Obsession taking over my life, intellectual development, etc

Post Reply New Topic

This first thread is brief, but it will most likely be enough.

Have you ever felt that your obsessions/interest are taking over you? I'm afraid of spending all my time reading about a special field, and forgetting about other interesting (but not as interesting as my main obsession), and useful knowledge. I don't want to end up knowing everything about one thing, and totally oblivious (ignorant) in other.

I think the only positive thing I can say is that, being Aspies, EVENTUALLY, our obessions change. We don't stay obsessed about any one thing forever. Maybe we stay obsessed a really long time. But not forever.

I would tend to give you the advice of just waiting it out. At some point in this 21st century, your obsessions may change.

I used to be obsessed about creating art. But eventually I ended up losing all interest in the field. I used to live, eat, sleep and dream about anything related to art. NOW, I couldn't give a steaming pile of crap about it. And it's so odd not caring about something I dearly used to love.

Without knowing I even had AS, I grew up learning to control my obsessions (as well as I could). To quote Spock from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn - "Really Doctor. You must learn to govern your passions, for they will be your undoing." We CAN control our obsessions. Or at least, we can learn to govern them. It can be done.

I have a few obsessions at a time, one of which gets priority time, but I tend to dip into the others now and again. This way I 'manage' my obsessions.

I only indulge in my special interests during my spare time, after work and at night.

I have a primary obsession that is just about constant and smaller ones that are consuming for a while but give way to other things.

I find I get very obsessed about things, to the point that it depresses me, so what I do is I spread my obsessions around, so if one thing goes wrong, I have others to fall back on. For example if I am obsessed with the internet, and then we lose the connection for a few hours, it used to really annoy me, but now I just think of another hobby to do, such as reading a book.

I think OCD has an awful lot to do with our inability to talk to people as we obsess about eye contact and so forth. If we can rewire our brains and teach them not to become obsessed so easily, maybe that will translate to dealing with people as well.

I was really bad about this sort of thing a wile ago! Now I can expand my interests. I really like to combine my interests. Like I'm obsessed with movies, but I also like history so I watch Historical movies! This is my technique to Expanding my interests. I must admit it is difficult!

I like my obsessions! I learn so much interesting stuff! And no learning is ever wasted; it always comes in handy. Sure, they can take over a bit- they wouldn't be obsessions if they didn't.

You can change your obsessions, too. At least, I can. It usually takes a few tries, but I can replace them with something new if I find something interesting enough

right now i'm obsessed with owls. like i just bought an owl pottery thingy, that some indian made. its pretty sweet and i'm sure i'll get more but this could be a problem. mostley what i do although i dont like to admit it is i spend all my money on my obsession.

Richardbenson, that is a disturbing avatar.

Edit: yay! Not disturbing anymore

Sock monkeys have taken over my life
and the life of my boyfriend.
At least I am not a crackhead.

I also have an obsession that has lasted my whole life. Can anybody guess what it is?

Yep. And it's ruined my life more than once.

When you obsess, it's all that matters. And if in any way you lose it, you have nothing. It's a sad, sad story. I think the best thing to do is have multiple obsessions.

Sometimes I find it really annoying when I am so concentrated on an issue that even though I would like to be occupied with something else I can't find that another topic interesting or at least as interesting as I would want to because that first thing seems to suck out all my attention and curiosity and I can be concentrated only on that thing. For example now my main hobbies it's Star Trek: The Next Generation and Asperger Syndrome while I'd want to engage more in the issues like esotericism, the Left Hand Path etc. but I must wait till my current obsessions are weaker. Even if I'd start to read about the mentioned things now I wouldn't probably find them interesting so the only thing I can do is to wait.