Oversharing my interests (how not to)

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I have a problem wherected all I talk about is the same stuff that's boring to them or just part of there job. I don't do it for any sort of validation, just get super obsessed with my interests and it's all I allow myself to think about. Not sure if this is due to my autism or if it's a coping process I've turned to due to being a mostly secluded introvert growing up.

It's both, I think. I have so much passion for certain things that I assume others must at least be interested. But it's also true that I'm not a good conversationalist about general topics...so I probably learned to compensate socially by over-sharing the things I can talk about forever. I'm now trying to help my AS son understand this tricky issue--though I still have problems with it myself.

I have this problem to, but I think for me it was worse in middle/high school. I didn't really know what to say to people so I just talked about my special interests. When I was younger I didn't care much about what people thought about me and I found I was able to make friends who had the same interests. Now I understand how to keep them to myself and only bring them up when I think it is appropriate.

I still have some difficulties with this though and it gets in the way of making good conversation or getting to know someone, especially at my past jobs where I was working in a fields involving some of my favorite topics. I would talk to much at meetings and share a lot of facts and information, only for it to go over peoples' heads and make others feel bad or they would get really bored.

For me I feel it is part of my coping process and autism. I always turned to reading to deal with difficult situations and I spend a lot of processing and thinking about things. On the other hand I feel autism gives me this ability to hyper focus and enjoy learning complex topics.

I still have that problem and I’m 51. I guess it’s a matter of consciously catching yourself doing it and dialing it down a bit. I keep talking about vegetable gardening on work related Zoom meetings. I think at first my co-workers didn’t mind but I might be pushing it now.

If I did not share my special interests I would have nothing to talk about.