How obsessive?

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How obsessive does a special interest have to be before it's an obsession? I've had many interests over the years that I would consider obsessive, but for the most part, I didn't talk about them constantly -- at least not after the first few days.And I don't dwell on it to the exception of everything else.

An example is my love of the color purple. I have a purple sofa, some purple clothes, dishes, towels, I try to write in purple ink when I can, I even have two purple vibrators -- oops! Sorry. Too much information. I even had a purple car for 12 years. I notice purple things all the time and will point them out when I see them. But I don't talk about purple all the time, and I do own clothes, towels, etc, that AREN'T purple. Would all that come under the definition of an obsession?

I was thinking of making a topic similar to this one, but you beat me to it.

My special interests are Tim Burton movies and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I think about them and talk about them all the time, and become very moody during the times when I don't feel as passionate about them as I normally do. I also like to buy merchandise from both obsessions.

However, I'm still not sure if I can actually call myself a "real fan" of them. I guess one of my many irrational fears is someone saying "You haven't done _____ or you hold ______ opinion? How can you call yourself a real fan?" The focal point of my Tim Burton obsession is only a small part of his entire filmography, and I haven't even seen every movie that he's done. And with My Little Pony, I still haven't seen all the episodes even though I've been a fan for months, and I don't worship Lauren Faust like most Bronies seem to do.

It's subjective what an interest abnormal in intensity or focus really means.....I mean there's no exact scientifically determined cut-off point where something becomes "abnormal intensity". I'd say if it consumes most of what you talk about/do during the day/ think about etc. (I don't know...80, 90% of it then it would qualify) basically if it takes over your whole life ....but again I just made up arbitrary criteria...it's just the way I think of "special interests". As for abnormal focus that seems harder to determine...I guess it would depend in part on certain characteristics such as gender or age etc.

I think that obsession only really becomes a problem when it imposes negatively on others beyond a minor annoyance. Any person who would seriously fault another for their color choice in decor (or in other areas, ahem... ) may have some tolerancy issues of their own that go unaddressed. On that note, almost everything that I own is red or blue, and I am also obsessed with Tim Burton (pre-Planet of the Apes).

Strength in numbers!

Everybody has interests and even obsessions, but I think there's a small difference between a general interest and an Aspie obsession. It's naive to think NTs don't have any interests just because it says on the Autism symptoms list ''may have special interests'' and so some people decide to think NTs will be the complete opposite. I'd say NTs have interests, some even have obsessions, but they can easily put their interests to the side when needing to think about more important stuff, like bills, jobs, and other responsibilities. Also they don't let their interests take over their mind, and they know when to stop talking or thinking about it.

With most Aspies in general, we tend to center our minds round our interests. Well, I do anyway. I have a bad habit of putting my obsessions first before stuff that's considered important, like job-finding, and other responsibilities like that. To me, my obsession is the most important thing in the world, but I will NEVER tell that to anyone because they will definately think I'm mad and need to ''get a life''. But I don't care what job I have, at least I will still be able to have time where I can get on my favourite bus. Now THAT'S a proper Aspie obsession!! !! !

I think what defines a special interest is what happens when you are deprived from it. Everyone has interests, but most people don't get too upset if they have to skip them for a time.

Jason.

I love anything to do with animation (one of my foremost special interests) - I own several books about animation (one being Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston's "The Illusion of Life" and two others about the Cars movies), draw cartoons all the time, still watch Disney/animated movies, watch cartoons on Youtube, have a DVD collection of "Classic Cartoons," have plushies of my favorite animated characters (and even harbor crushes on some of them) and I'm even taking a college course about the history of animation this semester.

Yep, I think I'm obsessed, all right.

I think part of it is the need I have to totally think and focus on something. My interests are fairly consistant but the intesity of the obsession comes and goes. The problem I face is that when it is really intense I go into debt buying every book on the subject because I am scared I won't have them and all the information, or making too many bids on eBay for related items and getting into financial difficulty.

To me an obsession is where you think about it all the time and can't stop thinking about it.

Like for an aspie, they can be into bridges so they build models, draw them, have books on them, read about them online, go to the forums about it, but yet when an NT does the same thing, they tend to call it a hobby or interest. I cannot grasp how can it not be an obsession. Everyone calls something an obsession for me, then has to be an obsession for others too if they do what I do. It can't be an obsession for me because of the AS but not an obsession for others because they don't have it. I see it as a double standard. Sometimes I wonder of my obsessions are like an NT because I don't get upset if I can't be with it. I have always done other things. I don't go broke because I am too cheap to spend any money on it and I don't want clutter in my home. I am sure there are NTs out there who have very strong interests and think about them all the time and have tons of stuff on it and go to the forums about it too. I used to talk about my obsessions but I don't anymore. I now prefer to keep it to myself now. I read an interesting post on here about how someone gets labeled with something and doctors will blame anything on that, even if it's the wrong diagnoses. It makes me wonder if that is what people do with me about AS. If they know I have it, they blame it on it. If they didn't know I had it, would they have just seen it as an interest instead of an obsession? I also remember callista writing something about how things can count towards the diagnoses even if that symptom doesn't cause you an impairment because you have other impairments so that may be the case here also. But it gets damn frustrating when a fuss is made about me being obsessed and spending time with it and come on, I do other things like go to work. I also bet if I didn't have the diagnoses, no fuss be made about it.

But I know another aspie who doesn't put his obsessions first and he controls them and he does other things first and he always makes time for his interests. But I think he learned to do that. He told me he learned to not let them take over his life nor talk about them often and he talks about other things now and is now extroverted. He held down a job for like five years working in a restaurant washing dishes even though his special interest is cops and sports and he wanted to be a police officer but couldn't due to his CP in his back and he also tried going to school to work for something regarding sports but that didn't work out. He was unemployed for a while and then someone got him a job at the restaurant and then he had to quit due to health problems unrelated to his AS. So right now he is focusing on his health getting better before he ever returns to working again and he still doesn't let his obsessions take over.