What makes something an obsession?

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i apologize for the many questions...im trying to learn is all

what is classified as an aspie obsession?
like i was fervently obsessed with reptiles until i was 13 or so. they were virtually all i cared about. but as i got older, my obsessions got a bit broader and stuff...moving onto cars, and RC cars...i was obsessed with the composer Danny Elfman for a LONG time. now i dont feel i have any obsessions. . i can never concentrate on anything, really. maybe it's depression?
but i can still get little obsessions, for example my sudden constant curiousity with these ASDs ...and i still enjoy my old ones very much.
is it a must to have some very specific narrow interest to be classified as AS? can you tell me a bit about yours?

My understanding is that it is not a "must" but is fairly common.

I am just recovering from major depression and can attest that at my low point I was not interested in any of my obsessions. I have also had changing interests over the years. It is funny because I always feel like my interests are diverse until I start talking to other people and realize that they are all related to each other and could really be considered two or three obsessions with subcategories. You comment about cars made me think of that.

If it's something they don't want you to do, it's an obsession. If they like it too, it's a passion!

For myself, I have always been obsessed with detail in just about anything I ever do, but I have never really been stuck on just one thing for an extremely long time. I have always been into trying to figure out how things work, and I remember being absolutely fascinated with the workings of mechanical things like the inside of a clock when I was very young.

I am now 59, and I have been having that kind of problem for the past couple of years ... kind of like, "What's the point?" But, I still always end up finding something to "obsess" about so I can feel like I am doing something worthwhile.

Maybe you can take something everybody uses or needs and intriques you and be the "expert" they are willing to pay to have something made, done or repaired?

When I'm obsessed with something, it's all I think about, talk about, watch/read/listen to, etc. Most of my obsessions are lifelong. For instance, I became obsessed with Dana Carvey when I was four years old. I still obsess over him. Not to the same degree, maybe, but I still flip out over anything I see with him in it.

I just recently became obsessed with something new (Lemon Demon) and didn't even realize until I noticed the number of plays in my iTunes.

I'm passionate about my obsessions! My family and friends have, for the most part, put up with it all, too.

My As son, 16, is completely obsessed with Star Wars. Wears the various t-shirts almost daily, collects all memorabilia, and constanly reads the book series to get the back stories.
We go to events by the 501st legion ( a star wars group that dresses up to raise money for charities) which he can join at 18, and make his own costume! Clone trooper of course.
He is writing a script, also based on, well, STAR WARS! He quizzes me about facts all the time. I do pretty well. I guess I have fed his obsession by becoming interested. But what else makes him happy?

Totally true.

The bit about it being "to the exclusion of all else" is the key. I'm just not completely sure that the obsession and the social issues aren't more linked than many people think. Is it truly obsession, or is it adaptation? Getting totally lost in something that's not as unpredictable as people are? Most likely, it's some of both. Obsessions are important in having some type of self-identity for someone who has trouble understanding people. So part of it might be that the obsessions exclude outside things, but also that aspies are already excluded from the world.
It all gets very chicken-and-egg.

What makes something an obsession?

A thought that outweighs all other thought.

I've been wondering lately if it has to do with age. Obviously it's not the same for everyone, but I've seen this with two Aspies, myself being one of them.

When I was a kid, I had obsessions big time. Stuff that no one else had interest in that I would bore them out of their minds with. I'd stick with one thing before moving on to the next big thing.

But when I was probably 10 I got into music very gradually, and it became my life at 12. At this time it was my big obsession. But as of the past few years, it's not really that life-consuming anymore. I mean, music is still pretty much my life, but it's far from the only thing I think about. It's just that I prefer to have music playing constantly, and I collect CDs and stuff like that. But it's really not that often on my mind.
And during socialization, I don't talk about it much, as nowadays for me it's only a conversation starter. I've found it can make for really good small talk. Like last night, an Alice In Chains song was blaring from a car radio, and I made a comment, such as "It's cool that music like Alice In Chains is blasting loud from a radio, compared to rap, huh?" My coworker replied that it is, and usually after this I would say something like "I sure wish I had a car to blast my good music from." He'd ask why I don't have one, and I'd say it is because I can't afford insurance. Then we'd be talking about car insurance, then it'd change and be like any other conversation and I could keep a two-ended conversation going forever.

how aspious are you?

I don't know that Star Wars is so unusual. I obsessed over SW as a kid and I am NT. If Star Wars had to only rely on AS kids to buy all their stuff they would never have been such a success. I mean Star Wars was huge when I was a kid, on every mag cover, even Time, they were huge! My 8 yr old son is NT and he loves Star Wars, especially the Legos and all his friends at school LOVE Star Wars. You don't have to be an aspie to love SW. My sister once asked me, 3 years ago, as I have a son and a daughter, "I thought you were going to name them Luke and Leia, you should have!" And I am still wondering if they will ever continue the saga as George Lucas said he was originally planning for 9 movies.

I wish my stepson were into SW - his interests are like cables, cars, car keys, gps sytems, basically things. I find the aspie interests to actually be quite interesting!

I am 7 months pregnant and my son was all worried I could die in childbirth. I said 'no silly why do you think that?' and he said 'because Padme died in childbirth'.

Judging by the prices of some of these Lego sets ($400 for the Death Star with all the rooms), there are a lot of SW fans out there. I will soon have a baby girl (don't worry she won't have a SW name!) but I did see someone had named their son Anakin. I think your son sounds adorable!

According to my nursing note an obsession is:

Insistent thoughts recognized as arising from the self. The client can regard then as absurd or relatively meaningless, yet they persist despite endeavors to get rid of them.

hehe, in that case i AM obsessed! :O

Obsessive people think and talk about the same things over and over. If you know someone who brings up the same subject enough for you to notice and get a bit irritated over, it could be called "obsessive". If it's something you are obsessive about, too, maybe you get kind of jealous, especially if they know more about it than you.

Something is an obsession if you feel you have to do it. For me, it comes and goes . . . will be a random idea that just hits me and suddenly i feel like, "Interesting, id best look into this." That feeling can be short or long lived, pending on the topic. For instance, Id got it in me to look into the whole 2012 issue, then dug into it enough that i felt satisfied with what i found. Same thing with the Zodiac murders, random technology, TV shows, how i go about watching some TV shows (ie have a particular toy or set of toys present), some games, etc. Granted, this feeling seems to pass at a certain point when something feels like it "clicked" i guess. Then i drop it and it could be quite some time until i get another urge. Admittedly, this "empty" time is quite depressing to me as i find it hard to actually come up with something to do until an "obsessive urge" hits. Same deal with conversations as my preferred topic is games (card or video usually).