strange obsessions...

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Has anyone ever had any strange and persistent obsessions with objects etc? (perhaps this is a rhetorical question...)

Since I was perhaps 8 or so, I have had two constant and unusual obsessions:

1) I have always been obsessed with mirrors and studying myself in them (this is not a narcissistic thing I promise you). But I am constantly attracted to mirrors and cannot pass one without getting a good look into it. I have spent even a couple hours in a row sitting in front of a mirror on many occasions.

2) I have always been attracted to studying peoples' hands. I have an excellent visual memory for peoples' hands and can probably identify about 50% of the people I have known just by seeing their hands (without seeing their faces).

Does anyone do these or somethings similar???

Yes...certainly.

My first identifiable "object obsession" was with crutches.

I did not need crutches, nor did I know anyone who used them (friends, family, etc.). I just found them fascinating. My parents thought this was very odd. I have stacks and stacks of drawings of crutches dating back to when I was four years old. I remember making crutches out of yard tools, sticks, etc.

This fixation later morphed into an obsession with medical equipment in general: wheelchairs, etc.

street lights. Someone tell me that's normal.

Sophist I have an obsession with hands too! I love watching hands and how people use them to converse.

I always watched my mothers hands and, even though she is gone, I can still remember with total clarity what her hands looked like. I even wrote a poem about my mothers hands.

I believe hands tell more about a person than anything else.
I never believed it was strange though.......is it?

Ya. For an aspie anyways.

I have had many unusual fascinations over the years. One that is the most striking was the fascination with this gas station sign. It said "sunoco" and was bright yellow.I was so drawn to it. I remember once my mom went to a Sunoco that didn't have the sign, and wasn't on the road I so loved. ( I was obsesssed with maps, and still am to this day, one my sub fasciantions was alternative routes, and that particular Sunoco was on alternative route)Anways, I through a HUGE temper tantrum til my mom finally gave in. I started walking up there with my friends all the time.

I still go up there all the time to this day. The one clerk practically wathced me grow up.

Two words:

Lawn Tractors.

Every time I pass someone mowing I look to see what kind of mower they use.

I like older (1945-69) sears/roebuck riding lawn mowers as they are pretty much industructable and pratically never break down. more than once I have seen them pulled out of mud after sitting for a decade or so, cleaned the fuel lines, flush oil and hook up to new battery, and believe it or not, start.


Unfortantly, the mower decks tend to rot away a lot faster, but the tractor can still be used to pull stuff or plow snow. Those things are so F***ing tougher than anything on the market today. Most tractors are now sheet metal unibody; these have frames of 3/4 in steel. Most carborators now break down after 5 years; the older mowers still work after 50 years.

When I hear old people talk about how they don't make things the way they used to, this is what I think of.

Tere wrote:

Tere, I have never thought that being fascinated by hands was strange in itself. But then suddenly one day I realized that I could picture the details of 43 different peoples' hands whom I have known over the years (I made a list) and yet I couldn't picture the peoples' faces in my head. I realize now this is a Central Coherance issue with only being able to picture separate details of peoples' faces and not the whole (though my facial recognition is excellent). But I wondered then why I could see the whole hand in my head and not the face. I have thought sometimes maybe because it is smaller and less to visually cohere.

I used to draw many hands in high school. Along with many trees.

OMG Sophist ....we are twins!! I also draw hands! Hand have a history all by themselves. They can tell you almost what kind of work they do. They also assist in conversation. I have difficulty looking at someones face when they are talking. I believe that is why I can remember so much about peoples hands. It is a whole lot easier looking at hands than faces.

That's interesting what you said about Central Coherance. I never thought of it that way. I do have an uncanny eye for detail. I see everything in different parts instead of a whole. Is that common?

Yes, Tere, I believe that falls under the HUGE category of Central Coherence Dysfunction. Seeing the parts and not the sum of the parts.

And I do often look at peoples' hands much more than their faces. Also has something to do with nervousness with eye contact as well.

Back when I was in sixth grade, circa November 1991, I really got into the battle of hastings and the bayeux tapestry.

This was in reading class, what really got me though was how LONG the sucker is!

I never realized how much motice I take of hands until I read your post Sophist! I thought of the people I know and I can see their hands better than thier faces in my head. I used to draw hands a lot when I was younger too.
I quite often catch myself in la la land with my hand right up to my face as I study it's details.

Mirrors too are the same. I like to be able to remind myself who I am or something. I am not able to picture my own face any better than anyone else's. I have caught myself having an hour long conversation with myself in a mirror once.

I think that it is a good idea to be comfortable with discussing things over with yourself though.

I have always had an interest in writing on the lawn using the lawnmower.

I have had an interest in proding peoples heads.

Those are my strange activities (excluding many) that are not actually obsessions.

I was being sarcastic.



My dad has AS and is obsessed with Maps, too.

This isn't really an obsession but I always notice peoples teeth, and gross teeth are a turn off.

Maps rule!

Today, its radio. Its ALWAYS been radio but there were a few additional ones that I had back when I was younger.

Fans (As in the ones that cirulate the air. In the mid 90s when I was about 7, 8 or 9)

Lamps (When I was REALLY young)

Door closers (The things that close the door without you having to pull it. When I was 8-9 I was VERY obsessed with them. I E-Mailed my 2nd grade teacher last year and she remembered me because of door closers. It started when some lady who lived upstairs complained that the entrence door to the building slammed and woke her up in the morning. So she had someone come and adjust the door closer to make the door close really slow. It URKED me because our buildings door was the only one that did that. So I became VERY obsessed over it. I had no idea what caused it to close so slow. Then when the maintenence man was over I asked him to adjust the door of our apartment to close better. He adjusted a screw on the side. So I took a chair into the hallway got up on it and adjusted the building door to close VERY fast. The lady got pissed so she had someone adjust it again. Then I went and adjusted it to the way it was before they first changed it. Then one day the lady who complained taped a note on the door that said "This door is closing and locling very nicely. Please do not adjust door to make it slam and wake me up." and finally it was just left alone. The funny part is is that the adjustment on the door was the way it was before the lady even complained and now she is saying its closing and locking very nicely.)

Fragrence Paks. (In my old apartment building, they used to put these air fresheners ontop of the emergency light. I was SO obscessed with them when I was 7 or 8. I often had my sister (who delivered newspapers in the complex) reach up and grab them so I could look at them.)

I wonder if anyone has thought of making a coffee-table book on pictures of hands? If not, one should be created.

I love to fixate on hands too....always have. I can picture my parents hands perfectly even though their faces are a bit fuzzy in my memory.

I have always had an interest in gears. Especially clock gears. I have five cuckcoo clocks all of which were not working when they were given to me. I don't really know how I fix them, I just do. One of the clocks though only sounds the time with a cuck (no coo) - I'll have to re-work it someday although it is kinda funny to hear it chime and then just announce, "Cuck, Cuck, Cuck"