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Noskcaj86

ASD and Obsessions

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What kind of things count as an asd obsession? My 4 yr old son plays with toy cars 95% of the time. He wakes up in the morning and fiorst thing he says is "where's my car's?" then he goes looking! He takes them to bed with him and out the house where ever were going. Is this an obsession? A friend thought it wasnt an obsession related to ASD because asd obsessions in kids are usually over random things such as a hoover... not sure this is right myself!

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an Obsession can be with ANY object/subject topic/hobby/interest which takes over (controls) their lives or thoughts everyday all they think about want ....

 

XKLX

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It is a tricky one when the child is young for example my four year old loves everything Batman and Moshi Monsters at the moment,it seems like an obsession he wants/collects all the toys(even keeps them under his pillow when he sleeps),wears the clothes,wants everything with the character... but so do many children his age.

 

When Sam went for his diagnosis they asked about obsessions and I said "spongebob" the reason being its all he watched on telly and the only thing he would talk about for two years leading up to his diagnosis and it continues until about a year ago. So this to me is more of an obsession,it lasted about 5 years. He knew nearly every episode number and every word in each episode,it was impossible for him to do anything that was not spongebob related.

 

So I would say if he is able to distinguish different cars or know different makes and models and cannot talk about anything other than cars then yes its an obssession.

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I used to do it when I was little - I had favourite toy cars and things that I used to take everywhere even out into the garden.

 

I suppose it wouldn't be hard for casual observers to deem almost everything people do as an obsession but usually for something to qualify as an obsession officially it would have to be a bit more problematic than hanging on to the same toys for a long time. One could at a push argue that being in a relationship is also an obsession to another person. Is it always bad to be obsessed? What would happen if love itself was classed as an obsession which had to be 'cured'?

Edited by Mike_GX101

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I was obsessive in the past, I m aware I used to drive everyone nuts with my sole areas of interest and I actually caught people I looked up to conferring and joking about how boring I was with my narrow interests and ability to describe them. But since the diagnosis, I have stopped with much of my obsessive behaviour in public as I am aware it does not make friends and something else I am consciously trying to turn my mind off to stuff that interests me with the exception of the gender studies I am currently engaged in because I believe there is a link between it and ASD and it being a new thing in my life I seek to know everything there is to know about it to understand myself.

 

But over the last few years friends have said I have changed too much with one friend dipping out of our group completely because he says he doesn't like my change him being a schizophrenic he says he feels I am hiding something and that is not entirely honest the other thing he is uncomfortable with where he has said is his girlfriend is an XO karyotype and finding out his closest friend was the opposite of his girlfriend is too close for comfort.

 

But me, I am aware I bore people so my conscious effort is to not bore people so I keep my mouth shut mostly these days in public which comes across as I am now boring because I have nothing to say as small talk I never did understand and see no point talking about the weather, sport which I hate and I have to leave off the current affairs and politics.

 

Closer friends have said my obsessions are what made me me and now with seemingly no obsessions I am boring, I am boring myself and others.

 

But one thing I have found that is very effective at nailing obsessions, is money, no money means no obsessions as everything costs and when you struggle to have enough to buy food and pay your bills anything else is a luxury, where I am even questioning my dancing, is this a luxury I should not be affording as I need to buy new hermes sandals to protect my feet from the glass and I need a silk veil for veil dancing and I need to get supplies to make the jewellery which might even become a business, but I fear not paying my bills as I cannot be homeless.

Edited by Sa Skimrande

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when i was assessed for aspergers both me & my mum was asked if had any obsessions hobby wise or interest or subject area wise but i didnt really at all never have as such! So didnt fit into that tick box!

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The cars could be an obsession, but sometimes obsessions change. I have short periods (maybe a month or so) where I can't think of anything else except the subject/item to which I relate at that time......, but my life-long obsession (sailing dinghies) means that I often find myself visualising something related directly to this when I should be focussed on what someone is saying to me......it is one of those things that won't go away, and I'm glad about that, as it is my "root", my safe zone, which anchors me......the importance of this anchor must never be underestimated, as it de-stresses. (Hmmm,...Anchor...sailing....how appropriate!)

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I guess I'm similar to water girl, I have a main interest which I've always been obsessed with but I go though stages for a "month or so" where I'm obsessive about a certain subject.

 

My main obsession is that of your Son, cars ! I always had loads of little toy cars, I would arrange them in colours or arrange them based upon popularity.

 

He sounds quite sweet :D I used to love ones that changed colour with heat and it sounds easy to buy him things for Christmas and Birthdays :D

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As people have said it is harder to define in a child because most children become obsessed with something. I used to play with toy cars when I was young, which I think could be classed as an obsession more because I was a girl and cars weren't the popular must have thing, especially for a girl. But then, my brother did the same, and I have heard of a lot of young spectrum children loving to play with toy cars - specifically lining them up or sorting them in some unusual way that's not considered 'play' (as both me and my brother did).

 

But my obsessions in general are just anything which consumes me and take over the other things I should be doing - and I bore everyone talking about it all the time, as if I assume they are interested.

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He lines his cars up and puts all the green ones together etc. I can see him still loving cars in 20 years, maybe he will be a mechanic, who knows :D for xmas this year he wants a new toy garage and loads and loads of cars! Thanx for replies

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the obessesions/interest change with age.for mine at first was Bob the Builder,then Spongebob ,pinball machines and Rollerball.10 pin,definately the computerThe Sims,then recently,Mooshie monsters and Bin Weevils,now its Road Blox.He has made friends on Road Blox and can chat on line.still loves ten pin bowling.He is 13 now,so will be intersting to see whats next. his favourites now are Super Mario.he studys other peoples games on you tube,to see how the games work.

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I've always had obsessive hobbies, more intense as I've got older. They rule my life. When I was a kid I liked experimenting, scientific or otherwise, and music. Later it was astronomy. Now it's music (progressive rock) and learning languages. However, I don't talk obsessively and bore people with them. In my first school I was teased and bullied and at some point I learned not to draw unnecessary attention to myself by talking about interests which were slightly unusual for a girl, so I suppressed them and kept them to myself and daydreamed about them all the time.

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Just thinking on this, thinking back into the past what item I had which received so much focus it is clear in my memory and that thing was my Swiss Army knife I was given at age 7, it being the old champ from forty years ago and though very useful in that it had so much useful on it it was not the brick the champ is today. But I was never without that tool except school but it did venture there sometimes I admit, but I used it all the time to make and fix things, I was forever wiring plugs and sawing up bits of wood with the tenacious saw the thing had.

 

But as I cast back I think my skills as a repairman and craftsman maybe they came from that tool and I still have it, broken though it is in many places I cannot part with it and so it resides in my drawer where I have learned Victorinox will repair it if I send it to them as they keep all the parts that it comprises still.

 

But that tool was with me through my childhood, the scouts, the military, marriage and to now and yes I have repaired it many times, but now it has gone passed the point where I am capable as new implements it needs.

 

But maybe one is thinking shock horror parents gave a knife to a seven year old child what bad people they must be where I say no they weren't because it was drilled into me from an early age if one wants to be offensive to others it is fisticuffs never a weapon and so, I have never brandished or used a weapon in offence or defence other than in my official capacity as armed forces when I was in that. A knife to me is a tool never a weapon because I have also been trained in how to deal with those threatening with knives and the last one that did it probably wished he had never bothered as I attacked his crown jewels with ever fibre of strength in my body, my leg being longer and more powerful than his arm and the puny blade extended.

 

ButI agree something has gone wrong in society for children to see knives as weapons these days, because it never was that in my youth, one simply did not hear of such actions as we hear of today and no one I knew carried a knife for offence as one thing was common back then, we feared our parents, mum was bad enough but if dad got involved that was big, big trouble we wished to avoid at all costs so we kept our noses as clean as possible. We also had a beat bobby that knew all the kids and anyone seen where they shouldn't be dad got to know through the village pub where the police preferred to let families deal with their miscreant offspring for the shame it brought.

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