Are Obsessive interests bad?

Written on 29th Apr 2014 by Alex Lowery

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I have already written an article describing how Obsessions come into autism, as well as talking about all of my past Obsessions. You can view that article here. However, I’ve been thinking about obsessions a bit lately, and thinking about whether they are good or bad. I do know of some people who don’t think obsessions are good things to have, and there are others who think they’re good! I did go into my thoughts on this a little bit in my obsessions article, but there are some more things I’d like to add, so I decided to add them in this new article. Note – that I’m not talking about Obsessive Compulsions. I’m just talking about Obsessive interests.

 

I’ll start by talking about the negatives of having Obsessive interests. When you have an Obsession, you tend to enjoy talking about it for hours, which may be fun for you, but really boring for anyone who you’re talking to, who isn’t interested, and you may be completely bored by any ordinary conversation. This can be a rather major disadvantage when you want to interact with people. Having Obsessions can also interfere with functioning to a certain extent. Because I find that I’m thinking about my Obsessions so often that it can be hard to think about other things that I’m meant to be thinking about at a particular time. So this can be really hard going, and if not careful can even take over someone’s life.

Even though having Obsessions has many disadvantages, I do feel like it does have its advantages too! When you have an Obsession, you often have a very high level of knowledge or ability in that particular subject. So this can mean that you can be a great person to ask if someone has questions about the particular subject. Having an Obsession can also mean that you’re very gifted at something, so therefore use your gift to your advantage, but I go into this a lot more in my other article about Obsessions, so in order to avoid repeating myself, I won’t say any more about that.

As you’ve probably gathered, having Obsessions is quite a mixed bag. But the question is, overall are Obsessive interests good, or should they be removed? My thoughts on this are similar to my thoughts on Stimming. I think Obsessions have their place. As I said previously, having Obsessions do give a person a great and unique focus on a particular subject, which maybe could potentially lead to a career (like my Obsession with autism has). Also, it’s important to remember that those with autism will likely find everyday life stressful and confusing, and having an interest which they can fixate on, means that there is some joy in life. It’s very hard for me to explain what I’m trying to say here. I know that life is very hard for me personally, and having an Obsession that I can think about and talk about can be good. I’m finding my business to be quite hard work, and even stressful sometimes, and having Obsessions that I can look forward to looking into can be a good way of distressing. Part of having autism is to have difficulty with focusing on more than one thing at once, where as the majority of people have an ability to focus on the big picture. Because autistic people tend to have a lack of focus on the big picture, there mind will be more focused on specific subjects, and my theory is that it is for that reason why we have Obsessions. Having an Obsessive interest is a part of how an autistic person’s mind works, and to remove it would cause high levels of stress and anxiety. But one thing I’d just like to make perfectly clear is, even though I don’t think Obsessions should be stopped, that doesn’t mean I don’t think they should be handled. It’s still important for those with autism to learn about other things, and not to let the Obsessive interests take over their lives. It’s important for them to be managed to the point were the Obsession can be there, but at a time and a place.

They were my thoughts on this! I think Obsessions when managed, can actually be an advantage. Please leave a comment with your thoughts. Thank you!

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