How do you cope with your obsessive behaviour?

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I sometimes can't talk to people if an interesting song comes on because I have to stop talking and dissect the song in my head.

I'm also a fountain of useless facts about bands and artists and can't help but point things out all the time when it comes up in conversation or on TV, the radio, etc.

I guess I'm lucky in that it would be one of the more "normal" obsessions someone could have, except that I'm so obsessive and a-typically ASD about it.

I've learnt to surpress my echolalia and a few other things with fidgeting etc, but I'm not sure how to channel my other obsessions.

How do you do it?

If you do?

there are no [totally] useless facts. you might be tops at trivial pursuit or contests of general or specific knowledge. you sound like a creative person of above-average abilities. it is as old as mankind, that creativity often is accompanied by a tincture of madness [NOT saying you're "mad"]. this said, chanelling your "other obsessions" is just a matter of organization, which means you might investigate dr. daniel amen's "5-minute miracle."
btw, i "don't do it" - i cope by being a hermit. as for yourself, if you only put yourself around folk who love you, then how you are really doesn't matter so much.

If I notice that I'm doing something too often then I make a conscious effort to do the opposite, this sometimes works.

Vanilla_Slice

Thanks, although my music is pretty average, haha.

What's this 5 minute miracle?

Is it a book?

Is it so bad being a hermit?

I mean I'm having some trouble coping and am being a bit of a hermit at the moment, but I'm wondering if I should just accept it?

What would be the opposite of talking about music?

Not talking about.... I don't know...

lol.

I don't really try to control my obsessions, I find that my other obsessions often cut into my long rants about one subject or distract me somewhat, though I do still babble, much of the annoyance of others. Perhaps one of the only "features" that I had a hard time hiding.

What do you tend to babble about?

why one would control em? they at least help having good converssation.....if one is indrested in games

I used to babble about my obsessions.

Then I discovered people weren't really interested in them. ( How on earth this can possibly be so remains an unanswerable question .)

I discovered a rule that "an interesting person is an interested person "

Then I used my recall of generally ecletic useless facts and information to babble to them about what they appear to be interested in.

You have to be careful here. Although NT's appear interested in something they might not be and they might just be "making conversation". Do not overload them with things you think they are interested in . This can appear as Aspi-like as talking about your obsession.

god nt's can be so hard, is this also case if u would ask them their indrests first and if they mention games ...is it ok then?

Question :

I have been injured and can not work until organics self repair.

I am currently learning how to build a commercial website for my NT partner. I have never done anything like this before. I don't mind the hum of the fan on my Mac but sometimes I would like to listen to something else.

What is a good music station to listen to on the net? I have tried YTube but I have to keep clicking on to it to restart the video , are there any continual play stations?

Last edited by memesplice on 24 Feb 2010, 3:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

This is a highly complex area.

You must take into account not all NTs find other NT's interesting or want to talk to them. Quite often they make conversation for ulterior social motives, like say they want to get in with another NT because they see it as a way to get a job. If they are very skilled at this even other NTs will not figure it out.

So Nt's don't really know what they are doing in this respect 100% , most of the time either.


They are very rarely interested in an abstract thing in itself unless it is something goal related and they need to discuss the thing in itself.

However if the goal is say "how do you get the best out of a computer game", then they will become interested in the thing in itself.

Also, and this is the bit you may find hard to accept, they might just enjoy your company. But not all the time , 24/7.

I try to channel it into an appropriate time and place whenever I can. With most friends, I simply don't discuss them, but with my family and close friends, I do. Plus, most of my time with my special interests is spent on the computer researching them.

I just let it be. I'm going to dress how I want and listen to who I want. Why would I snuff that flame out?

I'm sure there must be - just do a Google search for radio stations. But I believe Ytube have playlists as well as individual clips....e.g. if you go here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... ry=beatles
and click where it says "play all videos" (near top of page), you should hear a playlist of Beatles' music. To get playlists for other artists/genres, just do a regular Ytube search for whatever you want, and there's usually some playlists somewhere on the page of hits.

My best way of making sure obsessions don't mess up my life is to not start them in the first place. There are lots of things I could get heavily into (including stuff I've been obsessional about in the past), but something inside tells me I'd be sorry if I did.

I agree partly with Cockney Rebel that obsession shouldn't be stifled.....just that there are times when I've overindulged and the rest of my life has suffered as a result. I don't want to lose friends or fail to maintain myself properly just for the sake of yet another attempt to record the world's greatest song. But life wouldn't be worth living if I couldn't let myself go sometimes. I live for high-octane fascination, and "ordinary level" interest tends to bore me.

So is it safe to say that the general consensus is that all we can do is try to find some sort of middle ground between being obsessive and "normal" (much as I hate that word)?