Addicted to ASD info, movies, and WP

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Is anyone else addicted to absolutely all of the information they can find about autism? I'm watching every movie, reading everything, and this forum is great! But it's become stressful and almost overwhelming. But I can't quit. It feels like a rather intense obsession. It is like food.

I also have that type of special interest. I'm very interested in autism and I do as much research as I can.

I definitely tend to get like that - I get intensely interested in a topic and explore it extensively. But with with autism, I seem to be reaching the point where it's the same information over and over. There are new things to pick up here and there, but I get the gist of it: social problems and repetitive behavior.

What I do keep looking for with autism, and not finding, is ways to solve the problem. I have Tony Attwood's The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, and at least with relationships, he's been pretty pessimistic, stating that the NT partner need to accept that the autistic partner is never going to change, and instead the NT needs to look outside the relationship to get their needs met. He also says that there is nothing that can be done to reduce sensitivity to light, sound, or touch.

I really struggle to believe that autism is untreatable, as some of the psychology literature seems to suggest. I have made a huge amount of progress in social skills since I was an awkward clueless teenager. My romantic skills are less good because I haven't had the same opportunities to practice those skills. But I feel that if I had enough practice, I could figure it out well enough.

I wouldn't say I'm addicted, but it's definitely interesting to me.

Of course there's progress compared to the past, I don't think people deny that. The problem is everyone is making progress. Being a developmental disability, it impairs the development of social communication etc. I've come a long way, but everyone else is developing faster - that's why, if you have autism, you'll always have autism - it's not treatable in that you can't make it go away, it's a lifelong disorder. You can and do keep improving, just best not to compare your progress to others when you have it.

It's not the same as simply being socially awkward through a lack of experience, which of course is treatable through experience.

I think for me it is not about finding ways to solve the problem, but finding ways to work around it. For me, I think the acceptance by my partner of my limitations is a positive thing, it means he accepts me as I am and is not trying to change me. I also have to accept his limitations, we have been together 10 years and he is not very good at consoling when I'm upset and he is useless at putting things back in the right place. We all have our short-comings.
However, getting diagnosed and doing all the research (yes, I'm doing the obsessive interest thing too) has helped me understand a lot more about how I react to things, and identify why certain issues are a problem, which while I cannot stop being an Aspie, I can find other ways to work around the problem.

As to the obsessive interest thing, I find it comes in waves. I do get more and more obsessed, and look uo everything I can find, at then at some point it reaches critical and then slowly starts to relent a bit. I'm still interested, but I no longer stay up late at night repeating the same thoughts over and over. It becomes more manageable.