Obsessive interests..... this is interesting!! !

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If you have a form of autism what have been some of your obsessive interests? Here are some of mine: psychology, greek mythology, autoimmune diseases, circus freaks, william's syndrome, lupus, geography, nervous system, scientists (at age 11)

My son is 11, has asperger's and has obsessive interests in Greek mythology, all forms of ancient civilizations and cultures, and geography. He won his school geography bee handily, and will be competing in the state bee a week from Friday - April 3.

DadX4 - Good luck to your son!

I won my school geography bee way back in sixth grade and wound up going to the state bee also. I was the first person in the sixth grade to win in my school (it was a 6/7/8 school) and the first person in my school to go to the state bee.

I was totally nonplussed - I did not expect any of it. It was also my first real experience with bright kids from other schools. A lot of the kids at the state bee had really been prepared (even by professional tutors) and were from very elite schools and so on. I just sort of wandered in there from my ordinary suburban public school with no special preparation at all ... it should not have been a surprise I did not fare too well and was rather overwhelmed by the experience. (Keep in mind that I am from New York, a state with a very abundant supply of very rich kids from very elite schools.)

Also, I was then undiagnosed so unlike your son I really didn't have the support of anyone who understood me.

And geography was never really a "special interest" of mine on its own but I absorbed a lot of geographic knowledge through two of my obsessions, ships and airplanes. The ship one is now 16 years old and as strong as ever, the airplane one always sort of secondary but only slightly "younger" and certainly still there.

Science, Physics, Theoretical Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Technology, Computers (Hardware and Software Capabilities), Conspiracies, Paranormal, Exo-politics, PC Games.....

I have lots of special interests, but only a few are intense enough to be classified as true Asperger's special interests (where I ramble about them to the point of giving monologues). These are: I Love Lucy, Cedar Point and their roller coaster statistics, A Beautiful Mind, and neuropsychiatric disorders (specifically, their biochemical causes).

The special interests is the thing about AS that I find most fascinating, and I like when people post in-depth topics about the special interests. I like seeing what other people's special interests are, and I like to educate people about mine.
-OddDuckNash99-

By looking up the definition OCD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive- ... e_disorder I'm not sure if I got anything, but I have really strong interests but I doubt that it's the same thing.

I think that it would be a safe bet for me to tell you that my special interest is those red vintage Routemaster buses that have graced the streets of London for a good number of years. I'm not going to get penalized for saying something like this on WP.

In other words, don't you attack my special interest! It's mine!

My interests are History(of anything, everything), Psychology, Politics, Economics, the English language and it's roots(in case anyone wonder's why my grammar and spelling are nearly perfect), Marijuana(it's laws and public perception), Religion/Mythology, and music(mainly rock and it's history).

My special interests are Star Wars ( to be more specific, Darth Maul), congenital disorders, obesity, G1 Transformers (especially the Seekers), and some genetic disorders.

starting from my earliest: dinosaurs, planes, LEGO, Warhammer 40K (a game where you build your own models/armies and then play), cars (probably my biggest obsession, lasted years, i spent hours reading and talking about them just about every day, etc.), mental disorders and pharmaceuticals.

i guess you could also classify rowing as an interest. i started it about 4 years ago and when i'm doing it i'm happy, i think about it a lot, i like talking about it, when i'm not doing it (i.e. winter) i'm generally unhappy, but i'm not sure if that would be an autistic interest or just a sport i'm doing.

Ok, well I won the state in geography with the question "Which country shares the wealth of the copperbelt with the Democratic Republic of the Congo?". The answer is Zambia.

Anyway, I do have other "obsessive" interests. I learned for the purpose of this thread, that obsessive is defined as "anything that is conducted in a method of greater magnitude then the standard deviation of normal, ordinary human beings". This, as much as it tries to be concrete it is isn't.

And what is wrong with having interests anyway?

Anyway, as for the interests themselves, history, politics, linguistics.

Music, classical literature, religion, philosophy, death, Farscape (the sci fi tv series), serial killers, psychology, psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, infectious diseases, computers (hardware) and collecting stuff.

Pokemon, Parasitology, Anime, Manga, Zombies (My current one, I LOVE Zombies!), Doctor Who, Psychology.

They don't control me, they define me.

I have a lot of obsessions that seem to rotate in random order-they never go away, there's always one that's a super-strong obsession while the others are "dormant" for the time being. And of course I get new ones from time to time to add to the group of obsessions I have. Some of these obsessions include tornadoes, rats, Pokemon, A Bug's Life, wolves, and caves. There are more, but those are some of them.

I will never understand why the word "obsession" has such a negative connotation to some people. My obsessions have given me so much happiness and helped me cope with hard things too many times to count that I can't possibly see how having an obsession is a bad thing. But to each their own I guess. My obsessions make my life fun and exciting! =)