What else can cause Aspie-like obsessions?

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Are there any personality disorders or mental conditions that also involve special interests/obsessions like Asperger's? I don't mean rituals, I mean the narrow interests, and only talking about/thinking about those interests to the point that it interferes with things like work/school/family etc.?

I hope the phraseology makes sense and doesn't offend anyone. I couldn't really think of a better way to phrase my question.

Your mind can pretty much do that on its own if you want to, and you don't need AS for that ! XD

haha, true, but what about when you don't want to? When you can't help it?

I'd need someone to prove me wrong but i think Obsessive compulsive disorder shares "some" traits, such as the narrow interest thing you seek.... i'm not sure though.

I used to think that was the only thing that could explain my obsessions but as much as I've read about OCD, the obsessions people with OCD describe are not what I experience. Then again, maybe I've not read the right things!

But as I see it, OCD does not relate to, say, being obsessed with a band, or a movie, or dinosaurs, etc. Am I wrong? I'm no mental health professional or anything, so please correct me if I am.

No. OCD is more about rituals and routines than obsessive interests. The only diagnosis I know where we see obsessive interests is with AS.

Thanks for the correction whitetiger ^^ .

This is similar to what my psychologist told me, because I asked her this same question. She labeled me ATYPICAL Asperger's, because I do not exhibit all the traits she normally sees but I do fit the diagnostic criteria on paper. But she told me that OCD is far more compulsive and ritualistic, in that you feel you MUST do it, not that you LIKE doing it. My obsessive interests are for my own enjoyment, and at times for my own education (such as my obsession with Asperger's and the other ASDs)!

Thank you! That's what I thought. Like sbcmetroguy, my obsessions are for my own enjoyment.

Before learning about AS and this part of it, many people were convinced I must have OCD to have such obsessions, and at one point I was even diagnosed with it, though it never fit me.

I'm so unsure about having AS but a main concern for me is definitely my obsessions and I could never find anything else to explain them!

Nonverbal learning disorder.

From Wikipedia:
NVLD is not a pervasive developmental disorder, but in some cases can be very similar to this group. The similarities can include:

avoiding eye contact,
abnormal spiritual beliefs,
flat affect,
poor empathy,
inability to think in novel ways, constant use of routines,
stereotypical behaviors,
narrow or even idiosyncratic interests.

"Abnormal spiritual beliefs"? What the heck does that mean?

eg: belief that inanimate things are spirited

(hugging trees, but you could go much more inanimate than that;
also wouldn't want to rule anything out
on merely the basis of above definition and/or example)

but, as i thought at OP, but now this... well, that gets me thinking
towards schizotypal pd, which might be misconstrued for obsessive thinking

and that sort of brings to mind narcissist pd
which unautistically could be mistaken for megalomania
but which definitely could be misconstrued autistically

which does, more broadly, more 'structurally' yet, bring to mind
there is evidence (to my surprise) that auties are more susceptible to paranoia
but also that autism could be mistaken for paranoid-ism

doyouhearthingsotherpeopledont/[email protected]

ps: and how about ocd-ish borderline pd [>> ptsd]
pps: dang: a lethal mix of affected imagination and rigidity

Pure 'O' type OCD

Schizoid PD. Massive overlap with Asperger's (like how AS has a massive overlap with HFA).

i would expect schizoid pd to present more on the aloof-ocdish side of autism
than the markedly obsessive type, which is precisely why i avOIDed and still say TYPAL

when it comes to active-but-odd
and further along toward NT-ness,
where finally even the obsessiveness finally becomes hardly visible, if that at all!

butmenotfuzzy>fizzyme/toxically@Robert'0.iii

I think SPD could have the almost the same social symptoms that AS, but not the obsessions.