Ever feel uncomfortable sharing obsessions with others?

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And by others, I mean people that know you are autistic.

Currently, I am obsessing over Wrong Planet (by the way, sorry about that... ). My wife knows that I have, and she has told me she is fine with it. At the same time, I still feel like I need to cover up my obsession a bit whenever she comes over to see what I am doing.

Yup! I am in the process of being diagnosed right now. I have an obsession about reading about AS right now. It included surfing around on this forum reading and commenting.

My husband knows what I am up to. He is also fine with it. I still feel self concious (sp?) about it.

I'm not uncomfortable about sharing obsessions, but I do be careful not to go on about them to much as I have a history of annoying people over them. And with people that know I'm autistic, well that depends, with NTs that know I hide the obsession a bit but other aspies that know I don't really care because the odds are they're doing the same thing.

people dont look at me as autistic, they see me as aspergers. but i did feel uncomfortable sharing my obsessions with people. now if for instance im holding a fire agate looking at it and there all "what are you doing?" i'll be all looking at a fire agate dog. here let me tell you all about them

Moderately to severely, depending on the depth of my interest. The more obsessive I am, the more private it becomes. It's never anything taboo or shameful, but I'm still embarrassed to share my interests with others. Maybe because I'm afraid the level of interest may be seen as strange or scary by many people?

It's difficult feeling you have to hide something like that, especially when you don't do small talk.

Depends on the interest and the company. I wouldn't talk about my interest in spectrum disorders around my classmates, for example.

Never been too uncomfortable with the reactions of others UNLESS they've felt the need to pass judgment, in which case I feel disgusted at their hypocrisy. Too many people CLAIM to abide by "live and let live" but still set up barriers to that principle. In other words, they are all for it when it benefits them, but not so much so when it is something that they don't get/agree with.

Yes, this. And mostly because I am a private person, and I feel like I'm sharing too much of myself to talk about them. That, and if my special interests were ridiculed in any way, it would feel like a personal attack.

That's exactly how I feel. I become embarassed when I begin talking about my special interests. So unless there's a good occasion to start talking about them, I never mention anything about them.
I do tend to tilt the conversation towards them, because the thoughts about my interests lurk in my head and desperately want to get out.

My main obsessions are Animation and Mental Health. These obsession sometimes bleed onto a similar topic, like diseases or paintings (or paintings about diseases ).

I don't have any problem talking about my obsessions. Other people do (especially if I talk about something uncomfortable, like an autopsy I once saw on TV), but usually, I can censor the gory bits (just not the boring bits, lol).

Well, I'm still not sure if I'm an aspie, but when it comes to obsessions, it depends. Like here on this bird job, it's fine to admit I like birds and to talk about birds, but I hide my Sonic the Hedgehog doll and the fact I listen to Sonic the Hedgehog video game songs, etc...

Only ever at the beginning of a special interest. I get sort of embarrassed to admit how prevalent the special interest is becoming in my life after I first mention it to my mother or a close friend. I think it's also about ridicule, as others have said; at the beginning, I'm afraid that somebody will say that the new interest is stupid or something. But eventually, my need to ramble about the interest overrides that embarrassment, and everyone close to me soon knows from my frequent mentioning of the subject that it has become a special interest. I just developed a new special interest, starting about a month ago, so I've been able to "track" its progression. This is the first pretty intense special interest to develop since I've been diagnosed with AS, so it's neat to be able to see a special interest in the making.
-OddDuckNash99-

Im quite comfortable in sharing my interests however i don't go too deep nowadays as i have been criticised in the past.

interests are one thing. obsessions are another. i will become obsessively (ha!) inhibited when it comes to my obsessions, to the point of hiding them. unless i find an online community that shares this obsession, yes, i hide it in real life.

for me, it started with having to hide my music around my parents because they were much older than everyone else's. example, if there was a singer or band that i had an interest or crush on, i had to hide all evidence of them, never put posters up, etc, change the channel to keep my mother from seeing the singer on tv, etc etc.

I'm 23 and I watch Ben 10 and collect the figurines that come free with jelly beans. The only people that know this are my family, and friends I feel comfortable with telling. I might mention Ben 10 to some friends and see how they respond then say 'oh yeah I'm really into that show' if they like it too.

I don't think I'll share my love of fantasy though. I'd just get labelled a nerd.

I don't care if people know what music I listen to because I think it's the best in the world. If anyone criticises it I'll tear them apart.

I also hate it when people find out who I have a crush on. My sister always makes a big deal about it, even if it's just a minor celebrity crush. I like a lot of actors but I'm not an obsessed fan girl.

Before my diagnoses I had a really bad problem of nearly annoying people to death by talking only about my interests. My mother used to really chew me out for doing so. "No one wants to hear you talk about Garfield cartoons or video games or the last Disney movie you've seen". So in other words don't talk at all because everything you say is nonsense and no one gives a rat's tail about it. Gee mom, why didn't you just poke me in the eye with a sharp stick? She understands a lot better now, though, and I've gotten better at having decent two-way conversations. But I often feel embarrassed or ashamed for sharing my interests so much in the past. My mom says I shouldn't but I do.

Some obsessions I feel very comfortable talking about to other people, and others I don't mention much at all except on this website, because of the haters who hate and judge you without having a clue who you really are, that you're more than just some person who likes Disney cartoons or Nintendo games. Well, I can tell a lot about who they are by what *they* say.