@Elliot-Over the years it's been different things. I've had different interests, lifetime goals, my interests have been narrow--recovery, psychology, books, music, etc.....But I think what I really get caught up in is other people and why things are like they are. I sometimes want answers when there are none. For the last couple of years I've focussed on information to get healthy and exercise and to learn more about Aspergers.....
@Kevin, at times I look people in the eyes, usually my gaze isn't long and I think it's not trusting and rejection. I've been bullied a lot and made of and I'm guarded sometimes. What I will notice is that often other people tend to not make eye contact with me and ignore me.

Elliot, on the question of obsessing and not letting go, it is something that I struggle with every day. I am the most annoying person in the world to watch a movie or a TV show with; anytime I am watching a movie or TV show and I see a flaw or some technical detail that was overlooked by everyone else, I have this overwhelming desire to point it out to everyone. This goes for plot errors, wardrobe or continuity errors, and my favorite is scientific oversights or impossibilities.

I constantly notice errors or flaws in everything around me, they come to my mind automatically. This makes me annoying to be around since I have a very strong desire to point out these things I always notice. I am perceived as being a negative person since I always notice mistakes or I always point out problems with any suggested idea. I think this way instinctively, I cant help but to notice all these things, I just have to decide to keep my mouth shut most of the time so I dont annoy everyone around me. This trait does make me an excellent problem solver - so there is a good side to my obsessive behaviors.

@Kevin

Same here with movies, though I'm probably not nearly as perceptive as you when it comes to noticing minute flaws, though I'm extremely critical of movies, in fact, its one of my favorite things to do, I have an elaborate 5-star rating system that use to evaluate a film based on things like visual appeal, acting prowess, premise, plot, and general "re-watch-value", as I call it. Sometimes a movie will actually be so bad I'll get mad or start to feel bad, and my mom is like "it's just a movie".

I don;t know if I'm "afraid" to look at people or not, but it often makes me uncomfortable, and with what you said about the areas of the brain responsible for negative feelings being stimulated, perhaps fear does play a role.

@mamamoe

I also obsess over people, for the past few years I've been obsessing over one person in particular, trying to figure out why
what happened happened, what's wrong with them, why they do what they do, how much of what they said/say is/was true...

Hi Elliot, I am glad I am not the only one who is overcritical of movies. I have heard "Its just a movie...." many times, the same for TV shows. Many times when it comes to a scientific error in the movie, I will look it up on Google to prove it to whomever I am with, it happens so often that they make a joke of me with it (they pretend to disagree with me even though they do agree, they only admit their initial agreement after I look it up).

The problem for me is that I do this with everything, not just movies. I dont know why, but whenever an idea is mentioned or basically any suggestion or situation is discussed, the first thing that comes to my mind is every possible problem or complication that may arise and need addressing. At work this trend makes me sound like the most negative person possible, although the truth is that I agree with many ideas, I just happen to foresee any problems that may need addressing ahead of time.

Do you normally notice things that would be seen as negative, such as mistakes or flaws in almost everything you do, or do you just do this with movies. With me, I dont try to do this, I dont put conscious effort, it is like my subconscious mind does the analysis for me and feeds all the problems into my conscious thought - they just "come to me automatically". It can be very overwhelming at times, very distracting, noticing details like this takes away from the experience in many situations. I have a hard time enjoying things in general, all because of my "awareness' of all the minute details and/or flaws of the situation or experience.

In regard to your movie watching, does your habit of being overcritical of movies take away your ability to enjoy watching them? Do you instinctively do that to movies, or do you have to intentionally look out for the characteristics that concern you?

Well, a little bit of both, I think. It's like this: when watching a movie, I may notice something that drastically affects the logic of the plot or overall feel of the movie, and it may or may not hamper my ability to enjoy the rest of the movie; I think "well, there goes the realism angle", and I tell myself "suspension of disbelief", but it doesn't really work, and I always think to myself "scratch 2 two stars...". I'll also really like some movies and when I find people who don't, I'll think less of them for it, like "they must be stupid not to like such a great movie".

I definitely think of all the faults with something I do, this probably goes hand in hand with my cognitive dissonance and alexithymia, but not always with things that don't concern me (perhaps because I'm less interested?). Since I spend a significant time thinking about religious and philosophical things (and their synthesis with rational scientific thought) I end up feeling anxious because I tend to see gaps that can't be bridged, and I also look at familiar passages from the Bible and think "is that really what it means? It seems like it could be talking about something else". This isn't a bad habit when it comes to exegesis, but I also do it when people speak to me: I expect them to say what they mean within the confines of the language we're speaking, being English, and if they don't, I may get confused and have to ask them what it is they mean if they don't use proper grammar, substitute words like "thing" for something specific...the list goes on.