Do you remember obsessive interests as a child?

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Hello everyone

I am starting on the path to seeking a diagnosis, and the psychologist wants an hour session with me first before she recommends forking out the money for an official diagnosis. It all scares me, I feel like I am taking some massive test!! !

Anyway, she seemed fixated on the fact that I had to have had OBSESSIVE interests as a child. Trouble is, I honestly just don't remember! She described a man she just diagnosed as having an obsession with transformers in that he got upset if anyone told him to turn it off, he had to have the figurines with him while watching and could recite episodes (she basically just described my Son!! !). But as for me, I don't know. She seemed to imply that if I didn't have obsessive interests as a child then I couldn't possible have asperger's.

Is this true? Is there anyone out there (particularly females) who are diagnosed with AS and don't really remember much from when they were a child with regard to obsessive interests?

I think I liked stuff like animals and horses, etc, and as I got older I loved Barbie and cutting her hair, etc, and I liked playing with Barbie for much longer than age-appropriate (embarrassing!). I have been watching home videos of me and my family as a kid and it makes me cringe. I always just had this blank look on my face. I was awkward, I was encouraged to sit with others. I didnt interact. I was always off in my own World in a MAJOR way. I sometimes did those funny happy dance things with my arms. I would make funny noises. I was just plain AWKWARD, weird and non-responsive lol

Thanx
Liz

Tip: Show your psychologist the videos of you as a kid. That's all you need.

To answer your question yes I do remember my special interests. From a very early age I collected lamb toys. Drawing was a huge obsession for about 14 years. Then it was skateboarding. I would skate for four hours a day. I also liked dragons, dinosaurs, matchbox cars (I had a huge collection).
Many of my interests were not age appropriate. I bought some type of fisher price toy into school when I was five and told it was a baby toy. I got a few other boys to play cars with me but other kids said they were little kids toys.
Recently I was into Ben 10. I've now moved onto Doctor Who and Stargate.
I was really into computers too.

You can have AS and not have obsessive interests. Psychologists just have their own opinion of AS and think you must be obsessed with something to have it.

I'm a female diagnosed with AS. I actually remember most of my childhood special interests, but I don't remember the ones I had prior to kindergarten. My mom says I was obsessed with dinosaurs and The Lion King during that time, but I don't remember any of it. The only pre-kindergarten obsession I remember is the cartoon version of Beetlejuice.

Yeah, I had a few. The funniest one was when I was on a Dracula kick. I had this big book of vampires, including a number of pictures from Hammer vampire flicks. I remember I liked this one girl around age 11 or 12 and I would recite facts about vampires to her.

How can I forget about my childhood obsessions. Most of my punishments revolved around them. That's the reason that my posting habits are the way that they are, with me going on about my favourite group. I can spam The Kinks and get away with it. Nobody's sitting on the other side of the screen, waiting to scold me or train me not to talk about them, like some obsession that I had in 2006.

Presidents of the United States, with an emphasis on John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963).

GI JOE and Video Games. Had both since I was around three. Now am 27. Still play with the same GI Joes and new video games but I actually play NES games on my Computer so in a way I still play the same games.

Let's see:

Read and re-read Greek and Norse mythology over and over again.
Read and re-read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass over and over again
Read and re-read Black Beauty over and over again.
Read and re-read the Chronicles of Narnia over and over again.
Read and re-read the Dragonriders of Pern and Harper Hall of Pern books over and over again.

Rudy Simone's comment in Aspergirls about staying in one's bedroom and reading the same book 124 times in a row struck extremely close to home.

Video games. I had specific series, to many to name. But have followed them throughout....and still follow them.

Pokemon, Trains, Thomas The Tank Engine, Beyblade

From what I've read, female with AS tend to be unnoticed because they do not have unusual interest though they tend to be obsessive, it is also "more acceptable" for them, etc.

When I was a child, I would watch the disney VHS my grandmother offered me several time during the day and every day (and roleplay it) until I got a new one, I know no one who did that (and I still do that with movies I like) but it does not seem abnormal or obsessive for people.

I've also read that some of these girls would play to children game longer than expected (I did not mostly because my mother had told me to stop watching cartoons and playing with dolls at 9 because I was too old for this, I have no diagnosis but I just wanted to say that everyone had their reasons to do something or not).

I think it is not easy to diagnose someone and perhaps you should show her these videos and explain what were your interests, perhaps you could also show her websites about female with AS to show how different everyone can be.

I always had intense obsessions when I was a kid.

I actually have around 800 hours of game play in Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion. I can't wait for the new one.