Special Intrests,Comforting rituals and Odd collections

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My special interests:

-Superpowers/magical abilities and characters with them.
-Swords (they're so much more awesome than other weapons).

I watch cartoons/anime (x-men, claymore, justice league, heroes), play video games (world of warcraft, diablo, guild wars), and daydream all about those things, all the time. I'm constantly imagining what life would be like with various superpowers (invulnerability, immunity to the elements, shoot fire out of your hands, etc).

I have a ritual of doing personality tests even though I've already done them 10 times and I know what the results will be. It's really interesting to see old tests from over the years to see the small changes. This is also a collection since I save the tests. I also save a ton of books on my computer, most that I haven't read yet (subjects are non-fiction, like how to build an off-grid house).

Special interests:

Psychology- how the brain works, how humans work, why humans do things, observing people, trying to figure out my own issues, taking a million tests online over and over, reading about Autism, mental health issues, addiction.
Social Justice- raising awareness for social issues that I get angry at because I see the injustice in the world, the issues may switch but I get stuck on one for a while and will be obsessed with that one for a bit and then it may switch.

Rituals - First thing I do when I get up is have a smoke ( I also tend to smoke at specific times and in specific situations like I always smoke before going to this place, or see this person, and I don't smoke if I'm in this situation, I think it's more ritual then addiction because it's usually more based on timing rather than craving for nicotine- like have been known to say why do you smoke your not inhaling, because sometimes especially in social situations I do it out of ritual rather then inhaling, but on my own I tend to inhale because I'm on my own and not as anxious. ), then have a shower if it's a day I was planning on having a shower will plan it night before because if not I won't do it because hygiene and me suck . Then I have to check my email, facebook and phone, if I don't I get really anxious say if I can't get on. Eat breakfast usually the same thing everyday- cereal. After that is may vary depending on what's going on, though if I don't have something planned I tend to spend the whole day on the computer/ watching tv. I watch the same shows over and over and during the week there are five shows I watch most days, if I don't something else I have to do though get frustrated if I can't watch them or if my mom has dinner during one of them. The shows are Stargate Universe, Stargate Sg-1, Stargate Atlantis ( I have seen every episode of all of them most multiple times), than Star Trek: THG and Star Trek: Voyager ( seen most of those). Voyager is when we usually have supper. I prefer to have supper at 6 so I can watch the show and get frustrated when I don't. If that is not possible Than supper can't be any later then 5:30 pm, if it is get angry at my mom if it's in between 5:30 and 6:00 pm, because if I am watching the show I can eat in 15 minutes and then come back and watch the ending. I also have other shows that I get obsessed with, if I start a series in something and miss an episode I get upset.

What I collect: I'm a hoarder and hate throwing stuff away and it makes me really anxious is I do. Books are a big thing I collect and don't want to get rid of. Stuffed animals, have a lot of them and I will see some at a thrift store or even a regular store and want to buy them.

When I was a kid obsession: reading- I still read a lot. I would get stuck in reading for a long time. Studying/school.... I was the weird student that actually did homework right after I got home and would do it for hours trying to make it perfect I spent more time doing homework as a kid then playing.

Another obsession I had growing up was running, probably because it was individual and I could get lost in it, when I had to stop running do to injury I was devastated.

I also get obsessed with people. Like I will latch unto one person in particular think they are the most amazing person in the world want to do everything with them, and they usually get burned out and push me away. My last relationship like this I was so obsessive apparently that she will not talk to me at all anymore and refuses to acknowledge me when I see her in the community.

I can easily get obsessed with stuff in general, even this site, I will start doing something especially on the internet and lose track of time and I get angry if people bug me when I am doing something I'm interested in.

If I'm trying to calm myself down I tend to say the same prayer over and over, or before meals say the same thing over and over.

I thrive on structure and routine, and tend to fall apart if there isn't any. I have a hard time with change, and with people leaving. Ive travelled to Asia ( fits with my social justice interest as I was volunteering) and on the plane ride home I cried the whole trip all 15 hours of it because I didn't want to leave the people I was with who I got to know really really well, I was devastated when I got home and that was even with the fact that I barely talked and wasn't very social but just beign around the same people all the time gave me comfort.

I also have to be doing something with my fingers at all times it seems. If I don't have something in my hands then I pick my fingers to they bleed and don't always realize I am doing it. If I have the ability to have a notebook I always take notes/ doodle. Also been known to flip my pen around. I try not to use clicky pens because I tend to drive people crazy because I been known to click them back and forth over and over again.

I wear a watch which a lot of people this age don't, If I don't have a watch on I feel very uncomfortable. Though I have to have a watch that has all 12 numbers on it because if it say has just the 12,3,6, 9 on it I have a hard time telling the time and get confused.

I listen to music before bed and have a really hard time sleeping if I don't. I have a nightlight ( yes I'm 26 and have a nightlight)

I thrived in elementary school and high school because it was so routine, and I got used to it, when I started university I had a harder time because schedule less structured but I did better than then when I got into the real world. I was the student in high school especially that would not miss class, I had to go to every single class, if I missed a class I would get extremely anxious and it was very rare, I would go to school if I was sick rather than miss class.

I'm also obsessed with numbers in some ways, I love history and dates, if I need a pin password for something I've been known to use a year from a historical event. I like even numbers. When it comes to grades in high school anything lower then an 80 was failure in my mind. I liked round grades so 80 85 90 , or in university 75 ( I dropped my standard slightly) if the number did not end with a 0 or a 5 I would get frustrated especially if it was my final grade.

Another thing, my school agenda was very organized like wrote everything down that needed to be done, would colour code stuff, my binders were very organized too. I did a treatment program for one of my issues and it was very organized, the schedule was colour coded the dividers were in a certain colour order and also in order by what day the group was offered. One of them I messed up and got upset because there was no more of that colour left and it broke my pattern so I improvised using another sheet of the same colour that I had messed up before to cut it out and taped it over the mistake so I could keep the colour code. My literalism comes into this to... like one of the groups was relationships... so I did bubble letters for relation and then drew a ship. Someone was copying my binder and only put relation on there thing and I'm like oh its relationships. Another group was called weekly wrap up, that's the one I missed spelt so when I covered over the mistake I made it look with tape like it was being wrapped like a present and for the word up I pup a bunch of balloons because I associate up with the movie up.

Having said this as organized as that was the rest of my stuff was a complete mess, got in trouble for leaving stuff everywhere, and I would forget I did. my room was a complete mess. If it was not written into my schedule for the day than it didn't get done, even if it was a simple as clean my room or put your coat away because I would forget, when I was in this treatment place, I was the go to girl for the schedule because I had it down pat I knew what time everything was, in what room , what day, what needed to be done for each group all in my head didn't even need to look at a schedule. Mind you ask me to do laundry and everything goes out the window.

So ya I get obsessed with stuff pretty easily. Oh ya and if I make a spelling mistake and notice it say on facebook I will edit the post even multiple times if I have to. I hate then spell check red lines that come up they drive me crazy and been known to add words to the dictionary just to get the red away, but I need to spell check because I want to make sure I'm spelling stuff right. Yes a bit of a perfectionist too. And I should probably post this post because apparently I'm getting obsessed with typing about my obsessions, and this fits under the special interest of psychology because I'm looking into how my brain works, plus I need to go to pee and go to bed. Yes I will get so obsessed in something I will not only lose track of time but will forget to go pee to the point it is painful (weird I know). I also have a hard time stopping stuff once I start. For example watching a tv show, I get angry if I can't finish it. The A&E station used to drive me crazy because it would end one show and as it was rolling the credits start the next one and I would stay up for hours because the next one started and I "had" to finish it.

I am collecting and sorting the internet. this should be able to last me forever and requires less physical artifacts (i move too often to have physical things.) I like to collect in general. usually things that has a finite set so i can complete collections.

I could write a book on my rituals. they are essentially how i appear "high functioning". I have a parking my motorbike ritual. i have a coming home ritual. i have a nighttime routine with various rituals to follow. This works until something messes one up and then things start to spiral out of control.

Thanks glad I could share.

When I was a kid, I collected a lot of stuff. I had the slew of toys in abundance - most I didn't care for much, but if given to me, I took care of them and organized them. Unfortunately, my parents were smokers so most things suffered a lot of smoke/nicotine damage.

Things I loved to collect and receive were:
Stickers
Horse toys (Breyer, My Little Pony, etc.)
Miniature items (dollhouse-sized things that mimic life-size things)
Phonograph albums, cassettes, CDs
Magazines
Books

As an adult, things haven't changed much.
Stickers are now scrap booking stickers (but still have my original sticker collection)
I still like horse things but have reduced the amount of knick-knacks and focus on more higher level art forms (paintings, etc.)
I still think miniature things are "cute" and gravitate toward them but do not collect these items anymore - no use or space for them
I still have all my music collection and now that music is in digital form, I have a very, very large storage of digital mp3s
Still have LOTS of magazines.
Still have LOTS of books
I now collect Legos
I save mementos of trips and places I go for entertainment, etc for scrapbooking. I love to look back at past experiences at random times.

I wonder about being a hoarder sometimes, but I'm not attached to junk, I just have lots of useable things that need more organization! I do not hang onto literal garbage. I do admit that I am, however, emotionally attached to many things I own.

Other things I always did and still do to this day is to become attached to TV shows and movies and re-watch them over and over without ever tiring of it.

My dad is a hoarder, he's never been diagnosed with ASD, but it's likely. I've tried not to follow in his footsteps (though growing up, it was literally impossible not to) but I tend to hoard things, glass vases, Mamba candy wrappers. I'm most comfortable when I have a lot of furniture around me like I did when I grew up.