Is this an autistic symptom

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I seem when im into something I have to watch everything online, for example I love college football, a\nd during the season I feel I have to watch every youtube channel about it, every anaylist on youtube, and highlights to all the games its horrible almost OCDish!! ! The only way I can relieve myself is to get completly away from it, but then I know nothing and I really enjoy college football, its just torturous!! ! Anyone else have this problem! Im almost embarassed to talk bout this but I felt this forum would listen, offer good advice, and not troll me!

Becoming instantly obsessed with something is indeed an autistic trait.

Even some NTs can be "taken over" by a topic. My mom said she got obsessed with Alexander Hamilton in highschool and wrote some overly long term highschool term paper about him back in her teens back in the pre internet 1940s.

And aspies are more prone to that than NTs Afaik. And I have had spells of obsessive research on topics- also in pre internet times..relying on books in libraries. But in this era of online Vids on platforms like UTube, you can really get addicted to topics of special interest. You watch stuff, and then the algorithm of Utube ...serves you more of the same stuff... like a robot drug pusher.

This is an autistic trait. There was a time that I was so enthralled with The Kinks that I knew every detail about all four original members as though they were members of my own family. I dressed the way they did in the 60s and I bought nearly all of their music.

Yeah, Im Glad cause its weird and people don't know how torturous this can be for us!

Yes it's a symptom of ASD. Though I've heard that it's not diagnostic unless the obsession is an eccentric one. So an intense interest in professional football wouldn't count because it's "normal."

Extent would be a significant factor.

Liking football wouldn't count.
Making your life revolve around football might, even if it can be concealed as within the normal range.

To some extent if the criteria focuses too much on the interests being eccentric it'll cause 'basic' people with ASD to go overlooked simply because their special interests aren't obscure enough.

Yes. I went to look up faceblindness and in just a few days I watched every single Youtube film short or long about it and the very last one was "Ask an autistic" and then I watched every single "Ask an autistic" short film, and went on from there.

Well yes, the eccentricity of the interest itself isn't the only important thing, and I wouldn't want them to ditch the intensity factor. I think it's important to look at both. With football, they're called "fans" which is an abbreviation of "fanatics," reflecting the fact that many footie lovers are pretty obsessional about the sport. Perhaps ironically, a disinterest in sport may be a mild indicator of ASD. I used to see disinterest in sport as an indicator of intelligence, but I've mellowed that view in recent years. I think I was just hitting back at the common view that there's something inferior about people who don't like sport. There are some very cruel jokes about football fans.

My main special interest is music, so I'm somewhat under the radar myself. But if you look closely, you'll see something eccentric about the way I go about pursuing my interest. I get way too technical about it, which is a great source of frustration to me, because although I always set out to pursue the artistic side of music, I end up trying to turn it into an exact science, and I'll work for hours perfecting tiny details that don't really matter.

I never felt tortured by my intense special interests. I think that other people are more tortured by them than I am.

This is definitely me, needing to know everything there is to know about something. In recent years, I've learned to just enjoy my special interests by myself or someplace online where I know it's acceptable to talk about them.

i'm wondering if this is relative to your question. I will come across an obscure person online (sometimes in person) and will spend literally hours trying to find info and learn about them. It's, as you say, torturous because it's a true longing for connection and even some distant hope of communication. most things i get obsessed with, i want a responsive connection.

Many non-autistic people are obsessed with college football and other sports-related things.

This is why there are "fantasy leagues."

I feel like it's not "bad" to have an obsession if it doesn't interfere, say, with you keeping a job. If your obsession with college football gets you fired, then it's bad.