Getting totally obsessed with a interest/hobby?

[Lovemusic33]

I know I’m doing it, I try and stop myself but when I find a new found interest or hobby I get totally obsessed to the point I spend all day (and sometimes night) thinking about it, researching and learning about it or doing it if it’s an activity. I’m sure people get fed up with me talking about my latest hobby, posting about it on SM and not being sociable because I’m busy with my new found obsession. Sometimes I spend way too much money on my interests knowing how stupid it is and that I’m likely to move on to something else in 6 months/a year.

Some of my interests are pretty crazy (to other people) and possibly boring.

Does anyone relate to this? Is there a way of controlling things better and not becoming totally obsessed?

I tend to change my style and personality often, though I say often, probably every few years, though I would like to think now I have reached 40 and admitted that I’m not NT I have kind of found my style and what I like, though my hobbies and interests do still change (which is ok), I have given up trying to wear clothes to fit in, I did that for years and it was exhausting, I now wear what I like even if it’s not fashionable and even if others do think I look silly.

I think the hard bit is having to have the whole collection of something, having to get the newest design (like the bags for life), and this is what I’m struggling with most at the moment because my most recent interest/collection is very expensive (think £150-£500 each time) 😬, I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t need all of them and that I can’t afford it…..l.even though I really really want lots of them.

@Mummiepig

I know exactly what you mean, I feel like I don't have a personality, I just try and copy who ever I am with to fit in, I'm only me when I'm totally alone at home, and I'm really weird!!! The clothes thing was to fit in with other people like the joules and Jack wills, but I do feel the scandi is more me, but I do get odd looks when I'm out, when I'm home alone I put on a lovely bright outfit and think wow I look great I am Great, then I go out In the world and hate myself

I dress like a hippy but I often worry about what others think so sometimes I will wear ‘boring clothes’ to fit in. I have found new friends who share my style and life style and I love meeting up with them as I feel I can wear anything I like and be me. I hate that we all think we have to dress to fit in, I find what most people wear really boring compared to the clothes I would like to wear.

I went on a day trip to Glastonbury and all the shops had such amazing tie dye and bright clothes everyone looked so cool and unique I thought wow I wish I lived here and I could get a job in a crystal shop and not stand out like I normally do

Once I was on a national express coach wearing a pink unicorn jumper with a pink coat and pink rucksack and this woman kept giving me evils, I asked my daughter if I was imagining it and my daughter said she's definitely looking at you funny so she shouted really loud "maybe she doesn't like unicorns" she stopped looking then, wish I had her confidence

Funny you say that…me and my DD’s visit Glastonbury a lot, both my DD’s are diagnosed with ASD, my eldest always says she feels she can be herself there. We love how everyone is wearing what ever they like, brightly coloured clothing and people singing and doing art in the streets. It’s one of the few places where I can actually rest and switch off. Glastonbury is a little different at night though.

I would never move there, don't like change haha still live on the village I grew up in about half a mile from my childhood home!

Same 🤣

🤣🤣🤣

@Hawkins001

To be honest with me, I get drawn to new projects as I call them, then I'll research as much as possible about e.g. X topic, then after a while two options happen, either a new project idea happens or I get bored and start another topic, then it's rinse, new project and repeated.

Usually it's influenced from tv, or other people, or random ideas, myself ect

This is me I should be able to make it work for me in a good way, but when I lose interest, it's as if my brain has deleted the information.

I once handed in the same assignment twice at college. I had a job as well and between processing all the things, I literally didn't remember doing it the first time.

@Lovemusic33

Funny you say that…me and my DD’s visit Glastonbury a lot, both my DD’s are diagnosed with ASD, my eldest always says she feels she can be herself there. We love how everyone is wearing what ever they like, brightly coloured clothing and people singing and doing art in the streets. It’s one of the few places where I can actually rest and switch off. Glastonbury is a little different at night though.

I've never been but really want to.

@EmmaH2022

To help me, I write notes in a research journal as I call them, basically a folder with my notes on x topics in dividers,

So do I
It never really matters as I don't stick with projects till completion or whatever
Just till my brain jumps to the next thing
I am debating getting medication but I am not sure I can face it.

@EmmaH2022

So do I It never really matters as I don't stick with projects till completion or whatever Just till my brain jumps to the next thing I am debating getting medication but I am not sure I can face it.

For me , my cure would be more focus and quality rather than, theirs a pretty castle, I'll research that instead etc

I don't how to focus on focus IYSWIM. I really want to work on this. It seems to be getting much worse as I get older. I don't even notice the distraction happening.

Mostly TV shows and actors here. I've had the same obsessions since I was a child and they rotate, with new ones being added if they attract my attention.

I'm currently back on a show that aired in the early 80s that I loved when I was about 9. I'm watching the episodes, the films that the actors were in, the films that their partners/spouses were in, reading all the books/interviews, scouring for photos I haven't seen. All of the above. It takes up all my waking hours in some way, even at work I'm daydreaming. If I have time I write fanfic but I'm too busy at the moment!

And then one day, CLICK! That show shuffles off the main stage with no warning and another comes out of the wings and I immerse myself in that. I can't stop that happening, can't go back to the previous one because that section of my brain has closed down.

I've had to learn not to talk about any of it which is really hard, I'm so full of info!

I became obsessed with clothes brands which were worn by women in continental Europe for a good few years and would only buy clothes from them either new or second hand and I would spend hours looking for clothes from these .
My other obsessions are so niche and mainly involve a certain political family from the early 20th century a long dead monarch and her family and a sports team and I more or less rotate these interests over and over . I am incredibly secretive about my interests as well and I don’t really understand why .

I am incredibly secretive about my interests as well and I don’t really understand why.

I've noticed a few of us say that - in my case I'm private rather than secretive about them as I don't want to share them with anyone at home (DP does tend to take over and make out he's so much more intelligent than me - ahem, he's not). I always have been this way since childhood.