Have you ever tried to tone down your special interest?

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You bet...

Oddly enough, I think that pointing out obsessions and even trying to control them has more to do with the people that you are around than yourself. If you have someone that is caring and supporting, then it is no longer an obsession, it is part of your personality and who you are. If you are around people that are judging you for it or trying to (covertly or overtly) change that about you, then you are more likely to want to try and change or curb it. But for me, since I stopped communicating with people face to face several years ago, there is no reason to even notice any personal obsessions. I just do what I want and when I want. So, while I would rather have someone support me for once, I think that there is also value in just not caring what other people think of your focus and doing your own thing. Perhaps I have grown too cynical, but it's the only solution I've found thus far in the first 30 odd years.

I never stopped loving vamps - but I learned to keep it really quiet. To some degree, though, this helps as I'm less likely than other Aspies to accidentally talk too much about them.

Long term interest topic

I have had my main interest for going on 43 years.

It will be with me until I have breathed my last.

I just saw on my news channel that Miep Gies, who sheltered Anne Frank and her family for 2 years in the annex of Anne's father's factory and who preserved Anne's diary until made widely known, has just passed away at the age of 100.

Wow, really?
I remember seeing her in a special within the last few years and being amazed at how well age treated her.

I once decided to have a vacation at my aunt's house and to make it totally Sonic-free. Nope, she had a video game magazine on the back of her toilet with Sonic on it, I swear! :lol:

Yes, but there was nothing they could do. My parents tried to remind me that sometimes it's nice to talk about something other than meerkats but if I wasn't allowed to talk about meerkats, I didn't talk at all. They soon gave up and they too became meerkat experts.

Phycologists and teachers on the other hand were less than accepting. Meerkats weren't always my dominant obsession, but I always had one wither it be manatees or Lion King. Some phycologists suggested my parents limit my acess to anything related to them or even take everything related to them away. If they had done so, it would have killed me. If a phycologist even once suggested something like that, my parents cancled all future appointments. My family, with the exception of this one brother, have always been accepting twoards my special intrests. The one brother had to do a report on AS for a school assignemnt and he's been a little nicer but still dosen't quite get it.

My parents always taught me not to go along with the crowd and if I liked something alot, I should persue it. I was taught not to worry about what others thought and that they in fact were probably just jelous that they did not have the ability to focus on one thing like I do.

Why should I worry if my special intrest in meerkats offends people? If someone was offended by meerkats, I think they would be the one with a problem. Their are lots of things I could be obsessed with instead of them such as sex or drugs and yet in this sick society that seems to be perfectly okay. If people are annoyed by my meerkats, they can get lost as far as I'm concerned. Meerkats are what makes me me and I don't care what anyone else says. I liked meerkats LONG before Meerkat Manor became so popular and HATE Meerkat Manor for making it suddenly "cool" to like them, so please don't assume I like Meerkat Manor)

Quite a few times, but my interests are very much a part of who I am, so I wasn't very successful in getting rid of them.

Well, as far as sock creatures are concerned, I eventually suffered from a really bad case of burnout...So I literally have not been able to functionally complete a sock creature in months. I have gone through a few burnout phases...but I still compulsively collect socks...and other sewing supplies.

I am an avid doll collector..and in my early teens i tried to phase out a lot of that stuff because I realized how childlike I was and I was trying to "grow up"..I still have them, but I put them into storage...

Now I have a huge collection on display...but none of my original ones..there have been depressed times when I have foolishly given some away, and I am still haunted by them....like my mint Arranbee Debuteen doll with the real fur coat....and the time I drunkenly gave a scary vintage baby doll to the female lead singer of a band......her name was Ennis.....
I still miss her.

I was actually just saying this, in the special interests thread. I love my special interests and they are very much a part of my life and who I am. But I'm starting to feel a little out of control with them lately. I watched CSI all evening before an important interview and was totally unprepared. I'm supposed to be working on a paper - about one of my other special interests actually - but I have become really intensely into House and can't stop watching and researching it. I'm wasting time.

Yeah, all the time.

No never. My interests help me learn. Like I've developed a recent interest in modern European history. And stuff like Napoleon, France, Italy, Russia.
Even my interests in random crap like motorcycles.
My interests are usually of educational stuff or things you'd learn in school or college.
So I try to get more into those.
As for non-educational subjects such as movies, tv shows, etc well those are still beneficial for me in that I learn more about film or I learn more about people and real-world situations and I come up with new ideas.

The only few interests I've had that had absolutely no benefit for me were things like chess, leather journals, rings (like fancy cool looking rings), dice, etc.

No, but I do get laughed at for having obsessions. My mum calls them phases.

I've never been told to tone down my special interests, and I never would if I were asked to do so. My special interests are the only true source of joy in my life. They comfort me and make me feel useful. My mom and best friend don't mind me rambling on and on, non-stop, about my special interests. They know how much I love to talk about them, and I think they find it amusing. I only discuss my special interests in depth with people who I'm really close with and who I know will actually pay attention. I hate when I bring up my special interests and the person doesn't listen attentively. This makes me feel like they're shunning my interests, and that's just as bad as coming right out and bashing them in front of me.
-OddDuckNash99-

I used to have a huge collection of ponies (like My Little Ponies, but they weren't made by the same company. I got them all from a car-boot sale). But in Year 2 I had a really bossy friend who told me to get rid of them all because "I do not approve of pink ponies" (those were her exact words). Even my favourite one which had a rainbow mane.

As for toning down my current obsessions: my main obsession at the moment is languages, and why should I want to tone it down? The more obsessed I am, the better I'll learn them, and that's a good thing.

I once had an interest in electronics, and still do to some extent. My parents wanted me to tone it down, but I didn't want to, and the result was a fight. I never understood why they wanted me to tone down this interest. The excuse they gave was I needed to balance my activities more, which meant drop what I'm doing to go swimming when my sister wants me to. I never quite understood that, as she never had to drop her interest, reading), for anything I wanted to do because reading for many hours at a time wasn't balance.

I put others have told me to for this reason, but that doesn't mean I did, or at least fought back.