Why do aspies obsess?

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It seems like we even get obsessions that torture us and we just want them to stop. This is all because we have a one track mind? Can anyone explain why Aspies obsess? I've been googling for while and haven't come up with much more than that.

Its because it is a safezone. Your doing what u like a u dont have to socialize to get it.

Usually when you decide that your going to do something different, specially if it is outdoors, means or requires u to talk to someone or more than someone.
When u are doing what u like most and not needing to interact with anyone else, your anxiety goes away and you are also having a enjoyable time.

U won´t see an Asperger that have the obsess of meeting new people or going for sports like football, volleyball that requires teamplaying and cooperating with a lot of different people.

Syndragon provided a good explanation for enjoyable obsessive interests but ones that torture us are a different story.

Some dogs obsessively clean, creating wounds. Obsession can be either genetic or a learned behaviour. Both would contribute in most cases. Repetitive behaviours are like a shamans drum, and pacing of the room, so are not always harmful. Smoking ciggies and jerking off all day could be improved

Like someone who is born genetically challenged may not obsess if parents and society do an amazing job with them, or even a non genetic disposition may have such a poor childhood that obsessing would likely occur.

Genes and place in society are linked, so it gets blurred regarding nature or nurture.

Trauma and fear, boredom, as well as autistic repetitive behaviours. Border collies and sticks!

Because we can.

"Obsessions that torture us and we want them to stop" sounds more like OCD than AS.

The two can be co-morbid, but people with AS like their special interests and they are the opposite of torture, providing happiness and comfort etc.

You can like your special interests and still be tortured by them. They can torture you if you can't explore them. I've had obsessions that wouldn't have been painful if they were possible to explore. I've had special interests in things that I couldn't even be certain existed. How can you study something that doesn't exist? It's impossible so if your special interest doesn't exist it is frustrating even though the interest would be desirable if it did exist. You like the obsession but it's eternally frustrating.

I think your cortex is just hard wired for obsessive and repetitive behavior.
I love obsessions. I live for obsessions.To me they are not torture. It would be torture to take them away.

How can you be interested in something that doesn't exist? Does it exist in your mind or is it an idea?

You wouldn't think so, neither would I, but for some weird reason I happen to obsess with certain people. I didn't have any obsessions when I was a small child, but when I got to about 11, I started getting intense obsessions with people. I am currently obsessed with bus-drivers, and bus-drivers are people, and so this obsessions requires social interaction if I want to pursue it even further. So when I'm looking out for buses, I'm not all interested in the way the buses are built and I can't give an intelligent monologue about how buses work, and I can't memorize the routes or the times or the numbers and destinations of the buses (I barely remember the times of the bus that I get almost every day, I still have to keep looking at the timetable). I just look out for the buses just for the men driving them.

Even my grandmother said, ''they just fascinate you because they're bus-drivers.'' She's right.

I would have thought Aspies naturally wouldn't get obsessions with people.

It can be an idea. It can be something that I don't know for sure exists or not but I hope it does. If it didn't exist it would explain my frustration with it. It can be something that I know doesn't exist in real life but I can't accept that so I obsess over it anyway. It could also be something that I used to believe existed whole-heartedly and now that I know it doesn't the feeling that it does is still there. I know it doesn't exist but I have such a strong feeling that it does which creates cognitive dissonance.

I think maybe a lot of great discoveries have been made by people with obsessions like that. It's part of thinking outside the box.

I don't believe I ever had that problem. I know I have asperger's, because a few different psychiatrists diagnosed me. Though, I don't recall being fixated in any way on anything.

The closest I've ever come to being obsessed about anything is when I'm playing a video game that's really difficult; I become obsessed with finishing it and seeing the ending.

My understanding is that in the Autistic/Aspergers brain neurons form fewer and weaker long distance connections but extra, redundant short term connections resulting in a sort of feedback loop.

I obsess with people! Usually teachers or people in that sort of role (I used to want to be a teacher but couldn't get through teacher training). Not sure why though :/

I also quite often obsess with people associated with interests I'm obsessed with, eg an actress in my favourite TV programme, the teacher of my favourite subject at school etc. Anyone else get this?