Autistic obsessions

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My friend and I is now doing a small project on a subject that it appears that no autism academics we believed have covered in the media.

Basically from our own experiences and other Aspies locally, we discovered a fundamental similarity despite their differences in interests, obsessions and background. We are looking at how this differ from the way NTs get obsession with the same subject but with a slightly different mental mechanism.

Our project now needs more aspie participation in our survey.

Q1. What are your childhood and current interests? Include primary interest and other secondary interests.
Q2. Which interest, childhood/adult, is the main driving force of your thought processes today
Q3. How did you get to be interested in the interest that would drive your thought processes today? Mention only Childhood ones

Last edited by Tales on 12 Jan 2011, 11:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My example

Q1. What are your interests? Include primary interest and other secondary interests.
Zoology, Movies, Science fiction writing, Animation, Art

Q2. Which interest is the main driving force of your thought processes today
I think in Zoology terms and still do. But my vocabulary expands later in life to movies and fiction.

Q3. How did you get to be interested in the interest that would drive your thought processes today? Cite event in your childhood
I was exposed to animal documentaries and biology books as a kid at a tender age of 5 years old. That sparked my interest.

1. Primary obsessions:
-I Love Lucy
-YouTube series "Is it a Good Idea to Microwave This?"
-A Beautiful Mind
-Cedar Point and their roller coasters

Secondary obsessions: (just the major ones; there are MANY! )
-Neuropsychiatry/neuropharmacology
-Biochemistry, anatomy/physiology, inorganic chemistry
-Ed, Edd n Eddy
-SpongeBob SquarePants
-American history (1920s in particular)
-Frank Sinatra
-Many other TV shows, movies, and video games that I'm too lazy to list

2. While I Love Lucy will always be my main/biggest special interest, it hasn't been the one I constantly think/talk about since I was 12-14. The one that currently dominates my thoughts is "Is it a Good Idea to Microwave This?"

3. I only found "Is it a Good Idea to Microwave This?" in April 2009. I fell in love with the pseudo-scientific premise, the microwaves with female names, and the structured routine of the episodes from the get-go.
-OddDuckNash99-

I see

Maybe I need to be specific? For Qn 3. Try to use those childhood experiences instead. What got you interested in the first place.

Q1. What are your interests? Include primary interest and other secondary interests.

The Kinks
The Internet
The Olympics

Q2. Which interest is the main driving force of your thought processes today

The Kinks

Q3. How did you get to be interested in the interest that would drive your thought processes today? Cite event in your childhood

I started to become aware of rock and roll at the age of 9. There was this group who sang songs that made me feel energetic inside. I've later found out that the name of that group was The Kinks. I've also had my first taste of computers and the Summer Olympics at the age of 9.

Q1. What are your childhood and current interests? Include primary interest and other secondary interests.

Primary childhood and current: Movies/filmmaking/film and video technologies (Horror genre mostly)
Secondary childhood: Elasmobranchology, cryptozoology, and Germanic languages
Secondary current: Viking-era Scandinavian history and mythology, Norwegian language, and archaeology

Q2. Which interest, childhood/adult, is the main driving force of your thought processes today?

I am unsure what this question is asking specifically.

Q3. How did you get to be interested in the interest that would drive your thought processes today? Mention only Childhood ones

I truly have no idea how my special interests start or what triggers them. Going through the keepsake-box my mom kept in preparation for my AS evaluation, we found drawings I'd made of monsters and other scary things at the age of three and four (well before I was ever exposed to scary movies) My mother said that was all I ever drew... and that she would have been much more concerned had I not been such a cheerful kid and have shown such exuberance when talking on and on about these monsters.

Q1: Childhood interests included Greek and Norse mythology, stuffed toys, roleplaying games, wargames (these last two were primary), science fiction, fantasy,
Q2: Social justice, neurology (specifically autism and adhd), and computer games
Q3: I became aware of roleplaying games in the 6th grade, which fascinated me. I mean, I ended up reading and rereading them and making characters and not so much playing them as organizing them. They were also ideal for my extreme daydreaming habit, since I could use them to create characters to populate my own little worlds. I didn't really play them until years later. My interest in games led to a short career in freelance game design and my hobby evolved with the times from tabletop games to computer games. This was actually ideal because computer games meant I didn't need other people to enjoy my hobby (although I am not totally asocial, I am to a point).

I got interested in mythology when I was 5-6 or so, and this drove a lot of my reading. I think I read every book I could get my hands in on the library, and this still influences a lot of my other interests - like give me fiction, movies, games, based on Greek or Norse myth and I will consume that media. I've also picked up interests in other mythos, such as Egyptian, Celtic, Sumerian, Chinese, Hindu, and so on, although not nearly as strongly.

Last edited by Verdandi on 13 Jan 2011, 12:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well, since my current primary obsession only began in 2009, I can't use childhood experiences for it. Do you just want me to explain my first ever special interests? What sparked them? As in the ones I had when I was a toddler? Because, for example, my love for science started when I was about 3 or 4, and that has turned me into the scientist that I am today.
-OddDuckNash99-

Q1.
Adult Interests:
- Four Specific Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movies:
* Alice in Wonderland
* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
* Edward Scissorhands
* Sweeney Todd
- Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (the film adaptation)
- Collecting Alice in Wonderland merchandise (from any adaptation, not just Tim Burton's)

Childhood Interests:
- Dinosaurs
- Beetlejuice (mostly the cartoon version)
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Balto (the animated movie made in the mid 90s)
- Wolves
- Anime/Japanese animation
- Video games

Q2.
The main driving force behind my thought processes today is definitely my obsession with my four favorite Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movies.

Q3.
My childhood interests in Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas helped to drive me to seek out Tim Burton's other movies as an adult, which have become my strongest obsessions for the past year.

Last edited by IdahoRose on 13 Jan 2011, 1:05 am, edited 2 times in total.

Q1. What are your childhood and current interests? Include primary interest and other secondary interests.

Childhood: lambs, dragons, dinosaurs, The Lion King, drawing
Adult: Physics, Doctor Who, Astronomy, Neuroscience, photography, certain bands I get obsessed about.

Q2. Which interest, childhood/adult, is the main driving force of your thought processes today

I see things in a lot of detail and look at shape, texture, shadow, colour more. So I guess it was from drawing since I was 3-20. I've just started to get back into drawing. But I see the world with a lot of physics too. I look at things and just see their structure and the laws of physics just jump out at me.

Q3. How did you get to be interested in the interest that would drive your thought processes today? Mention only Childhood ones

No idea. My dad was always good at art too so I probably got it from him. Many of the interests I have today I had no desire about when I was a child. But I suppose the photography which also helps me see the world in a different way (composition/ exposure/ aperture) I got into when I was 10 and my dad bought me a film camera for $139 at a chemist.

Childhood interests:
Primary: horses
Secondary: Charlie Brown comics, hair, yarn and string.
Adult interests: Current events, politics, time travel, psychic phenomena, social commentary, animal psychology, human psychology, how things work, mysteries, writing, literature, genomes, HAR mysteries, beginning and end of universe, other dimensions and aliens as gods.

Current events and media interpretation/scrutiny, analysis.
I have been relentless in my focus, both past and present.