Why do we have the obsessions we do?

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There's another thread at the moment advising people to steer themselves away from Geeky obsessions. I'm just curious as to why we do get obsessed with the things we do. A number of topics come up a lot as being the special interests of Autistic people: dinosaurs, railways, video games, animation, Science Fiction and so on. Why do we go for these things so often?

Do you think that these are things that were shown us and appealed to us in early childhood and we hang on to them because they are comforting? I could say this for myself regarding dinosaurs and railways.

Do we like subjects that are systematically organised? Subjects that are not people-orientated or which require a great deal of physical co-ordination (like sports or dancing)?

Do we like to have our own little "worlds" that we can have control over and fully understand? I can see both video game playing and model railways falling into this category.

I've always loved animation. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that the expressions are exaggerated so perhaps I can understand them better. Maybe I respond to the vivid colours used in animation or I like the stylised environments or the surreal jokes which take the rules of reality and mash them up.

Does anybody else have any thoughts on this?

Thanks

I think that we on the Spectrum find comfort in our obsessions to get away from the confusing overstimulating NT world. I say if it's a harmless obsession, enjoy. I do not think it's just necessarily what we were exposed to during childhood, but what we discovered during our travels through life that brought us comfort and piqued our interest.

I was not exposed to science fiction until I was at least 10. I enjoy Star Trek immensely. I was exposed to hunting as a child and hate it. I wasn't exposed to Bob Ross until last year and now consider him a painting God. I guess it's because of his calm, easy going style and undying belief that anyone can paint.

In the sense of engaging with the real-time real world, they are "disarming".

or,
perhaps there's a new gene forming.
Maybe we should call it the "Sci-fi, video gaming, trains, dinosaurs, cats" gene?

It's a safe haven. I can control my interest, can predict it. Unlike the real world where it's loud and bright, my interest is calming and well, interesting. If things get too tough, I go to it.

I usually get into my interest pretty randomly. Like with history, I watched a historical drama and wanted to see how much of it was accurate and one thing led to another and boom! special interest.

Some of mine actually were very people oriented and required coordination. I used to be obsessed with ballet, but I was very bad at it.

I'm not sure why dinosaurs and railroads appeal to so many autistics; I used to be obsessed with the length of dinosaurs for a time xD which relates to order. The world is pretty hectic and the length of dinosaurs is not.