'Falling in love with useless everyday domestic items'

[Ric]

Hi. I coined this phrase for myself as a 'joke' when I was a schoolboy. I have had, and still have a strong tendancy to 'recue' pieces of general rubish waiting to be thrown away, I get a strong feeling toward it and have to keep it for a while. sometimes years. This can range from pins, cartons, broken elastic bands, dead batteries, documents and much more. Thinking about it, as a small child I used to donate 'broken' toys to the junior school jumble sales then be first in the que that evening to buy them back, because I felt sorry? for them. I have searched many times on the internet for explanation but the only clue that I found was possible 'emotional attachment'? I have never told anyone about this before but I am due for ASD assessment in February and wondered if anyone else had come across this or is it something completely separate?

 

Many thanks

 

Ric

[joybed]

Both of my ASD boys refuse to get rid of things when they are broken, i have to take them when they are not looking and then they don,t miss them. Marcus will often say you are not throwing that away are you and become upset if i say yes. He also has a recylcling obsession and gets upset about certain things being in the bin together. He hates baked beans and becomes upset if they are thrown in a bin as they will "contaminate" everything. So in my opinion it is probably ASD related.

[KezT]

My DS also hates throwing things out - and sadly often does notice if I take th emin the middle of the night;) He can sometimes be reasoned with tho - and sometimes he gets over his attachment eventually.....

 

He also has always collected total rubbish - as in actual rubbish like sweet wrappers or bits of ripped paper, which he keeps as a "collection" for several years until I can convince him to throw them away. He admits they have no significance (it's not that they are shiny or interesting in any way) but still gets very attached to his collections.

 

Ho hum, one of those things:) I always assumed it was ASD related.

[got the tshirt]

I think this is probably ASD related too. An uncle of mine used to gather empty squash bottles, he rarely threw them away, I think partly because when he rinsed them he couldn't bring himself to tip the water down the drain so he just put the lid on and kept them. He was such a clever man but he lived alone and these kind of things became soooo important to him.

[Sally44]

My son also does not want to let anything go. He also has a 'treasure' box where he puts any bits and pieces he finds which he also does not want to throw away. So that could be anything he finds in the house, garden, school playground etc and includes a bit of pencil, a shiny bit of metal, stones etc. He gets very attached to everything to the point of tears.

[Ric]

Hi. Thanks for all of your comments. I can identify with all of them, especially Sally44. I too have a box that I keep these items in including pencil stubs, stones and pins etc and it is a strong, from the gut, emotional pull which I have always had.

 

Thank you all for your help, much appreciated.

 

Ric.

[Sally44]

Hi. I coined this phrase for myself as a 'joke' when I was a schoolboy. I have had, and still have a strong tendancy to 'recue' pieces of general rubish waiting to be thrown away, I get a strong feeling toward it and have to keep it for a while. sometimes years. This can range from pins, cartons, broken elastic bands, dead batteries, documents and much more. Thinking about it, as a small child I used to donate 'broken' toys to the junior school jumble sales then be first in the que that evening to buy them back, because I felt sorry? for them. I have searched many times on the internet for explanation but the only clue that I found was possible 'emotional attachment'? I have never told anyone about this before but I am due for ASD assessment in February and wondered if anyone else had come across this or is it something completely separate?

 

Many thanks

 

Ric

 

 

I think from the other posts you can see that some people with an ASD do also feel the same as you. And I think it has to be taken into context with the ASD. There are also people who are classed as hoarders. But I sometimes wonder if those people are on the spectrum also. Who knows. Sometimes aspects of OCD might be associated with attachment to certain objects especially if you need to revisit them or touch them as part of a ritual. My son does not seem to have any OCD as part of his diagnosis. He can quite happily leave stuff alone and not touch it. But it is the having to throw it away that is a real problem for him because he is attached to it. I don't understand it personally. But I can see how upset he gets at even the thought of throwing something away. Occasionally he will agree to donate something. But it is usually one item out of thousands that he agrees to part with - so it hardly makes any difference.

[kerryt84]

When I was in my early teens I was like this. I would refuse to throw anything away at school, like you said because I felt sorry for them which is a strange way to describe it but I can't think of a better way. Also when I did throw something away I would do it in pairs, so that they didn't feel lonely. I remember a particular occasion when I left a jacket at the park by accident and when I went to get it the next day it had been burnt by a group of older boys. I refused to throw it away, although it was totally ruined and I went and got it out of the bin when my mum threw it away. Eventually she managed to throw it away before I realised and I went nuts about it. For me it was symptom of my OCD as I suffered from it very badly at this age.

[joybed]

We went sledging yesterday and Piers found a power ranger toy lying in the snow, it had a broken arm and leg and was headless but he had to have it for his collection he said it would be lonely and sad. DH took it from him and threw it away he coped well with this but needed to know where it had gone so he could say goodbye.

[Ric]

Hi. Yes, anything that I keep I don't bother with. The problem comes when I try to throw these things away. The idea of throwing things away in pairs appeals and I will try this. Last month, I spotted a badly damaged Noddy car in Tesco's carpark and felt sorry for that. I just had to rescue it. It sits now on a shelf in my studio but I suppose that could be a childhood thing.

 

I would sincerely like to thank all for your invaluable help.

 

Ric.

[oxgirl]

My lad has always become very attached to objects. When he was little he developed what we thought was a bin phobia, he would become hysterical if we tried to throw anything away and if he heard the lid of the bin he would run in shouting 'what did you throw away'. He couldn't bring himself to throw away yogurt pots and we had a mountain of them in the kitchen piling up. He's always had an abnormally strong attachment and what really did seem like 'love' for objects, I remember one time we bought a new hoover and he was beside himself with excitement, he actually went over and kissed it.

 

~ Mel ~

[Ric]

Hi. Yes, I can relate to this - even now when I get new things like drawing pens and art materials I get overexcited and have to pull back a little.

 

Thnx Ric

[julieann123]

Thats really weird - having only just joined I never thought about this being linked to AS, but I was terrible as a child. Not so bad by far now (I'm 38) although last week I drove past a half-flat child's ball by the side of the road, and I worried about it all week, until I had to go try and find it! So glad to hear other experiences of this

[Ric]

Thats really weird - having only just joined I never thought about this being linked to AS, but I was terrible as a child. Not so bad by far now (I'm 38) although last week I drove past a half-flat child's ball by the side of the road, and I worried about it all week, until I had to go try and find it! So glad to hear other experiences of this

 

Hi, I know precisly the feeling. I have in the past driven by things and then picked them up. I am also glad to hear others experience this.

 

Thx Ric

[julieann123]

It's such a RELIEF to hear about other people experiencing the same thing! I just thought I was a bit mad, and so (like I'm sure lots of us do) I covered it up - kept things in boxes, etc. I also have a large collection of unused drawing books that I dare not actually use, and yet I still buy more of them, and can't bear to throw them away.