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wrongcitizen
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13 Jan 2018, 7:32 pm

Hello, I've had this for a long time. They range from things like sexual obsessions and really elaborate fantasies to dominating phobias like fear of heights to just general things like cars. To my understanding, Aspergers is usually responsible for some more long-term obsessive interests, which usually encompass more than just a single idea. However in my case, even though I do experience that, I also have single obsessions which dominate my mind in it's ENTIRETY for usually a good 3-4 days, then they slowly fade away until I no longer think about them.

It becomes so powerful that I actually make changes in my life to accommodate the obsession, and it generates anxiety when it can't be met. It's motivation is a lot of different things, not always just anxiety. One time it involved insults (I got past that and now I literally don't get offended by anything, when just a month ago I was crying after someone told me I had a big chin) and another time it involved dressing in a certain way to make myself feel more...excited. I don't want to get banned so I won't go into more detail for that one. They're obsessions because they interrupt my day to day life and cause anxiety because some of them are impossible (i.e. obsession with a character in a story I made in my head, I want to be the character but I can't), etc.



Redxk
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Joined: 28 Jun 2016
Age: 45
Gender: Male
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13 Jan 2018, 9:01 pm

I identify with a lot of what you've written. Some of what you've described, I think, is more perseveration than obsession, though, such as your response to the insults, chin comment, etc. Perseveration is extremely common on the spectrum, and many of us have shorter-lived, shifting restrictive interests. Mine often shift to things I wish they wouldn't, and sometimes I try to distract myself by resurrecting old interests that were more positive or that had ess of an impact on my functioning. It doesn't always work, though!