Anxiety and obsessions

I go through a lot of intense anxiety, as well as depression, and generally I'll be worrying to death about things I know I don't need to worry about it, or which I should put aside for now and deal with later. People have always told me I should be able to do this - choose to worry about something later, or dismiss worries from my mind - but this seems utterly impossible to me. 

Is this part of the obsessive way an autistic mind works? I know I obsess over mundane things too which don't cause me anxiety but which I feel compelled to do, and also I get pleasure from obsessing over certain interests. Do we just have to accept this worry as part of the obsessiveness?

Parents
  • Hi Roguelife

    Everything you say is very common for us - but you can just look for new and more exciting things to nerd-out over - new hobbies and interests - the other stuff fades when it's replaced with something new and shiny.   

    The old obsessions sometimes pop back up - but that's part of life - it's all in cycles.  Smiley

Reply
  • Hi Roguelife

    Everything you say is very common for us - but you can just look for new and more exciting things to nerd-out over - new hobbies and interests - the other stuff fades when it's replaced with something new and shiny.   

    The old obsessions sometimes pop back up - but that's part of life - it's all in cycles.  Smiley

Children
  • I know the joy and release of discovering a new passion, but I feel like you can’t always find something intentionally, it’s more that I stumble across a new obsession from time to time. The last one was classic “Roguelike” video games (hence my alias), but I can still fall back on classical and guitar music, literature, sci-fi and fantasy, and all the old loves. Sometimes though I’m on a wave of anxiety or a trough of depression and guess I just have to ride it out.

    I’m glad to see others identify with what I’m talking about though, to know it’s not just me.