what song was playing at that moment on that radio station. So I would turn my stereo on and record on cassette 2 seconds of the song. I don't know why I did it, but I did. I still have many tapes of such random recordings. Of course, I have never actually listen to them and have not touched them in years.

Two years ago I discovered Tokio Hotel, who sing in German, when one of their songs was released in Amercia in English. To learn how to pronounce the German, I listened to every word of my favorite songs, and wrote down what the sounds sounded like in "English" in an empty book while on the bus to school on the opposite page as I wrote the actually German lyrics. That was my "me" time. Know I can read German and am learning it so that's not a problem. There are other reasons I decided to learn German, not just the band, though they sparked my interest. And even though I rarely look at them, I have copied and saved over 100 photos of Tokio Hotel and put them in my ipod photos section. I sang along with some of the pre-pubescent songs and posted them on youtube (no video, just audio.) That was just last year. So, yeah, I still have an issue with obsessing over lots of things.

Also, throughout my whole life, whenever I draw a picture, I am obsessive over the details. I used to erase so much I would rip the paper. I now no longer go over the original copies of my drawings in pen for fear I may want to go back and change some details in the future.
I also obsess over proper grammar and punctuation. I used to annoy the crap out of people by correcting their improper grammar. I rarely do that anymore, but I still cringe internally when I hear bad grammar. I text my friends with the same level of grammar and punctuation as I am typing now, though sometimes I have to eliminate spaces after punctuation and before words with capital letters to make my entire message fit because I refuse to transmit my thoughts to my friends via text speak!

I also have this obnoxious habit of using my fingertips and nails to constantly ensure my part (in my hair) is completely straight. Even when it is straight, I still do it if I am not doing something to keep my hands busy, like reading, drawing, or playing videogames. I have done it since 6th grade and really want to stop. It started as a way to distract myself from cracking my knuckles, which didn't work, because I still crack them! It is one of my longest-lasting OCD rituals. The only way to stop myself is to put a bandana on my head. I sometimes even do it in public. There is nothing wrong with it, other than the fact that it looks awkward. I used to do it so much my scalp where my part would be would get extremely sore and red from the constant friction of my nails and some strands of hair would break, leaving the remaining short hair to stick up and look frizzy. Maybe someday I can stop completely.
I also have to have chapstick on my lips 24/7, even when they are not chapped. That is a srange one.

Well, that is an extensively detailed and far too long report of the obsessions I can remember having.

Because of my grammar and perfectionist obsession, I will spend many minutes proof-reading this before I post it, checking it for typos and punctuation and grammar errors. I was right; it took about 10-15 minutes. Now I will sit and be embarrassed that I typed this much and doubt it will be read because of negative experiences I've had on other messageboards. But I am not deleting nor shortening my post because it is completely relavent to the topic, even though it contains a plethora of unneccessary details. (incoming improper grammar/run-on sentence I don't feel like fixing) And also, because the way I think is the way I type, and I think the way I do because of the Asperger's syndrome, which is what this site is about, so I hope no one gets mad at me!

It's different because an aspie MUST know all about the topic at hand before beginning to enjoy it. However, once all is known, the enjoyment of said topic must be more than a NT.

I have a few obsessions going on at all times.

For example, I know all about the provincially-maintained roads in my province. I can tell you where highways are, what they used to look like 20, 30, 100 years ago, when diversions were put in, realignments, lighting, signage standards, signage errors. I can tell you about a certain landmark (a canal) or two nearby and how/when that changed, what it used to look like, the populations of the neighbouring municipalities, how the roads were realigned to fit with this landmark, when it all happened. I find it difficult to be comfortable in a city until I research its history, maps, layout, government, landmarks. Because of this, I love to drive, much more than most NTs I know. I used to have to drive around my hometown every day to check up on things, make sure things were still standing, kind of like a dog walking in circles before it goes to bed.

Another one is audio. My vision and hearing are sensitive, so I took a keen interest to music. I have invested time and too much money in both my digital and analog systems. I seek out only expertly-mastered lossless files, even if a double-blind test would reveal I might not be able to tell the difference from an AAC or MP3 (though I usually can). My turntable (my Achilles heel) has occasionally been a source of huge frustration when I become obsessed with its operation, levelness, cartridge alignment/azimuth/vertical tracking force/angle, etc etc. Things in the analog world that have infinite values and cannot be controlled in a 1 or 0 digital environment bug me quite a bit.

edit: Naturally, I have perfect spelling and grammar. When I read a paper, the first thing I gravitate to are the grammatical errors and they drive me insane and cause me to pass judgement about the author. I've written countless "please fix this" notes to the local newspaper because their editing sucks.

Though I do not share your obsession with roads and driving, I can completely understand your need to know all the information. I am really bad at memorizing landmarks and road directions and names, so I really admire your ability to retain all that information! You are like your own self-updating never-fail GPS system! Reading your post reminded me of how I needed all the details about bands I listened to.
I also have extremely sensitive hearing (and sensitivity to light.) I can no longer go to the movie theater because of it without ear plugs. Do you also have any issues with sirens or the rumbling of trucks or the subway screaming by you? It seems we aspies can pick out tiny details to what we listen to. I can isolate each instrument and its melody and each vocal track in the songs I like. It seems you use your sensitive hearing to distinguish between the types of audio files. I'm sure you also have other tricks you can do. And I do not mean tricks in a negative way. I mean tricks s in something you can do because of your hearing that most people can not do.

P.S. Any spelling errors you see me make are simply because I type really quick with cold fingers and often switch letters. Like I often type 'becuase' instead of 'because' and sometimes type 'toy' instead of 'you.'