Are Obsessions a bad thing?

Post Reply New Topic

Not OCD, but I'm talking about aspie-like obsessions. I am on a video game messageboard, and people sometimes attack me for being overly obsessed and tell me basically to get a life, and a couple of times I have noted some people calling other people obsessed, and the other person denies it or says they are not really obsessed, as if it was a bad thing.

I'm trying to set them straight a little... but seriously, do you see obsessions as a bad or good thing?

I would only see it as a bad thing if it interferes with your survival. For instance, if you were playing video games instead of going to work and you got fired. Lots of NTs are obsessed with video games too and some of them actually do have a problem. There is a fine line between obsession and addiction. As long as you know where that line is and don't cross it, you probably don't have a problem. I will say it helps to have an obsession that can actually help your survial needs. (like one that you can make money off of)

It's only a bad thing if you let it take over your life. You don't go to bed, you don't eat, you neglect your school work and you call in sick just so you can do your obsession, you abandon your job as a parent. I'm speaking in general so this isn't all directed at you. We should do our obsessions in our spare time and not be lazy.

But overall obsessions are harmless if we keep them under control. I see it as keeping me busy and something to think about all day long. But I will always make them last on the list when I have important things to do such as my job or kids. I have a brain, use it. My obsessions aren't going anywhere.

An obsession is alright, as its a fascination you follow probably for the rest of your life. Addiction is the far end of obsession where you do something to the exclusion to all else (health, money, etc). Everything in moderation is the goal, of course.

Depends what it is and how intense it is.

I've so far not been able to achieve the life-work-obsession balance. My obsession is my life and interferes with my ability to function a lot of the time. I agree with the other posters that it's a good thing to be able to live functionally and keep the obsession for spare-time or even utilise it in a functional way. But I can't do that - yet. So for me to say that's a bad thing would require me to say that my life is bad. And I refuse to do that.

It seems that across the spectrum we each have different levels of functioning, and it seems to be a fluid thing throughout our lives. I'm just happier if I can accept my limitations and am grateful to have an interest that makes me happy to be alive.

I don't personally think that it's bad to have obsessions. My particular obsession doesn't interfear with my job, or my chores. I also only work two hours a day, three to five days a week, anyways. I do admit that my obsession with The Kinks is a pretty strong one, but not strong enough to interfear with every day tasks. I find myself wondering if I have HFA, instead of AS, because of the intensity of my obsessions with all things 60s London. I do admit that it makes for a very strong personality, and I've actually been this way, for 15 years, despite the fact that I was at rock bottom, very recently for two and a half years. Even as a punker, The Kinks were my favourite group.

It's a spectrum. Someone can have mild AS and be very AS in some areas. I am pure AS in some. Like I had an aspie mate and he had more AS than me but he was able to figure out on his own what "What's up?" means and he was nine years old and I had to be told what it meant. I took it literal up till the age of 14 because I had never figured out what it meant. I had to be told what it meant. When I told my mother about it, she said "No wonder you looked up every time I would ask you that," she never knew I took it literal. She probably thought it was a ritual thing I had.

I have been told by a couple people my obsessions are strong, stronger than other aspies despite that I don't collect things, even my husband says they are strong. I don't think mine are that strong and they are mild. I don't watch A league of Their Own all day. I watch it once everyday. I can watch the deleted scenes more than once a day but I don't play them none stop or have the soundtrack playing all day or on youtube.

My obsessions were a useful tool to get better after years of refractory depression. But my obsessions aren't that strong (and I constantly change my focus out of fear of dependency)
But in general it's easier to get along with people when you share a certain 'base knowledge' about things and don't let on that about some things, you know a damn lot more ... it's just a contact or peer thing.

obsessions are good after I became a nudist I felt I had more confidence and more self esteem

I don't think obsessions are a bad thing, as long as they don't being to interfere with important things, as other people have stated. I personally used to completely obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh! and it interfered with hygiene and academics, but now I have routines that make sure that my interests don't interfere with important areas.

I get kind of pedantic about the word "obsession". To me, if it's truly an "obsession", then, by definition, it interferes with your life, and is something you do even though you want to stop. I prefer to use "special interest" if I'm referring to something which doesn't have that negative OCD feel about it.

But that's not important; I can tell what you mean. It sounds like you just were on the receiving end of some dipsplat's idiotic comment. (Do you like my new word? "Dipsplat"? I just made it up because I thought "dipsh--" might not be okay here. )

I've noticed that internet etiquette is kind of hit and miss, and on some forums people just attack each other because they have no manners. If the person can't handle the fact that you are intensely interested in something, well, I think that's just sad for them. You're the one who has a strong interest in something, and they are the one who feels the need to say "get a life." Hmmm....

I think you should continue to enjoy the things that make you happy. There's nothing wrong with that at all, IMO.

interference in your daily agenda isn't the only consequence of obsession. if you're obsessed, you're likely to talk about your obsession consistently and endlessly; blowing your top and overreacting to a negative opinion about your obsession is common, too. that sort of obsessive behavior pushes people away and makes establishing friendships difficult.

Only to NT's.

what if you want to befriend NTs?

I hate obsessions and I repress them
I do a good job