Is there Therapy to break a special interest?

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Well, I do see my therapist in two days, but I was wondering if I should bother asking this or not.

Basically, I don't want to have Asperger's/Mental Health as an obsession anymore. The therapist does believe I have AS but I am not formally diagnosed. She in fact said last session I should start reading books for autistic people and get support.

But personally I don't want to focus on it, but I do want help for my social skills problems.

But back to the first question I had, if I wanted it, is there therapy or self-help for breaking a special interest?

Funny you should post this because I was considering making a thread about how I've not had a special interest for years and it is worrying me. I really want to get passionate about something again.

What is your special interest anyway, can it be used to your advantage?

Currently Asperger's/Mental Illness, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Birds/Nature

I've found a rather iffy way (that you probably can't manage by yourself anyway) of destroying the pleasure you get from it, but not the urge to think about it all the time. Would you rather have an empty obsession eat you alive, with your thoughts turning toward it constantly but gaining no pleasure and learning nothing, feeling only pain and an unfulfillable longing?

The only thing that works for me is to find something else to replace the previous interest in terms of intensity.

This does not typically happen on purpose.

I used to be well in to Sonic. I had what you have in your avatar. the first on your list may well be my new / next obsession

Speaking on my own experience, I'd suggest not abandoning special interests. I have had times in my life when I didn't have one, and somehow it made me incomplete, nervous, aimless, or even depressed. As long as I have a special interest in progress, it doesn't have to be with me 24 hrs a day... Just needs to be there when I want to act on it.

Charles

I think this is probably the only way to go about it. I've never been able to get rid of my "special interests", but I have been able to alter them a little so that I focus on something different for a change.

For example, a few years back, I got tired of being on online games so much, so I quit and decided to take up art again. There were other reasons behind the decision, but at least, I figured, I'd have something to show for my interests if I did art instead of played games.

It's not to say there isn't a place for games, but having something tangible to show people has been a great asset to me.

I've had one special interest since the age of 9. I've tried to abandon it for two years at the ages 32 and 33 and I was so much of a stranger to myself and my family members, that I didn't recognize myself.