Categorising things

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Does anyone constantly need to categorise things? For example, today I was watching a film on tv with my mum and and there was a fish on it that I had never seen before. My mum (who is NT) said "That's a nice fish" then didn't care any more. But I said "What type of fish is it?" and then I couldn't watch the rest of the film until I found out what it was. I never found out what it was anyway.

This happens with anything new I see, I have to know what it's name is, what it's type is, what it is used for etc. Do people with ASD need to categorise things all the time or is it just me?

Yes, all the time. I am, however, getting better at deferring the compulsion to understand or define categories - a kind of mellowing with age thing. The need is still there; however, now I'll just stay up until 2 AM looking for answers rather than drop what I'm doing. Not understanding is still unsettling; I have just conditioned myself to be able to wait for the satisfaction of restoring order to the mind.

Not really.
*Off topic*I do categorize my files on my computer though*off topic*.
EMZ=]

Definitely. If I don't find out in the programme, for instance, then I will scour the internet until I get my answer or realise it's 3am and drag myself away.

I also love categorising objects into groups or an order such as by number, colour or use. I can spend hours doing that.

hehe, i like doing this...its not so much a compulsion for me though.. but i do look for patterns between things all the time...its like my brain is on a mission with or without my approval..

This is something that I need to learn to do. I have to find out things right away otherwise it just bugs me until I know.




I am the same, I will read until the early hours until I found out the information I need, often this leads into me wanting to find out something else if it came up when I was looking for the other thing. Then the cycle starts again, if that makes any sense lol. When I was little I used to have loads of toy cars which I would categorise by type then rearrange them by colour, size etc. Instead of playing with them like other kids. I still do this now but with my books.

There are two categories of human beings. Those who categorize and those who do not.

ruveyn

I categorize when it's useful. If it's not useful, I don't bother. Many things can't be easily categorized; they fit into more than one category, and attempting to fit them into one "proper" one will just drive you crazy, for no good reason.

There's a difference between categorizing because it's useful and doing it because it's a compulsion.

Almost all humans do. Society does it all the time. It is a natural human tendency to categorise, in fact without it language could not exist.

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Yes! Constantly. My making so many videos is a way of my arranging images into categories. I've made a website once just categorizing YouTube videos, and hardly anybody went there. I had categorized about 80 videos.

Only with things I'm interested in... for example electronics...
Categorising is one thing, Organizing is another..

I categorise, I quote... etc....
But I DON'T(!) organize...

I wish i was better at doing so... but it's so damn hard...