Crazes/obsessions

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Hi

i've just joined the forum. I wanted to ge a feel for other people's experiences of getting short (1-12 month) "crazes" for things, new hobbies, etc. Mine have involved vintage watch collecting, electronics repair, language learning, reinvigoration of university studies . All have involved an initial period of "full on" interest for about 1-2 months where I've bought loads of books, done lots of internet researc, etc. and have gradually "petered out". Is this a common theme on the spectrum, or is it just me?!

Thanks

hiya Nick welcome to our cool club
my obsessions are lifelong, not just infatuations of less than a year. Wurlitzer theatrical pipe organs [the kind at pizza and pipes and such] and audio restoration are two of mine. when I first got involved with astrology, I bought lots of books [1990] and did a lot of studying, then after a few years my ardor cooled off and I still read about it from time to time [as well as use a puter astrology program] but don't even remember much about the mechanics of it anymore.

Last edited by auntblabby on 14 Jun 2013, 5:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That sounds like me on certain subjects such as musical group, a computer game series, or a book series. For me, I get into a subject for about three months then the obsessions switches to a different one. I'm not sure if it's common for those on the spectrum or not.

For me, absolutely! I have some long-term obsessions that I cycle through in waves (Titanic, Harry Potter and space-related stuff are most prominent) while other things will be really intense, but short-lived (mainly TV shows, but i cycle through these too and generally feed an overall TV obsession).

Thanks for the warm welcome. Really interested in your replies. Yes - the "waves" thing is also familiar. I have a recurring thing where I decide I must really get into studying maths seriously again. Seems to come every couple of years. At least I don't have to buy the books again!

I Have a mix of lifelong passionate interests (astronomy, physics, painting) and shorter but equally intense interests. My cycle of shorter interests is longer than the OP's, though, as they typically last from 1.5 to 3 years. I don't ever really lose any of them--but they no longer become the thing that I really NEED to hyperfocus on and completely immerse myself in. Just another cool thing. I tend to retain a lot of the information I studied in the intense period, and that can be useful.

Special Interests have a purpose. Who knows what those purposes are.
Perhaps when we've got enough information about it in our heads, perhaps we're finished.
Is it any more wrong than not eating the exact same thing every night for years?
I doubt it.

Maybe we learn enough about it to realize it's not as interesting as we thought, or the interesting parts don't keep up with our learning.

No point in a foolish consistency.

My "crazed" or extreme interest or, call it what you will, is mathematics (I am only at the pre-calculus level though), then progressive rock music, or complex music. I also love cats, and like to learn of different breeds and temperaments of them. A craze of mine right now is ukuleles, since I am beginning to learn how to play.

I have two types of obsessions/extreme interests. Long-lasting ones (Formula One, The Little Mermaid and astronomy, for example) are strong interests that started out as intense obsession but lasted a long time, and I still read about and collect information on all the time. They're my 'default' interests. I also have shorter, more intense obsessions that last anything from 2-6 years- when I was a teenager, I was obsessed with French and Spanish and talked about them all the time, and spent more of my free time doing French/Spanish grammar exercises. That lasted for about 4 years, then I moved on to fairy tales in general (not just TLM) and Pink Floyd for about six years, and now it's running and David Bowie

My lifelong one is definitely drawing, and while I draw anything today, it used to be that i only exclusively drew monsters. I would also go through periods as a kid where I would only draw one thing repeatedly. I remember I had a pterodactyl for a while, then it was this griffin, then a dragon. Once I got a little older and better I drew more stuff.

In middle school and high school I was very obsessed with Disney Gargoyles. I would tape it on disney afternoon each day and kept them all on labeled VHS tapes. I also drew gargoyles pretty obessively. I still like it today but mostly just as an artistic inspiration. I also had a 2 year long Beatles phase, as well as a couple years of Mortal Kombat. And then by the end of high school I was obsessed with marching band.

Today, I still have drawing, as well as programming and following sports, particularly baseball. I also really really like cats.

In no particular order: social psychology, body language, the psychology of dating, reading fanfiction, writing poetry and music for voice and piano, diagnostic categories in the DSM, the holocaust, 9/11, nutrients in specific foods and foods highest in specific nutrients (eg. amount of iron, folate, ration of omega 3 to omega 6, vitamin A, C, B6, etc. in amounts and daily intake percentages of, say, 100g of cucumber compared with 1 cup of parsley), bra sizes (yes, sadly), inventing and building person traps, inventing rides, designing birthday cakes, different types of lollies (had that one for a long time - I used to spend hours looking at lollies and would try and find the most interesting ones I could - once found edible bubbles - you blew them and they floated around and you could actually eat them), collecting miniature tea cups, mathematical dot the dots, probability circles (where they overlapped and you had to colour in the area described by A' + B or something like that. I used to draw them up for myself and then solve them).

Those are some obsessions from off the top of my head.

those interests sound related to having high academic inteligence as opposed to being directly caused by the high functioning spectrum.
those of us on the spectrum who also have intelectual disability tend to have interests in things like;
disney,cartoons,sensory seeking,watching channels such as cbeebies for sensory input,general computer stuff,disabled sports,animals,going for walks,
arts and crafts,going out in the car/some form of transport,going to disabled discos,going to beaches etc,interests seem to be very sensory dependant.

have never had a short interest before, mine are disabled sport when can afford the sessions which isnt often;am an athlete at our local special olympics club,basic arts and crafts,cbeebies,going to formby beach near liverpool,animals,checking out different linuxes,pen testing using GUI programs/finding exploits for other people.

Absolutely! Mine tend to last a few months and then slowly get replaced by something else, but are often rekindled when I stumble across them again months later. Especially TV shows/actors. I get an obsession with an actor, buy everything they've been in and watch them all in a row, and then when I've finished I find another to start on. Thank bajeesus for Amazon or I'd be skint

Thanks everyone. That is interesting. I'd just wondered whether my tendency to pursue hobbies and then give them up and move onto the next thing was shared by others - looks like it is. And I agree that it can be expensive - I think i deliberately seek out hobbies which involve acquiring lots of special tools/books etc. to go with it - probably the enjoyment comes as much from the acquisition of these than it actually comes from putting them to use!

Once again thanks for sharing your own experiences with me.

Like the above it goes in cycles. As a young child it was cars (at age 3 or 4 I had glossy magazines of all the cars available at that time). I then collected transport timetables. The first teenage one was fascination with a rock band, filling out a ring binder with all of their tour dates and collecting bootleg tapes of their shows as well as all their unreleased material and reading every book I could find on them. I then progressed on to an obscure branch of sporting statistics that I spent 12 years or so doing and also working on a computer game as a researcher. In-between I collected a new favourite artist. I then changed to a different sport.

Last edited by mrbluesky on 15 Jun 2013, 3:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mine cycle like that as well.