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Freaking People Out With Your Obsessions.

Emor

Emor

Well-Known Member
When I talk about my obsessions I don't care about taboo.
I'll talk about sexuality to anyone, tbh, because it happens to be an obsession of mine. My Mum gave me the biggest evils ever when I started talking about homosexuality research and the origins of it to my Grandad.
I also talk too much about other animals reproductive systems. It's just something that fascinates me. Not in a weird fetish sort of way, but I just find it interesting. IDK why. It's not like I don't find the other parts of the body interesting too. I can tell you about the nervous system, digestive track, etc. of most classes of Platyhelminthes. But idk.
When I was obsessed with statistics I think people found it annoying the way I'd always try to cram as many statistics into the conversation.
IDK.
Also, when I talk about my obsessions, unless I'm depressed, I speak ridiculously fast, because there's so much information coming in that it's hard to remember to mention it when you're speaking normally, and usually then people don't really understand what I'm saying(in combination with the dodgy voice I have).
IDK. I just have a tendency to bring them up all the time.
I also find it really hard to not bring them up. If there's someone I don't want to talk to, but they bring up something I'm interested in, I have to try hard not to talk to them about it(if I talk to them it implies I like them, imo).
Anyone else like this?
I'm interested to read what others are like about their obsessions. Some Aspies I know are like me, and some don't even bring their obsessions up once o_O.
EMZ=]
 
I don't really ever 'open up' about my obsessions. If anything i'm ashamed of them and will try to hide them from others. Stuff like... runescape. All that kind of crap, I'd rather people didn't know about lol.

I can go on if someone asks me about something I'm interested in though...
 
Chris said:
I don't really ever 'open up' about my obsessions. If anything i'm ashamed of them and will try to hide them from others. Stuff like... runescape. All that kind of crap, I'd rather people didn't know about lol.

I can go on if someone asks me about something I'm interested in though...
Click to expand...

I am the same
though refuse to go very deep even if they're interested in it
 
I don't really talk about my obsessions either. Most people already know i'm heavily into computers, games and electronics. Hmm... that makes me sound like a geek   :lol: . Besides I wouldn't want to talk about my PS3 as most people I know have a 360 so that would only start up a fanboy war over which console is better. Since i'm the only one with a PS3, the odds would be against me every time. People seem to be jealous that I have a PS3 as anytime I mention it they slag me.  :D

So yeah, I tend to keep quiet about my obsessions/interests.
 
I don't have long conversations with people about obsessions anymore like I did when I was younger, and TBH that upsets me a bit because I like talking about my obsessions.

I don't think I ever freaked people out with them, though, because they've mostly been about technology anyway. I do get some cool reactions when I recite pi to 64 decimal places though :P
 
Emma, I'm liking you more and more. Even tho it's mostly just because you are like me in several ways and I can identify with you. Schopol shooters was one of my obsessions. Now it's any kind of extreme life experience that is my obsession, and has been probably since I was born, but I became aware of it when I was 9 and was able to admit it to others by the time I was 12 or 13 or 14 or 15.
 
When I was a kid, pirates and then later pokèmon used to be my obsessions. But then during junior high school I lost my interest into those things. During high school I the only thing I was a bit interested in was manga and Japanese culture. Then I lost interest in those as well. Now days I like philosophy and art. I would`t call those "obsessions" yet, tho.
 
I used to freak people out with obsessions, well I don't remember any freaked out reactions but when thinking about it I think I probably did.
When I was a lot younger (about 10-ish) I had and obsession with sexuality and reproduction, basically loads of things I shouldn't talk about. I had no sense of boundry or tabboo (it's still kind of rusty now) so I'd openly talk about these weird obsessions. My mum told me I even had the school nurse having a talk with me about those subjects to say how innapropriate they are (I don't remember this).
 
I guess that I have 2 classes of obsession. There are like the "Class A" obsessions, where I collect books and magazines on a subject and get really absorbed in reading about them. Cooking and fishing are kind of like that with me. Then there are the "Class B" obsessions, where I don't actually seek information on a subject, but I get totally fascinated by them when I happen across an article in a newspaper or magazine on the subject, or a documentary. Anthropology (human evolution), astronomy, religions, WWII, particle physics, probably a bunch of other stuff. And I can usually ramble on about them endlessly and bore people if I am not careful. But nothing that really freaks people out.

It is more the useless and unusual abilities that freak people out. Remembering odd details about past events. Remember all the words to some song that I heard a few times on the radio years ago. I memorised Pi to 100 decimal places a couple of years ago because I was bored at work, but I can only remember 32 places now. Doing basic base 16 math in my head (it used to be a handy skill in IT). Being able to move one eyeball at a time. Stuff like that.
 
^^ I wish I could do them cool memory things like remembering pi "because I'm bored". I have a good memory long term especially with my dreams but it's nothing impressive or unusual.
I know someone who remembers whole youtube videos and says them from start to finish and gets all the words right. He's really cool.
 
I love talking about my obsessions. I'll bring them up whenever the opportunity presents itself. If I don't see an opportunity I'll create one, lol.

As for freaking people out... Well, I remember when I told my psychiatrist that I was going to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, he looked kinda disturbed and said that the commercials for it looked "really weird and freaky". You'd think that a mental health professional would at least see SOME of the appeal of a "weird" movie... :rolleyes2:
 
I'm like emor in that I'm quite until i feel comfortable enough to speak openly. that's where my trusting someone can really screw me over because i can't tell when ppl are just having a lend or whether they're genuine - sometimes maybe because i trust them i'm not willing to consider that as possible, other times i think i scrutinise ppl too much (inside) and maybe distrust (with good cause??), or i catch ppl out because I have a reasonable memory and sometimes ppl screw up their logic so I find discrepancies, although - this works against me if i feel like they're trust worthy since i'll make a reapproach on what they'd (said?) and just consider they mightn't be as clever as i am.
There are times where I'm extreemely obsessed with something and that's all people will hear about, sometimes I get people interested in what im doing and find ways of having an active conversation with others who would have no interest in it, like chess, for instance. I believe my passion for whatever it is can spill over to someone who knew nothing before hand - to at least give something to them about it and maybe that my interest in what ever it is can actually "arouse an eager want in the other person (Carneggie, D; How to Win Friends and Influence People).
Since I have a way of talking about "nothing" around others I thrive on people who are willing to give me the time of day to listen. And I'm thrilled to talk about things when the other person is able to make the conversation stimulating, while not being thrown when I get "excitable".
 
The only time I would of freaked someone out is when I used to like a girl, I would get so obsessed about it and start going on and on and on to the point I would used to freak her out.... It ruins my chances everytime. :lol:

Good thing I've changed from that, I wonder what I would of been like if I continued to be that way?
 
I had a best friend once who'd read Anne Frank's diary and who was interested in her, but I was so happy I'd found somebody to talk about all that stuff with that I think I scared her off like that, I talked endlessly about all the new stuff I'd found out and she got depressed by that kind of thing. I was never affected by what I was reading about. She also loved the 60s- but one day I found her listening to some modern band- the ultimate betrayal! In the end we split because I started blanking her...once we didn't have 'common ground', it was quite hard to think of stuff to say for me, even though before I'd managed to talk about other stuff sometimes.

A few years ago I wised up, especially because I can't always tell when people are bored and now I only make small talk with friends. They're not into the same stuff as me, and usually it's very narrow so they wouldn't have an opinion on it, not like politics or something, which you don't need to know much about to have a conversation on. But my poor parents bear the brunt of it, I come downstairs with a new list of things to recite during dinner and no one gets a word in... :innocent:

Although if someone does start up a conversation about 'my' subject, I get all indignant that other people might think I don't know about it if I don't say enough, so I either bulldoze the conversation into silence or I decide I can't be bothered and sit watching them with a smile on my face, which shows that I don't care.
 
My memory's nothing special either but people saying things does stick in my mind, or a film, I can remember what the characters said in a scene but I won't remember what order the scenes go in. So I'll say them with the inflexions and gestures and things. Song lyrics I can't remember, usually because the words aren't always well enunciated so it ruins the flow.
Dates and random numbers also stick without effort, but words aren't so easy (apart from German, in that special 'foreign' context it just seems to stay). You need both to be a historian.

Monkey: With the boundary and taboo thing, I get that. Only it continued well into late childhood, got me in a lot of trouble. I don't get how NTs just know these things, do they just learn them faster or something? Or are we not intuitive enough? I like your sig by the way! It took me a while to realise it was a joke though. Ha.
 
I was always really good at remembering dates and stuff in history class. When I was in junior high, we used to have these games involving dates and wars, etc; winners would get something. Its funny how valuable you suddenly become when people need/want something from you. Those were some of the few times I've ever been fought over to be on a team.

I have a long history of freaking out/boring people with my interest, especially when I was younger. When I was a kid, I would go on endlessly about stuff I liked. It annoyed everyone. :whistle: I don't do it as badly today, but I still have the bad habit of going off topic or giving too much information on things if people get on a similar topic to something I like or know about. Its also hard for me to change topics suddenly- I always want to go back and finish the original topic first, especially if I found it to be more interesting. Don't switch me from computers to scrap-booking, for instance. :lol:
 
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