i'm wondering how common this is.
I get obsessively curious about a subject and end up researching.
current obsessive researching is a health problem. It's not health anxiety. I'm not anxious about which of the many possibilities my health problem will turn out to be, it's more like a puzzle that needs solving and I can't relax until it's solved.
And I know that once that has been solved my brain will move, quite arbitrarily, onto something else. More often than not it's based on something someone has asked me that I've not known the answer to or something someone has mentioned in passing that I know nothing about.
It's like a compulsion to research.
Another example, last year was the 25th anniversary of a significant landmark in my town and there were lots of related events. Someone asked a simple question about the construction and nobody seemed to know the answer so I started researching. Within a week I'd obtained blue prints and learnt a lot about the design, tracked down historical photos and people who might have leads and started piecing it together. I go to ridiculous lengths to understand. I spent a few days learning to interpret blue prints and went down a whole rabbit hole of how the government grants were allocated, the construction firms were selected etc. I also researched the people who were leading the process, became fascinated by a town councillor, no longer alive, who was very active at the time and his career.
And then, I casually mentioned to the person who'd asked the question that I'd looked into it and told them the answer to their question. To which they responded "that's intetesting" and then changed the subject! They clearly had no interest in all the related information I'd acquired. so, i just file away what I"ve learnt and move on, it's unlikely to ever be useful information.
is this a common autistic trait or something else? it's exhausting! Anyone have any tips for switching this off? I can distract myself for a couple of hours but it's an effort.
I get obsessively curious about a subject and end up researching.
current obsessive researching is a health problem. It's not health anxiety. I'm not anxious about which of the many possibilities my health problem will turn out to be, it's more like a puzzle that needs solving and I can't relax until it's solved.
And I know that once that has been solved my brain will move, quite arbitrarily, onto something else. More often than not it's based on something someone has asked me that I've not known the answer to or something someone has mentioned in passing that I know nothing about.
It's like a compulsion to research.
Another example, last year was the 25th anniversary of a significant landmark in my town and there were lots of related events. Someone asked a simple question about the construction and nobody seemed to know the answer so I started researching. Within a week I'd obtained blue prints and learnt a lot about the design, tracked down historical photos and people who might have leads and started piecing it together. I go to ridiculous lengths to understand. I spent a few days learning to interpret blue prints and went down a whole rabbit hole of how the government grants were allocated, the construction firms were selected etc. I also researched the people who were leading the process, became fascinated by a town councillor, no longer alive, who was very active at the time and his career.
And then, I casually mentioned to the person who'd asked the question that I'd looked into it and told them the answer to their question. To which they responded "that's intetesting" and then changed the subject! They clearly had no interest in all the related information I'd acquired. so, i just file away what I"ve learnt and move on, it's unlikely to ever be useful information.
is this a common autistic trait or something else? it's exhausting! Anyone have any tips for switching this off? I can distract myself for a couple of hours but it's an effort.
