Why do we obsess?

I do wonder whether it is true.............

Yes we obsess very narrowly about certain things, but the two most obvious features of autism are sensory difficulties, and poor social interaction due to eye contact.

One way of looking ar autism is to treat behaviours as the cause. Another way is to try to see some aspects of autism as effect.

It has often puzzled me that, growing up, I almost entirely avoided the social culture of my peers. I knew little about contemporary music or pop stars or film idols etc. I seemed to make life difficult for myself by not doing all the things that could have connected me with my peers. I had very solitary interests in which I was mostly absorbed, but which amplified my isolation and created friction with peers.

Even when I took up collecting stamps it was for all the wrong reasons, I was intrigued by the patterns around the edges of Victorian stamps.

Now I had no diagnosis to grow up with. I've spent years analysing these things from a perspective that wasn't informed by knowledge of autism.

One of the things that puzzles me is not that I get very absorbed with narrow interests, but they are unconventional and do not support interaction with peers.

You see my perception of NTs is they obsess just as much, except their obsessions don't seem as obvious because they are shared obsessions. Humans seem to be designed to focus intensely on things but tend to do the things that help them integrate socially, or are directly linked in to social survival.

NTs not only watch football, they know the life details of all the players in their football teams. They store up huge amounts of detail from games - young people now use software to play and replay games to what seem to me to be absurd lengths. People obsess about pop stars, know every aspect of their lives and music, can sing all the songs of a favourite group. They watch favourite film characters in all their films and can talk endlessly about every aspect. Some can strip down motor car engines for hours on end.

I don't think that autism obsession is any different from NT obsession, except it doesn't lead to social interaction but rather to lonely pursuit.

So my not following the culture of my peers, while counter-productive, may have rather been that because I didn't socially integrate, and didn't therefore benefit from shared obsession, I didn't need to take these up, and indeed did not understand them.

At the present time eye contact and sensory issues are seen as peripheral issues. The explanation of autism is some mystery different wiring. What if eye contact and sensory difficulties are in fact pivotal and the primary cause?

That prevents social integration and benefit from social interconnection. And therefore focus, and resistance to change/need for routine, and other such characteristics, are rather the biproducts of poor eye contact and sensory issues.

But that sort of thinking - or rethinking of autism - aint gonna happen in my lifetime. The experts have decided they are right, so we carry on as before, talking about different wiring. Might as well suggest we come from another planet..... 

I do wonder whether it is true.............

Yes we obsess very narrowly about certain things, but the two most obvious features of autism are sensory difficulties, and poor social interaction due to eye contact.

One way of looking ar autism is to treat behaviours as the cause. Another way is to try to see some aspects of autism as effect.

It has often puzzled me that, growing up, I almost entirely avoided the social culture of my peers. I knew little about contemporary music or pop stars or film idols etc. I seemed to make life difficult for myself by not doing all the things that could have connected me with my peers. I had very solitary interests in which I was mostly absorbed, but which amplified my isolation and created friction with peers.

Even when I took up collecting stamps it was for all the wrong reasons, I was intrigued by the patterns around the edges of Victorian stamps.

Now I had no diagnosis to grow up with. I've spent years analysing these things from a perspective that wasn't informed by knowledge of autism.

One of the things that puzzles me is not that I get very absorbed with narrow interests, but they are unconventional and do not support interaction with peers.

You see my perception of NTs is they obsess just as much, except their obsessions don't seem as obvious because they are shared obsessions. Humans seem to be designed to focus intensely on things but tend to do the things that help them integrate socially, or are directly linked in to social survival.

NTs not only watch football, they know the life details of all the players in their football teams. They store up huge amounts of detail from games - young people now use software to play and replay games to what seem to me to be absurd lengths. People obsess about pop stars, know every aspect of their lives and music, can sing all the songs of a favourite group. They watch favourite film characters in all their films and can talk endlessly about every aspect. Some can strip down motor car engines for hours on end.

I don't think that autism obsession is any different from NT obsession, except it doesn't lead to social interaction but rather to lonely pursuit.

So my not following the culture of my peers, while counter-productive, may have rather been that because I didn't socially integrate, and didn't therefore benefit from shared obsession, I didn't need to take these up, and indeed did not understand them.

At the present time eye contact and sensory issues are seen as peripheral issues. The explanation of autism is some mystery different wiring. What if eye contact and sensory difficulties are in fact pivotal and the primary cause?

That prevents social integration and benefit from social interconnection. And therefore focus, and resistance to change/need for routine, and other such characteristics, are rather the biproducts of poor eye contact and sensory issues.

But that sort of thinking - or rethinking of autism - aint gonna happen in my lifetime. The experts have decided they are right, so we carry on as before, talking about different wiring. Might as well suggest we come from another planet.....