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Fixation/obsession

Bex

Hi everyone,

I’m not sure where to post this, but thought this seemed like the right place.

I’m keen to explore link between neurodiversity/ASC and developing in fixation or obsessive thoughts about other people. This has been something I have done from an early age and it’s continued throughout into adulthood. This has impacted on my mental health and to the point of being unable to attend school and later go to work. This has impacted immensely on my mental health and ability to have relationships.

I understand there is a link between fixation and attachment, but I’m intrigued to understand that if a person could become a ‘special interest’? Where there is a compulsion to need to know everything about someone?

Parents

  • Hi.

    Having a dedicated interest in a certain person is common for us as autistics, especially PDA’ers. (Persistent Drive for Autonomy, also known as ‘Pathological’ Demand Avoidance).

    I think it makes sense for autistics, especially PDA’ers as if you know everything about a person it helps to create more predictability of their actions/potential demands on you and therefore reduce the likelihood of a threat response.

    If you want to learn more about the PDA’er autistic experience and interests in certain people please visit Kristy Forbes YouTube channel or website:

    https://youtube.com/@KristyForbes?si=ilMmUv9bNgNuhk84

    https://www.kristyforbes.com.au/

    More often than not, us autistics do not find ‘safe’ people who genuinely understand us and encourage us to be authentically autistic. So when we find a ‘safe’ person I think it makes sense for us to want to know everything about them. We just want genuine connection.

    Also, in terms of having dedicated interests focused on certain people this makes sense as humans are very complex and fascinating beings. After all, one of our natural instincts is deep dive on topics we love (monotropism) so why wouldn’t we do that with other humans.

    If you want to learn about the reason for our deep interests and many other aspects of autistic cognition you can read more about this on the website below:

    https://monotropism.org/

     I hope these explanations help!

Reply

  • Hi.

    Having a dedicated interest in a certain person is common for us as autistics, especially PDA’ers. (Persistent Drive for Autonomy, also known as ‘Pathological’ Demand Avoidance).

    I think it makes sense for autistics, especially PDA’ers as if you know everything about a person it helps to create more predictability of their actions/potential demands on you and therefore reduce the likelihood of a threat response.

    If you want to learn more about the PDA’er autistic experience and interests in certain people please visit Kristy Forbes YouTube channel or website:

    https://youtube.com/@KristyForbes?si=ilMmUv9bNgNuhk84

    https://www.kristyforbes.com.au/

    More often than not, us autistics do not find ‘safe’ people who genuinely understand us and encourage us to be authentically autistic. So when we find a ‘safe’ person I think it makes sense for us to want to know everything about them. We just want genuine connection.

    Also, in terms of having dedicated interests focused on certain people this makes sense as humans are very complex and fascinating beings. After all, one of our natural instincts is deep dive on topics we love (monotropism) so why wouldn’t we do that with other humans.

    If you want to learn about the reason for our deep interests and many other aspects of autistic cognition you can read more about this on the website below:

    https://monotropism.org/

     I hope these explanations help!

Children
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