Maybe with ASD it's the things being obsessed about? Not sure but I had a BF (NT) and he was obsessive about sports. Now this is perfectly acceptable, no one thinks it's strange. He would watch ESPN updates 3-4 times a day, talk about sports with other people (not me he knew I wasn't interested) all the time, knew all the players names. Loved basketball, baseball and football in that order. Seemed like he always had a game to watch. No on thought it was weird and of course, I think a telling thing is that he didn't talk about it with people he knew weren't interested.
My stepson has NVLD and he'll ramble on about his obsessions to anyone, including me, not able to recognize people's disinterest. Also, he obsesses about strange things, like freeway directions, gps systems, cell phones, adapters, blenders. He is at a new school and so far has been unable to find acceptance. I told his dad to ask him what other boys are talking about and his dad said sports. I said, I know it sounds silly, but he could learn a bit about sports just to have a common ground and then I realized that sports obsessions are never considered strange, they are just considered sports fanatics.
I think it's partially what is being obsessed about but also more that you need not obsess with those who aren't interested. My husband loves cycling, I love figure skating - yet we never talk much about these interests with each other because we aren't interested. We share common interests that we can talk about.
I think everyone has their interests, all my sisters had different things they were obsessive about. One sister had to watch SNL, she loved SNL soooo much, the other had an interest in guitar playing. I loved ballet and knew all the dancers names, had magazines, posters etc. I don't think that's so unusual, it seemed like all my friends had their different obsessions.
All I know is one person with ASD, my stepson, and I've just noticed he can't tell when it is appropriate to talk about his interests and when he needs to stop talking about his interests. No one in my household wants to listen to me talking about ice skating, I may talk about it with fellow ice skaters at the rink where I take lessons, that is it.
26 Sep 2009, 6:20 am
