Does anyone else go through phases/ obsessions?

[gottaloveascamhun]

Current one is too outing to mention but past obsessions have been:

Jewellery making
Planning my wedding
Baby wearing (sorry) / slings
Tried going vegan for a while
Tried going sober
Dry slope skiing
Ice skating
Choir
Batch cooking/ slow cooking everything

They last about 2-3 months before I lose interest. No harm has been done but I do feel like a bit of a twat for being so consumed by things 😆 please tell me I'm not alone.

Me too OP. Another one in the ADHD camp

Yes but I'm autistic.
Crochet
Watching stuff on television & spending ages Googling episode guides or info on characters & actors.
Reading books about WW2, I love romantic fiction about this period, my dad always told me stories about the war, his brother was shot down in Bomber Command. I read books & when they cover a real event I spend ages googling about it.

This is eye-opening for me as it describes my sister so well. She has these huge obsessions where she will hyper focus and won't talk about anything else. However when the obsession ends, it ends so completely that if you mention it again she looks at you like you've gone mad, as though you're bringing up something that happened decades ago, when actually she was banging on about it the last time we spoke. Does that sound like ADHD?

Yes it does happen to me. I was diagnosed autistic a few years ago.
I will obsess over something. A hobby or interest will come to me and practically take over my life. It lasts about 6-8 weeks and then drops off the radar. I'll just wake up one day and not be interested in it anymore.

Then something else will 'appear' and that'll be a main focus for me for a few weeks.

It's very exciting when it happens though. And I do get a lot of joy from it when I am interested so much in something (while it lasts).

powershowerforanhour · Today 00:31 Like, I'd start the O+Q hobby club for us and spend ages planning a logo for it, but we'd have to get a normal person to run it for us long term

Haha 😄

I'm like this - I thought everyone was but life experience suggests otherwise. I wonder how common it really is?
In RL I had an uncle like this but probably don't know anyone else other than him!

I tend to have "phases" like I'll do crochet for a while then put it away and move onto something else... but I'll always go back to crochet eventually. There aren't many things I discard to never return to.

Yep, but I have ADHD. They're current interests for me to hyperfocus on then lose all interest

This sounds super exhausting!

Also the stuff! Don't you have a load of stuff?

I like to keep lists.
Lists of subjects I find interesting (esp conspiracy theories)
Lists of every skincare product I have tried and whether it was any good or not.

Me too. I have a lot of blankets! They are my go-to gift for a major birthday.

It’s interesting to hear so many other people are similar! I’ve always thought of it as “normal human nature” but find it staggering that no one else I know does it to the same extent.

Has to be said, I’d much rather have these strong passions that make me happy and I enjoy rather than just be bored stuck in a rut. I’ve learned to be careful how much ££ I commit to spending.

No ADHD or ASD to my knowledge.

Yep... this is me! I can't just like something a normal amount! I have to be obsessed with it and then move on 😂

I’ve been like this my whole life. I won’t list my obsessions as they’re mainly decidedly niche and anyone who knows me well could identify me!

AFAIK I’m not autistic or do I have ADHD.

I always think this when I read threads about making kids stick at hobbies. Because I LOVE flitting between hobbies.

I read every day and write many days but that's as far an consistency goes. I love trying out new crafts, new cooking styles, new exercises etc. Then all of a sudden (generally after three months), I find them unbearably BORING.

My Personal Trainer helped me realise that the best way to manage my health was to recognise my "boredom points" and switch up when I hit them.

@D0lphine

I think it is exhausting, and often unproductive and can be expensive. The amount of bloody plants I’ve bought, and then they died. Dunno why I can’t just keep on top of things. I just…don’t. I can’t help
it. I don’t think it’s laziness or flawed character, I just can’t make myself stay engaged once the phase has passed. I do miss my drive though.

I’m mostly ok with stuff. I’m good at donating it, or selling it if I’m broke. I get a bit uncomfortable in busy or cluttered spaces and have to get them organised and peaceful again. I tend to get obsessed and want to read/research/discuss/experience things (thank goodness for online groups!). It’s better now you can Google. I used to acquire zillions of books about random things. Like you can just learn archery or to spin your own yarn out of a book….

My favourite was fasting. Fasting is as basic as it gets. You decide how long for, if you are going to drink water and clear fluids or not and then you don’t eat for that period of time. Simples. And there was me desperately trying to find blogs and articles and groups and immerse myself in how to do this thing that was just…..not doing anything! Even I thought it was ridiculous at the time. It was then I decided maybe this wasn’t quite…. usual. I can only describe it as like falling in love. You’re delirious, you think of nothing else, you want to just immerse yourself in this new thing. It doesn’t matter how you engage with it, so long as you do. Like it doesn’t matter what you do with a new boyfriend, so long as you’re with them. It fulfills every fibre of your being. Until one day, with no warning, it doesn’t and it’s just another man loafing around the place in his pants, farting and leaving his toenails on the coffee table and you wonder what you ever saw in him and have to the ‘it’s-not-you-it’s-me’ chat. (Oddly, it doesn’t seem to be that way with men. Same chap for twenty odd years until he died 6 years ago and I haven’t felt the need to replace him. That’s how it feels though)

I have a great deal of empathy for Toad of Toad Hall.

This describes me too - was a Sahm for quite a while, I always had an obsession and it only ever lasted about 3 months before another would invade my head. Have learnt a lot of skills…currently darning socks as I’m obsessing over visible mending - it’s very therapeutic!

ADHD here too. I flit from hobby to hobby and training course to training course.

Yes, this is very familiar. I’ve have lots of phases of being obsessed with one particular interest before moving onto something else. But I’m very ‘feast and famine’ generally- throw myself fully at something or not at all, unfortunately this has sometimes resulted in unhealthy obsessions for me (addictions).

I do suspect I may have ADHD for these and other reasons, but I don’t have a diagnosis so who knows. My DD wants me to have an assessment (she wants one too and yes, she shares a lot of my traits) but I’m not sure I need to know really. Over the years I’ve developed strategies to help my life run a bit more smoothly and encourage DD to do the same.

People will pay you to hire these for events!

Me. ADHD to thank for that.

I get obsessed with googling health conditions. Like instead of going to the doctor and saying I've been having headaches I'll start googling it and think I've got a life threatening condition and start reading survivors stories and everything. I'll usually also become preoccupied with a story in the news at the same time to take my mind off the stress of worrying about my health but obviously news stories are never good so it doesn't exactly improve my mood. Sometimes when I see this starting I buy a new book by an author I've liked before to break the cycle of googling and worrying.

I do it but not so much with hobbies as random topics- like once I was obsessed about having three children and read endless threads of people debating having a third baby, people who were one of three kids etc- I had only just had my first child so it wasn’t a pressing question personally I just felt like I had to know all about it!

Yes! It doesn't always have to be an activity. Just anything/anyone that grabs my attention. I love getting into rabbit holes and really researching/learning about things in a lot of detail.

Childbirth
The royal family
Princess Diana 🥴
Crochet
Certain podcasts
Certain shows / actors
Meal planning
Pressure cooking
Baking
Interior
Gardening

Thank heavens there are others like me who do this! ADHD bod checking in!

Things I now have an intimate working knowledge of thanks to hyper fixation (this is just a few, I’m nearly 50 so could be writing this all blooming day);
-crochet
-cross stitch
-nuclear physics
-puppetry & puppet making
-Spode Christmas Tree china
-electronics
-White Hat hacking (the nice hacking, not the naughty kind)
-nuclear engineering
-actually, all things nuclear if I’m honest
-gardening
-umpteen rabbit holes (mostly nonsense conspiracy theories, the only one I believe is Shakespeare wasn’t Shakespeare, it was a group of contemporary writers like the Earl of Oxford etc., this has been a topic of interest since being at Uni near to Stratford upon Avon studying drama a billion years ago lol)
-all things diabetes after being diagnosed recently
and a million more.

This is echoed in my working life. I have been (since I started an after school job at 14), in no particular order;
-dental extractions nurse
-electronics engineer (this is actually on my Marriage certificate lol)
-stage crew, working my way up to stage manager & chief tech
-I actually trained as a drama teacher at Uni, then went back to a different Uni to do tech theatre training
-an usherette
-a dish pig then assistant cook in a school kitchen
-a writer of adult cliterature
-a software developer
-a child actor chaperone (bit of a cheat here as my son was the child actor in question lol)
-a tutor on sets
-a puppeteer
-a prototype designer for new electronics projects
-and finally, I’m making specialist role playing equipment using 3D printers, lasers, resins & lots of fun, sparkly & paint-y things.

My husband calls me a bumblebee, flitting from flower to flower & he just supports me as I trundle on!

I hasten to add, I have never been fired, in fact I’ve always been kinda headhunted for all these jobs.

As an old tutor once said, specialisation is for insects.