Why do you talk about your obsessions?

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I don't, really. I know that if I do, I'll have a hard time shutting up. If I am talking to someone, I have to expand all of my energy on the conversation and looking for social cues. So I mostly listen and concentrate on formulating the correct response. If I start talking about my obsessions, I know that I won't be able to do this.

So, I talk to my cat. I write. I'll talk to my husband if I have a bit of alcohol (only drink when I'm home, never with others or when I'm out). I mean, I always talk to my husband, but he complains that I don't talk enough. I've been a bit of a recluse in the past few years, so there isn't much chance for me to talk about my interests with others anyway. A bit boring at times, but no stress.

I am driven to talk about them.

ruveyn

I occasionally reveal the general area of my preferred interest but never why I like that subject or more personal details about it or what it means to me, it is my own preferred interest and would not mean anything to anyone who has not had my life or experienced the things I have in the way that I have, so pointless to try to share anything about it.

I like to talk about my interests, but no one's ever interested.

With family I'm beggining to think talking about obsession and being obsessed is "bad behavior" The first day of college I was obsessed which REALLY upset mom I've tried "Obsessive school behavior" and gotten threats to have my laptop taken away. So obsession is bad behavior (Or so that's what my parents would have you think.)

Same here as for most of you. I like to talk about the stuff that fascinates me, and find it very hard not to, but most people aren't fascinated with the same stuff, so it just bores them and makes them feel trapped (it's not socially acceptable to say "sorry, you're boring me, would you mind keeping it to yourself?" so they have to feign interest until I shut up).

Only saving grace is that I'm fascinated by music and by the psychology of human interaction (among other more nerdy stuff), and there are a lot of folks who share those interests with me. And I don't think I've ever met a woman (in real life) who doesn't find the the study of relationships - why they work, why they don't, etc. - worth the effort. Better than talking about computers when you're on a date, though there must be some women out there who know their ass from their elbow with these technical hobbies.

My main obsession is looking at maps so theres not much to talk about there. I spend at least an hour a day on google earth, the mother of all maps.

Obsesspool flood topic

I usually do not mention them here, but in my realtime life I will if the subject comes up.

Sorry about threadnapping but... a criteria for asperger's is not wanting to show or share. Yet it's seen as a classic symptom to share a special interest. They can't have it both ways.

There's a difference between {spontaneously approaching someone with a new object and beginning an interaction} and {talking about your obsessions while in a forced conversational setting.}

My experiences with sharing special interests are always abysmal.

I attribute this to several human, and NT behaviors.

The first is the emotional commitment that NT people have for opinions that are not well founded. If your comprehensive knowledge on something happens to counter something they "think" or "believe" they will be offended. If you continue to discuss the deeper evidence behind your knowledge versus their ignorance, they feel belittled. This happened during my most recent evaluation session with my the child psychologist I am seeing, because he is the only one in the valley that diagonses Asperger's, and I am on an HMO. His knowledge pertains only to childhood diagnosis, I constantly correct his misunderstanding of the nature of late-identified aspergers, and I can see and hear that he gets agitated, though it doesn't "process". I am completely incapable of processing someone elses emotions in the context of my speech. He tells me "There is no need for you to do further research on the condition".. HA, what a cop out. How dare someone with only a "high school education" lecture him, a Doctor, on a topic hes been 'practicing' for umpteen years. These people always point out the duration of their experience, rather than the quality of their experience. I say fifteen sh***y years is still sh***y. I told him I will continue to do research and obtain knowledge, that it is a part of who I am.

Like once at work, the Principal of the school I work for came in while I was filling out the beginning of the year paper work, the pay term/rate, the "I agree to not do drugs or look at porn at work", etc. He told me, "You need to fill those out on your own time, after hours". I told him "If these papers are based on the terms of my employment, and are required by this entity that has hired me, I will most certainly fill them out during business hours". It wasn't even that I wasn't doing my work, I do the work of a half dozen people and stupidly can't stop doing things above my pay grade because they need to be done. He just wanted to feel authoratative. "Those papers are to be filled out after business hours", he said. As he walked away, I stood up and stuck my head out of my office door and said "I will fill these out during work hours" and sat down, finished filling out the papers (all of 10 minutes total, not counting his interruption). I have been given directives for this type of behavior, and threats of being written up, but they never do anything because I know the education code very well, along with various other conditions that form public education in california, and know that they can try to throw their weight around at me but as far as doing anything official, they would be engaging in a loosing battle. I wish I could just say "Ok Boss" but it is not in my wiring. This is why to this day, despite having 'relationships' with my family, I really hate them all except one set of grandparents and those in my generation, because they treated my like such s**t because I was always so literal and couldn't understand their so called 'gray area' nothing better than being bullied by your own family.

Most people's minds are a single dimension, so they can only process one thread of simple information at any given time. Obsessive knowledge about complex topics, and therefore talking about them, require several interconnected and codependent concepts and trains of thought. Often times, even if someone is innately interested in the topic, they simply cannot engage it at such an advanced level, and it makes them start to feel physically ill, because it isn't tingling their happy buttons on the inside and is 'draining them'. If you are above their level, then the response is basically "I wanna play, but I don't know how to play at this level, so this stinks. Waaaaahhhhhhh".

My problem is that I have tons of special interests, so I have a lot of knoweldge about a lot of things. People who feel highly entitled to their opinions, because they have a Master's or Doctorate, often can't just handle the idea that someone with no education might know some, a lot, or more than they do on their field. You will often hear "but you need to understand, I have a degree on X and you don't" from these people. "Yeah but you graduated ten years ago, whens the last time you did anything to maintain conception at the state of your art"? Insert raging-NT.

And lastly, society is just becoming dumber en masse. Many people only care about fake s**t. If you talk to them about something real, they just aren't biologically capable of being interested, following along, etc. because the fabric of their existence is dependent on not understanding the true nature of existence, they are only concerned with their own BS microcosm.

It's not really sharing when it's an obsession (though it comes across as what's commonly called "oversharing")....it's more like a spontaneous data-dump. The listener isn't really seen as a person who may or may not be interested (or able to keep up), they're just a convenient ear, and the hallmark of typical Aspie obsession-dumping is that there's little or no interest in the listener, at least at the time of the dumping.

To see if anyone else has them.

Never really been disappointed with the responses I've gotten.

Why not?

What else could possibly be more interesting than my special interest (at the moment)?

Because they are really the only things that matter to me. They are all I know and am passionate about and I like to share that knowledge.
I have found some people that are willing to listen to me talk about them for a short time.