Do All of You Have a Thing???

[Cali Cat]

My interests change over time. Some last longer than others, and sometimes I circle back around to reviving an old interest for awhile. The only thing I can think of that continues to be an all consuming interest for me is cats. I've almost always had cats since I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. Now, I'm sort of obsessed with making sure the feral cats in my friend's neighborhood get fixed so they don't have litters of kittens that will suffer. One of the last litters born here were so sick. It was heartbreaking. They (and we) were lucky two of the three were Siamese, and the local no-kill shelter took all three of them right away. So, now I'm fighting against time to get the rest of the feral females fixed. Yeah, that's my thing.

 

[Amethyst]

I had to think about this one.. I don't have anything that lasts long, but I tend to get really focused on one thing for a stretch of time. It'll be all that I think or talk about, but it typically doesn't last more than 6 months. I feel like I need to know everything there is about it and then I can move on.
Last major obsession was crochet.. that one may have lasted longer but people started asking me to make them things and that didn't work out so well.. lol
I also have things that I need to collect, but I don't obsess about it

 

[Arlais]

My (so far) longest obsession has been stationery and all things mail related. Then, there's my bee-related collection..

 

[kris]

there's one artist, I forget his name, who was so obsessed with a certain shade of blue, he would paint hundreds of canvases, of nothing (no image), just that one shade of blue, occupying the entire surface of the canvases.

I can totally see myself doing this LOL

 

[Kobus]

Mine is quantum physics... it annoy me a lot because I really can't stop talking about even though I know I know way too little to talk about it. But I hear it absolutely everywhere and I see the connection in everything.
My other obsessions are quotes and psychology.

 

[Ste11aeres]

My (so far) longest obsession has been stationery and all things mail related. Then, there's my bee-related collection..

Do you have bee-related stationary?

 

[Shell-Bell]

Hi there Acstar!

As a child I was obsessed with clouds, their names and shapes and colors, I think I would check the "cloud status" every half hour by looking out the window. It sounds strange at first but there was reason to my madness. I was always worried about tornadoes and lighting as a kid so I would look to see if the clouds were greyish or dark to "know" if a storm was coming. Poor little me didn't understand what overcast was so I was freaked out a lot of the time. Luckily I grew out of that once I overcame those fears.
As an adult I find I become randomly "thought" obsessed with things, normally when I'm excited, nervous or anxious about something. It's random but it often lasts up to a few hours of me researching on the internet (when I should be doing other things). I've learned to recognize when I'm headed into a thought obsession and to give myself a half hour to vent on it then it's time to get back to work.
Hope that give you a little bit of a different idea on what obsessions can be like!

 

[Chew Magna]

I bounce around between a whole horde of different obsessions. Usually when I find something that interests me I get neck deep into it and stay there until I manage to burn myself out on it. Lately it was vaping, getting into rebuildable devices and everything related to it. That lasted a few months and then I just lost interest in it. I still do vape, but I'm not hardcore into rebuilding every day or keeping up with the trends anymore. Before that it was salt water, I still have a small reef tank but I've almost totally lost interest in that as well. I've picked up a ton of side hobbies and interests this way. One thing has always been there though, and that's pc gaming. That's the one thing that always calmed me down and took me away from the things that I can't deal with. It's been my life for more than a decade now and I don't see it ever changing.

 

[Madame Catfish]

My obsession is about learning, I need to learn everything I can everyday and this last year nearly left me without a single sinapsis to spare. When I have a moment to relax I just look for something New I can add to my storage. I play chess while eating, I watch a movie in a foreign language while studying literature, I watch a TED talk before going to sleep... I just can't stop if someone wants to tell me how something works and I don't know it, he can go on for hours and I'll be most grateful. I can't cope with the feeling when I don't know something and have to surf the net to understand it.

Agree, same here! It's almost like a hunger. If I am not intaking, processing, and churning out information constantly and quickly, I begin to fall into depression.

Oh, P.S. You mentioned foreign language, do you like leaning languages? You don't happen to know Yucatec Maya, Spanish, or Hebrew, do you? Also, you referred to your intake of information as placing it in" storage", do you have a sort of mental filing cabinet where you organise your information so it doesn't get lost? Mine looks kind of like sheets of word documents put into folders and subfolders.

 

[Madame Catfish]

I have been obsessed with the Forensic Sciences and certain linguistic systems since I was about six. I have always loved string: playing with it, collecting it, keeping some with me in my pocket, since I was a toddler. I also have a sort of thing for smell. I don't know if one would consider it as much of an obsession as it is a sensitivity. I spend a lot of time dissecting smells, learning to recognise certain substances by nose, and just enjoying the good kinds.

I've been trying to share the idea of developing smell as a branch of forensic science. For instance, when smelling the backpack of a friend, it was easy to conclude that a relative smoked cannabis (was to subtle to be the individual herself, but strong enough to know that it had been sitting in the vicinity of burning cannabis for some time) the smell coincided with her uncle moving in a few weeks before, so it was easily determined that her uncle smoked cannabis. Gas chromatography can only go so far, and the nose can process this information much quicker. A classmate of mine smells faintly of dry grass, caliche rock (commonly used in rural driveways where I come from) , with an undertone of cowpat. Now, a military base takes up most of the western direction outside of town, and the road leading to the south is dotted with very small farms, farms growing corn and the like that are too small for grazing cattle (the friend didn't smell of any crops except for maybe hay, or that could have been more dry grass). Therefore, he lives on either the north or east roads leading out of town. We can also determine that he lives on or on branches of either of these roads because he smells of cow and the dry grass native to the area but not found within the town proper due to it being run out by lawn grass. He must have either worked at Bush's restaurant or have been a rural person with a ranch (caliche often set down as roads and driveways in ranches by people who can afford it) because he smelled of caliche. (the restaurant has a caliche driveway and him having the smell of caliche on him from an industrial setting was ruled out because my father owns the only machine shop in town and he did not frequent it). He didn't work at the restaurant because he did not smell of the gross cooking oil and salt they use on the chicken there- therefore the caliche was from outside of town in origin, most likely at his ranch since his parents have cattle. By smell and common knowledge of the area, we can conclude that his family owns a larger cattle ranch on the branches of either the road leading out of town from the north or the east, and that they are wealthy enough to afford a caliche driveway, so they are well off as land owners. Information like this can be gathered on- site without any need to send samples to a lab.

I'm not saying an individual human's sense of smell should be enough to convict anybody, but I think, with proper training, anyone can utilise it to learn more about a suspect- such as the areas they frequent, what they eat, if they have cancer or take certain medications without documentation, or if they've been in close physical contact with someone else wearing a certain cologne or perfume.

Again, I rant. Completely offtopic, too.

But I do believe that smell is an underrated sense as valuable in collecting data as any other. A smell can reveal so much about a person, and that can be useful in forensic investigations.

 

[jlopez2011]

I can relate to a lot of the Aspergers symptoms, but I'm not sure if I have an "obsession" or not? I have an idea of some things I look into a lot. Maybe i just haven't found one special interest so bouncing between them? But I'm beginning to wonder if having deep interests is an essential part of aspies. Is there anyone with Aspergers without an obsession/deep interest? Is this a tell sign?

My routine/obsession is wearing diffrent colored matching clothes with same colored shoes each day of the week. My psychiatrist prescribed some ocd meds to make it stop, but its not working, it actually made me more obsessive and now compulsive.

 

[Kusan38]

I'm not diagnosed as an Aspie - just considering whether I should be evaluated. I do have some long-term threads of interest that may or may not be "special interest" status.

I'll give you just one example - not necessarily one that consumes my time the most, though.

Rainbows.
Since childhood, it has always pleased me to see all the colors lined up. I would take pictures of rainbows when they occurred, and over time I learned the names of rainbow-like weather phenomena as sundogs and Brocken spectres and halos around the sun or moon. In childhood I collected crystal prisms that refracted light into rainbows. I also had various interesting lamps - including some that either projected a rainbow on the wall or could be adjusted to show any color. I have a Pinterest board of nothing but different color wheels. Once I found myself lining up bits of debris on the beach by color. I have a string of rainbow crystal beads hanging from my rearview mirror. As a kid my favorite stone was the opal and the bismuth sold in rock stores - both having a rainbow-like appearance. I collected mussel shells with iridescent, rainbow-y interiors. I learned about the iridescence of hummingbird feathers. I had glasses that made everything look rainbow-y. I would stare at CDs and the rainbow light they projected when in the sun. I recently learned that during sunset, a rainbow can be totally red. As child I adored holograms (which are rainbow-y), and the hologram-product store in the mall was one of my favorite places to go. To this day I recall several scenes in movies, shows or videogames that involved a rainbow. My favorite level in the videogame Mario 64 was the one with all the rainbows and flying. In MarioKart, it was Rainbow Road.

I don't wear rainbow stuff because I'm not homosexual and I don't want to send an inaccurate message. But I would do so, if not for that concern about misrepresenting myself (I'm asexual).

None of that rainbow-ness, however, led to me being an expert in anything. It was always just a source of joy and a piece of my identity. In contrast, music and drawing have been with me a long time too, and each led to some level of ability (e.g., my avatar on this site is my drawing of myself - though I left my hair white instead of coloring it to show that it's really brown).

 

[hiraeth]

My (so far) longest obsession has been stationery and all things mail related. Then, there's my bee-related collection..

I have been collecting stationary all my life!! But only recently started actually finding people to share (send) them with. I'm always open to more of those so feel free to let me know if anyone is interested.

 

[Astroganga]

I'm not diagnosed as an Aspie - just considering whether I should be evaluated. I do have some long-term threads of interest that may or may not be "special interest" status.

I'll give you just one example - not necessarily one that consumes my time the most, though.

Rainbows.
Since childhood, it has always pleased me to see all the colors lined up. I would take pictures of rainbows when they occurred, and over time I learned the names of rainbow-like weather phenomena as sundogs and Brocken spectres and halos around the sun or moon. In childhood I collected crystal prisms that refracted light into rainbows. I also had various interesting lamps - including some that either projected a rainbow on the wall or could be adjusted to show any color. I have a Pinterest board of nothing but different color wheels. Once I found myself lining up bits of debris on the beach by color. I have a string of rainbow crystal beads hanging from my rearview mirror. As a kid my favorite stone was the opal and the bismuth sold in rock stores - both having a rainbow-like appearance. I collected mussel shells with iridescent, rainbow-y interiors. I learned about the iridescence of hummingbird feathers. I had glasses that made everything look rainbow-y. I would stare at CDs and the rainbow light they projected when in the sun. I recently learned that during sunset, a rainbow can be totally red. As child I adored holograms (which are rainbow-y), and the hologram-product store in the mall was one of my favorite places to go. To this day I recall several scenes in movies, shows or videogames that involved a rainbow. My favorite level in the videogame Mario 64 was the one with all the rainbows and flying. In MarioKart, it was Rainbow Road.

I don't wear rainbow stuff because I'm not homosexual and I don't want to send an inaccurate message. But I would do so, if not for that concern about misrepresenting myself (I'm asexual).

None of that rainbow-ness, however, led to me being an expert in anything. It was always just a source of joy and a piece of my identity. In contrast, music and drawing have been with me a long time too, and each led to some level of ability (e.g., my avatar on this site is my drawing of myself - though I left my hair white instead of coloring it to show that it's really brown).

I am another lover of anything to do with rainbows, such as iridescent/aurora borealis coatings on rhinestones, sequins, faux leather, cars etc, seashells which naturally have that effect, and the like. Also rainbow tie dye is [emoji7]. I am also obsessed with putting pencil crayons, marker pens and so on in rainbow order when I buy them. I bought two second hand cameras the other day primarily due to the brand name logo and the lens ring being rainbow iridescent. I am not formally diagnosed yet but being assessed.