What Were Your Past Obsessions?

[Madame Catfish]

Molecular Structure, Forensic Science, the Maya (both modern and ancient), Microbiology, Star Trek, Rubik's Cubes, and String

 

[tlc]

I'm sure I'm missing some things but here goes the things I was really obsessed about for any length of time.

From age 2 - tearing apart TVs, typewriters, appliances
From age 5 - everything to do with cars. Wiping off headlights and taillights on all cars, messing with them and killing the battery. Trying to figure out what all unlit dash lights did in all cars and what color they were. How front wheel drive systems worked. Shifters and boots, gears. Grandpa built me a set of gears and shifter when I was 5 but it wasn't realistic enough because it didn't have a rubber piece that held it into its gears. Later on age 29 this time it was motorhome lights and trying to figure out what all they used from different car makers.
Also from age 5 - suspension bridges and draw bridges. Grandpa made me a working drawbridge complete with crossing gates which I stilll have. (Yes I'm certain Grandpa was an aspie based on all I've found.) A huge collection of locks and keys. Trains. Legos, not the Legoland stuff but all the mechanical and gear blocks. Still have them.
Age 6 or 7 - tried to collect every one of the Spartan metal spice cans.
Loved the TV show Macgyver.
Then it was house construction, imagining how everybody's stairway went, whether their upstairs rooms had slants, how the plumbing went. Imagining how a house looked on the inside from what I saw on the outside.
Age 13 it was the GM dustbuster vans (Trans Sport, etc.).
Age 15 for many years it was the music group Wilson Phillips. Also astronomy and 1992 was a year that many planets lined up. Also bass guitars, and within 3 years I got one, bought a better one, and then designed and built my own 6 string fretless. Still play.
Lots of things here and there. Like collecting all these computer parts for absolutely no reason, just the urge to do it. Watching looped programming like NASA or Patient or even Create.
Since age 3 I was into the back roads and Grandpa tried but couldn't get me lost. These days it's my turn and I go explore different roads every chance I get because I have to find out what they look like and where they go.
Maybe 5 years ago I started on organs and especially wanted to figure everything out about how a real Hammond worked. Now I'm taking the parts from two free Kimballs and the schematics and making a synthesizer.

 

[Spinosaurus kin]

Dinosaurs till 12-ish?
Lego till 13-ish?
Could not leave the house without wearing camouflage form 12-15
Gaming since 8
Mathematics and science have always been things of interest.

 

[Vanilla]

As a kid, I used to be obsessed with (and in some cases, still am):

• Cartoons/ Movies
• Drawing/ Colouring-In/ Clay modelling/ Photography
• Animals, dinosaurs, mythological creatures
• My bicycle - used to come home and ride that thing for hours with my dog
• My dog, and various others pets (including turtles, rabbits, and mice)
• Nintendo 64
• My dad's old DOS-operated computer

 

[Blade_Runner]

Here's a list from when I was 16 and younger:

-Frank Sinatra

-Dorian Gray

-Action Men

-Frogs

-Reading (biographies, children's classics and non-fiction)

-Playing football

-Everything army

-Old Time Radio (Suspense, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Let's Pretend)

-Building things (Meccano and lego)

-Whittling sticks

-Taking things apart (CD players, laptops and basically anything that had screws)

 

[Warwick C]

I like your last one Blade runner I may have been the same.

A funny story about my younger brother, One day she walk in to the garage to find my brother taking the wheels off her car, he had already taken two off some how and was working on the third wheel when she walk in

 

[rollerskate]

JoSo many I'm sure I can't list them all. Some....

Animals. I don't mean just knowing their names and stuff about them. I had to know all their scientific categories as well and why they had them. I had to understand why they had the attributes they did... Their environments... How they fit into their ecosystems... Etc. Had I stuck with it, I have no doubt I'd probably be insane by now.

The human body... Naming all the parts and their functions, knowing all about the various things that could go wrong with them, the symptoms, treatments, etc.

Etymology

Microbiology

Psychology

Cultures

Religions

The bible. I don't mean just knowing it in the typical quote sense. The history, culture, literal translations... I learned ancient Greek and some Hebrew just so I could do my own translating.

Pharmacology

Assassination/spying/covert ops/extraction/etc

Parapsychology

History/humanities

Behavioral science

Earth science

Biology

Meteorology

Pi (um, yes, I'm serious, I just focused on pi for an entire year)

Art

Writing

Journalism

Social science

Technology

Personal care (hair care, skin care, make up, etc, not just it's general use but the entire science behind it... Ingredients... I spent a fortune making my own specialized formulas too)

Graphics/photography

Design

Theater/musical theater

Tennis

Classic literature

I have a feeling this list is getting pretty long so I'll stop there, hehe

 

[Vanilla]

JoSo many I'm sure I can't list them all. Some....

Animals. I don't mean just knowing their names and stuff about them. I had to know all their scientific categories as well and why they had them. I had to understand why they had the attributes they did... Their environments... How they fit into their ecosystems... Etc. Had I stuck with it, I have no doubt I'd probably be insane by now.

The human body... Naming all the parts and their functions, knowing all about the various things that could go wrong with them, the symptoms, treatments, etc.

Etymology

Microbiology

Psychology

Cultures

Religions

The bible. I don't mean just knowing it in the typical quote sense. The history, culture, literal translations... I learned ancient Greek and some Hebrew just so I could do my own translating.

Pharmacology

Assassination/spying/covert ops/extraction/etc

Parapsychology

History/humanities

Behavioral science

Earth science

Biology

Meteorology

Pi (um, yes, I'm serious, I just focused on pi for an entire year)

Art

Writing

Journalism

Social science

Technology

Personal care (hair care, skin care, make up, etc, not just it's general use but the entire science behind it... Ingredients... I spent a fortune making my own specialized formulas too)

Graphics/photography

Design

Theater/musical theater

Tennis

Classic literature

I have a feeling this list is getting pretty long so I'll stop there, hehe

Wow, impressive list

 

[rollerskate]

Wow, impressive list

My five year old son mimics how I've always felt....

He says "I want to be an expert." If you ask him on what, he says enthusiastically, "on everything."

Initially I thought I may have not been Aspie because they say narrow interests as a symptom. It took me a while to realize they meant the way I zero in on one specific interest and obsess over it until I've exhausted all my resources, then move on to something new. Not necessarily one interest over a lifetime.

Kind of like a parasite that only eats knowledge.

 

[Vanilla]

My five year old son mimics how I've always felt....

He says "I want to be an expert." If you ask him on what, he says enthusiastically, "on everything."

Initially I thought I may have not been Aspie because they say narrow interests as a symptom. It took me a while to realize they meant the way I zero in on one specific interest and obsess over it until I've exhausted all my resources, then move on to something new. Not necessarily one interest over a lifetime.

Kind of like a parasite that only eats knowledge.

Haha, yeah, I thought the same thing. This behaviour is more typical for women with AS, rather than men. I do the same

 

[rollerskate]

Haha, yeah, I thought the same thing. This behaviour is more typical for women with AS, rather than men. I do the same

Good to know. I know my gender will be a challenge in diagnosis. I've read quite a bit about how the symptoms present differently in women.

 

[tlc]

My five year old son mimics how I've always felt....

He says "I want to be an expert." If you ask him on what, he says enthusiastically, "on everything."

Initially I thought I may have not been Aspie because they say narrow interests as a symptom. It took me a while to realize they meant the way I zero in on one specific interest and obsess over it until I've exhausted all my resources, then move on to something new. Not necessarily one interest over a lifetime.

Kind of like a parasite that only eats knowledge.

Yes that's always been me too. Not that I want to be an expert (I'm happier NOT being considered an expert because I know I am not perfect and I miss things). I just get so interested and can't seem to get off one thing till I've exhausted all resources or just get burned out. Then it's on to something else. My mom always called it having my phases.

 

[rollerskate]

I know before I learned to read I about drove my mom out of her mind asking why and how about everything...

Now he does it to me. And I understand how I made her feel PERFECTLY. There's been times I just gripped my head and whined "stop, please stop, I can't take any more, you're killing my brain..."

LOL

I can't wait until I can tell him to just Google it. Then, the living encyclopedia he calls mommy is going to be on the shelf. Every question... "I don't know. Google it."

The big problem is when he asks something I don't know, I can't stop thinking about it. And then he does off more questions about it, producing more lines of pondering in me until there's way too many roads to follow...

On the flip side, it's amazing to see him ask some crazy question on the bus that gets everyone around us curious and pulling out their smart phones to Google it and discuss their conclusions, LOL. To see all these ordinary people go theologian is quite amusing...

Last time it was "what is the origin of the word gazebo?"

 

[Kittily]

When I was very young it was the Disney movie The Lion King, since then I've been obsessed with things like RANDOM celebrities (not stalkerish, just a very strong interest I guess), books and fashion brands and stuff. I also went through a huge phase of gaming and my faves were (and still are) Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Keith]

Flags, sports logos, and sports uniforms. I still have those to an extent, but not as serious. I used to be fascinated by seventies logos from obscure hockey leagues, or flags from small provinces of Algeria or something.

Also: Adding teams to the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA in cities like Trenton, New Jersey or Akron, Ohio to the extent where each league would have like 200 teams.

I also liked looking at Auto Trader and wondering why Toyota Dealers were advertising Chevys and Chevy dealers were advertising Dodges, etc. I would obsess about how I would move so-and-so car to its proper dealership.

Also: Monster Trucks, mostly their designs

 

[meff]

I was just thinking about this the other day when putting together a list of my aspie traits. I remember my earliest being organ systems in human anatomy, mainly the digestive system. I don't know why, it just fascinated me. I've always fixated on animals, for the most part cats, but also dogs for a while, and now I really love birds and alpacas. As a preteen and up until recently I've just consumed webcomics nonstop. I started out with furry webcomics specifically, though over time my interests spread out into whatever else struck my fancy. I still bounce around between a few favorites. Drawing has always been my go-to obsession, though not so much anymore. I still draw, but not like I used to. When I was a kid I'd look up pictures of anime cat-girls obsessively, which was a pretty bad idea at times. Pop-up blockers and Safe Search did not come soon enough! Or at least our understanding of using them. I was obsessed with anime in general, but didn't really have the determination to watch much of it. And I was only really interested in shows with cat-like characters.

When I was very young it was the Disney movie The Lion King, since then I've been obsessed with things like RANDOM celebrities (not stalkerish, just a very strong interest I guess), books and fashion brands and stuff. I also went through a huge phase of gaming and my faves were (and still are) Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

OH MY GOD yes! The Lion King was very much the same for me, I was even on a fan art community and its associated message board for a while. For a while I was obsessed with Disney animation in general, I even used to want to work at Disney. I was also obsessed with Aladdin as a teenager (Jafar was my favorite lol). Since high school I've also developed interests in various actors, namely ones who play my character obsessions.

Also I love your sig, Kittily. Pink is awesome!

 

[Kittily]

OH MY GOD yes! The Lion King was very much the same for me, I was even on a fan art community and its associated message board for a while. For a while I was obsessed with Disney animation in general, I even used to want to work at Disney. I was also obsessed with Aladdin as a teenager (Jafar was my favorite lol). Since high school I've also developed interests in various actors, namely ones who play my character obsessions.

Also I love your sig, Kittily. Pink is awesome!

Wow, a fan art community! That sounds cool
I went to Disneyland Paris in January (not for the first time) and I was very much at home , hehe.

Thank you! I have a pink kettle, toaster and hoover. I LOVE PINK!

 

[rollerskate]

Do you consider becoming so fixated on an album, book, or movie that you learn the complete dialogue or lyrics an obsession?

If so I must say the phantom of the opera was a huge one for me. I memorized the musical, book, all the songs, and used to play act Christine by myself in my room by dressing up and singing with the soundtrack.

Another one has been everything to do with Sailor Moon.

Cruel intentions. I even knew the symbolic significance of all the costuming and back drops. And I've seen all the sequels.

Any rocky horror fans here also? Or shock treatment?

I'm going to shut up now. :-D

 

[MovieMike]

I used to be obsessed with drawing monsters. I drew hundreds of them, and in fact I still have about a hundred of them to this day. Some of them I even created backstories for.

And keeping with the theme of drawing, I sometimes drew complicated mazes. If I had an A4 sheet of paper, I could cover the entire thing with lines, forming these epic mazes. Then I'd give them to my mum to solve, and as soon as she hit a single dead end I would take it off her and say, "nope, you failed!" Needless to say, she never beat one of them.

Then theres a whole lot of other stuff, like how I got into a routine and watched the same shows on TV every day after school. You couldn't tear me away from the TV when I was little! And GTA games. I've played every GTA game, often pouring about 100 hours into each one. They were just so much fun! In fact it wasn't uncommon for me to spend a lot of time playing just one game in my youth.

 

[Cerulean]

Whales. Especially orcas. I used to have all kinds of stats memorized on different species when I was a kid.