Need to get rid of an obsession!

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I have an obsession with serial killers and forensic science. Especially homicide investigations, such as trying to chase a serial killer, find him/her and lock him/her away in prison. For that reason, I enjoy programs such as CSI [Miami], Bones [even though that is unrelated to serial killers and more to do with solving murders that happened many years ago by studying the victim's "left overs"], SVU and Criminal Minds. I have various books about serial killers although 2 years ago was made to throw out many from my collection, as my therapist thought it was "polluting my mind with negative thoughts"...even though it wasn't!
This obsession is not causing me any problems now...but i've been obsessed with this on and off for 3 years and my mother said that it's not an entirely healthy obsession and she'd rather I find something else to research.

I've tried not to think about it, but no matter how hard I try, I always end up thinking about murder cases, trials of serial killers, thinking of tv program dialogues etc. The main problem though, is that I seem to talk about it unconciously.
For example, I reference a lot of things that different serial killers did during murders, their family dynamics and how they behaved when they were a child/teen/adult etc when comparing everyday things such as why homeless people are homeless, to why girls play with dolls and boys play with cars, stereotypically.
I don't want my mother to end up telling my psychologist, or I will be questioned again as to why i'm obsessed with it...and the truth be told, I have no idea!

My mother has asked me many times and continues to do so, to stop talking about it. I've come to the conclusion that if I can't stop talking about it, then I have to stop researching them and avoid everything that has to do with them. In other words, get rid of this obsession!

I need to get rid of everything I own that reminds me of anything to do with murder/law/serial killers/crime scenes...which is essentially half of what I own, and 3/4 of what is inside of my brain.
I'm dreading doing this as I love all of my things and research files about them, it's so exciting to endulge in this and forget about everything else...but at the same time I know that for my families sake, it needs to be done. This obsession destroyed my mothers last serious relationship and i'll be darned if I let it do so again.

I'm just wondering if anyone has successfully gotten rid of an obsession and how they did it? Any advice on how to stop thinking/talking about it once all of the physical reminders are gone?

long term obbessions can chance u just need someting u enjoy to replace it..u need to try things..my obession was before nothing but games ..recently i have found bass to be great

mayby if you study more about serial killers and forensic stuff you could be helpful to the police.

Not that easy. It is in there, and now what?

Write a book.

One, it makes it useful, you do have observations.

The process of writing brings out what we know, and can get down on paper. Then it is done.

It does get things out of your head.

As a subject of interest, it does support a lot of TV, so not that uncommon.

Books have been writen about one killer, but not the trade in general.

My take on it is for every background, lots of others had it worse, and never killed anyone.

I do not even see common links between killers. It is not a type.

I had a long term obsession with prehistory. I read everything, and when I started writing I found I knew little, and the same for the people who wrote the books I read.

It was partial opinion. Then I was forced to form my own out of what I could prove/not disprove.

That made for a very choppy story.

Then I let the story tell me how it had to happen. Everything I knew was wrong, and got rejected.

It broke up my obsessive reading, for now I disagreed with most writers.

It is still around, but gathers dust, maybe twice a year I revisit, when my brain has had time to process, update, and done again.

I have the same thing going on with Tesla, I knew every word writen, then found they were writen by people who knocked out books for a living, and really knew nothing of his work or the science involved.

How did Tesla think? Good question. I can tell he had a narrow focus, was concerned with amounts and spinning things.

Killers are common, but humans are hard to reverse engineer.

Unsolvable problems spin in you head, endless processing, writing it down, you find how little you know, but clear it all up, then wait for new information.

The problem is research gathers everything, filling rooms with no output. Output has a hard time filling a notebook, and nothing else is valid unless it fits what is in the notebook.

I find the same problem with color printing, lots is writen, that I have to read through, but has no meaning for what I am doing. Everything I am doing would fit on one sheet of paper, and only what can be added needs to be remember.

A focus on useful does narrow things.

As for speaking to other people, they only want to hear about themselves, and what they think. They are books, and all that fits within is their content. Keep the conversation about them, their opinions, and it works wonders.

Find something else to talk about, the breeding of roses, some other flower, it works better than murder.

Most older people knew people who were murdered, so it has personal content for them. There is nothing good to think, and most are trying, day at a time, to forget. Any mention set them back.

Just think of it as being kind. By my nature I disagree with everyone, so no need to let them know.

Just show interest in what they think, be kind, and not upsetting.

As someone here said, be yourself, but try not to scare people.

My obsessions just change by themselves, and there's nothing I can do to change them at the time (all-encompassing).

I cannot see how it'd affect your mother's relationship, past and present; but then, people often surprise me with new ways of confusing me.

That just confuses me more, which I expected to happen.

It's your family that has the problem concerning this, not you; as long as you're harming no one, you're doing nothing wrong with your interest. It is your Asperger's if you cannot stop talking of it, obsessing over it, and there's nothing you can do that'll stop you from doing such. It's a part of the disorder (the differences in your brain).

I agree with the book writing idea. If you can say that you are doing all this research and putting it to use writing a book, then it might be less odd for other people.

Now as for your mom's ex-boyfriend, sorry girl, he was an a**. You have obsessions, you don't get to choose them, they choose you. If he wanted to keep his kids away from exposure to serial killer talk, he could have nicely asked you to not talk about it around them.

Now, I've kinda got two types of obsessions, long-term and short-term. Long-term are the ones that I can go really deep into depth about and that I will probably keep about me for the rest of my life. Short-term are the every-2-years changing ones, kinda like hobbies.

What the Law/criminal investigation/serial killer fascination for you sounds like is a long-term obsession. This is actually one that, if you made it into your degree in college, you would probably do very well for yourself, and become a fairly successful aspergian. Start looking up Criminal Investigator jobs, and tell people you want to work for such and such agency to help catch the bad guys. I can tell you, law classes are fun, expecially criminal law classes. See if you can do a sit in at the local college for one of the law classes, see for yourself.

I agree with the writing idea. I find when I start writing about my obsession (insects), my characters sort of guide me in a way. It's interesting because I can take my obsession, and then also use it to give people advice too...

Psychology is one of my obsessions. Insects are my main obsession. And there are other obsessions as well, such as plants and photography.

I take and combine the obsessions: Psychology + insects. The result becomes something rather unique, I think. We get bugs dealing with human problems, lol. Makes for interesting writing. One of my current fascinations is alcoholism. I've not had any personal experience with it, but I study it a lot, and I can't help but to reach out and give support to people looking for help. It comes as a byproduct of my research and character building. Now if I can work on and develop my other characters, then I think I have something special there.

With photography + plants, the result is lots of stunning macros of not just flowers, but insects as well. I hope to upload some pics too.

I've used my plant obsession to get involved with a local conservatory. I find myself at home potting up plants and stepping into the greenhouse behind the scenes. Not to mention it is rather quiet there and not nearly as hectic as outside in the public areas.

So if you have an obsession, find ways to make it work for you and turn it into something to help others as well.

Why oh why does everyone on this forum always seem to be so ashamed of their Aspie traits?

GO with your obsession- do something really positive with it! You'll wake up happy, and go to sleep accomplished every night!

Dude, I now own my own business selling toys online! Toys are my life- ask ANYONE who knows me.

Stop being ashamed of what makes you so great.

TheDoctor82:
I'm not. And I agree with yoru statement. I mean there's enough negativity out in the world, why not focus on the positive aspects?

To the OP: Watch Dexter. You'll both love and hate me for it, depending on how serious you are towards kicking that obsession

Brittany: Perhaps you might like a career in forensics?

I think AS might be an advantage in this sort of field, and it is greatly helpful to society to be able to help solve crimes.. the more advanced forensic science gets, the more likely it will be that criminals and murderers are caught... so what is wrong with your interest?