Intense object fixation/obsession

Post Reply New Topic

This is just a thread about object fixation/obsession - do you have object fixations? Do you not?

I've always had object fixations or obsessions - what I mean by this, is having a single object, or a few different objects at a time, that are valued above all others.

As a kid I remember it being a stuffed animal. Then I moved, and the day of the move, I suddenly -spur-of-the-moment- decided to not use it anymore, and I lost all attachment to it instantly, without any desire for it anymore.

Then for a long time I didn't have an object I was fixated on - but in the past few years one has developed - my J-Bass. Simply looking at it, even thinking about it, gives me a rush. Not exactly sure what it is - but it's a good feeling - sort of like being excited, but a bit different. It's unlike the stuffed animal fixation, in that I didn't have that when I thought about the stuffed animal, or looked at it.

This bass is the only instrument I've ever owned that has been named - it's an unusual name too, not one a human would probably have.

I don't care about its cosmetic appearance - which is actually quite beautiful right now - but whenever it gets dinged or anything like that I don't care, as long as it still plays normally. I'm also very familiar with the bass - I've rewired it, changed pickups, added shielding, changed the bridge, all sorts of work. It's fretless (the only one I have that was originally fretless), and I've converted two basses and one guitar to being fretless, so there's not much damage that could be done to it that I couldn't fix myself. With the stuffed animal, any tiny little bit of damage to it made me freak out.

Just looking at the bass, thinking about it, causes me excitement and very often makes it very hard to focus on tasks other than playing bass. Music is my primary special interest, and I feel the bass being an implement of making music - a tool for my special interest - has made my object fixation with it include the excitement.

Does anyone else fixate on objects like that?

I had a Danelectro bass and we shared some amazing times.

For the last 6 years for me it has been a hot water bottle cover in the shape of a sheep. It got worn through completely and I went into a complete panic and didn't sleep properly or eat properly for days until I found another one online and bought it. Then I worried I wouldn't get attached to the new one like I did with the old one but I have, although I felt very guilty about the old one. I'm aware of how completely ridiculous this is for a 26 year old woman. I also feel very anxious about anything I am attached to and don't like other people touching it and worry that something will happen to it.

I've also got a metal statue of a hare that I am very attached to, just looking at it makes me happy. I don't feel any attachment to things like jewellery in the way other girls seem to.

I felt things like that a lot with the stuffed animal - just guilty whenever something on it would wear out. I repainted the eyes many times on it, because the original paint wore off, and then the replacement eventually wore off, etc.

With the bass, I've literally chucked it across my room during meltdowns and I don't feel any guilt - because I know I'll be able to repair any breaks to it - but I feel guilty when I neglect it for another instrument - like when I need to play synth a lot to practice for a show with the band I do a lot of synth stuff for. Often I have trouble practicing songs for the bands I'm in, because I'd rather be playing whatever I feel like on my bass, rather than playing the songs on whatever instrument.

Recently, I acquired a 1990 Gibson Les Paul Studio, and - as would be expected with me when I get a new instrument - I've been playing it practically constantly since I got it. But I keep feeling guilty because I'm not playing my j-bass - the special-interest-related excitement for the new guitar (literally the best guitar I have ever owned - like my bass, it feels like it was made for me when I play it) is competing and clashing with the obsession with my bass. I have so much excitement over the new guitar, playing it, but it's making me feel guilt for neglecting the bass.

I am obsessed with my bunny slippers. I have two pairs of bunny slippers that I wear during different times of year. I felt terribly sad when I put away my pink bunny slippers for the winter to wear my gray bunny slippers for the summer. I also have the desire to acquire moar bunny slippers, but not all bunny slippers meet my high eggspectations of quteness. This post probably sounds like a joke, but I am being completely serious. I love and am obsessed with my bunny slippers and bunny slippers in general.

I have a big soft cuddly Chick, which I'm very attached to. Her name is Chickee. If I'm nervous I put her in my bag and take her with me, and she always comes with me to see my psychiatrist.
I have others of the same type of Chick toy, but am only attached to my current one. I don't care about her appearance - her fur is a bit matted now, and she's turning grey. But I won't wash her because then she won't be the same.
I also have a soft cuddly cat that is threadbare and has many holes, but I can't sleep without her.

I did that too, lots of painting on of eyes and brushing of fur. I know what you mean by the guilt. I understand that feeling of being torn between a new and exciting special interest and the old, familiar things.




It doesn't sound like a joke, that makes perfect sense to me. I am the same, when I like something I want to have lots of them just to be 'safe', but like you I am quite picky.




Sometimes if work is really stressful I take my Piglet toy to work in my handbag and when I'm on my break I can put my hand into my bag and hold onto it, without anyone noticing. I can't sleep without a stuffed toy.

Not for a long time now.

I was very attached to my teddy bear, and still find the idea of throwing him away unthinkable. I was also beside myself with grief when I forgot to take a certain book to school with me.

More recently, I haven't felt like that about objects. Though admittedly I have trouble throwing stuff away, so who knows what hidden feelings are protected by that?

Has anybody seen this thing where somebody will be attached to an object because of the link with another person, like when it's a gift? One guy I knew went right off the deep end when he found out that his friend had watched a film he'd said he was going to buy for her. He has a similar response about a book he'd got her that she'd given away. She reckoned that there was nothing particularly special about that book, and he never even got her the film. He was a big guy too, not the kind you'd expect to be so tender-minded. Mild pique I could have understood, but have you ever seen that level of sensitivity in an adult?

I do that with certain objects, myself - sometimes with gifts, sometimes just with things that person used/had, or objects I had or used in association with that person, like the tickets remaining from this one time I went to the state fair with a friend and really liked it (first time I had gone in years).

With the gift receiving thing - I only get attached to it if it's someone I care about who gave it to me, and the object also just has to become one I am attached to - there's no real process to it, no rhyme or reason, I just get attached to some objects and don't really know why. For example, I'm attached to the can/bottle opener I've had with me in my backpack for a couple years. Didn't realize it until I lost it - I felt guilty for losing it, and angry at losing it - I found it in the wash a few days later, haha.

I have a similar obsession. I love my hot water bottles and I gave them names. I can't live without them. I am also emotionally attached to my bike.

I've always been obsessed with backhoe loaders since my teens and got 2 large diecast backhoe toys about 2 1/2 years ago. But mine probably goes beyond obsession which I consider as just one of my many Autism disorders. That is objectophila where my backhoe loader toys are my partners intimately and sexaully. But, this is down on my Autism list because it doesn't affect my life like my other Autism disorders.

I'm so glad to know I am not the only one! My favourite hot water bottle cover looks a lot like the sheep in your avatar, but with a white body.

For me it's model planes I stare at them for at least an hour and a half a day

For me it's model planes I stare at them for at least an hour and a half a day

I absolutely LOVE my electronics and this tablet I'm using right now is one of my obsessions. I also love my "Hush" guitar, which is basically a Strat-copy that I pieced together from a couple different guitars. It has stickers all over it and each one has it's own meaning and I painted "HUSH" on it. The significance of Hush is it was a nickname I was given many years ago because I was (and still) a very quiet person, verbally that is lol. I've had different obsessions throughout my life and when I was younger some examples include Legos and bicycles. One definite obsession I have that has been there as long as I can remember is flashlights, I usually carry some kind of small flashlight or penlight on me at all times

I love instruments like that - ones that have personality. I like the ones that look worn and old (as long as they still function as they should), as well as the ones that were just modified a bunch by the owner, like yours.

I've done a -lot- of modification to my instruments. I converted two basses and one guitar to fretless. Did some modifications to the finish on my j-bass (and I have more planned in the future), as well as some modification to the surface of the fingerboard (to make it more slick - easier to glide the fingers across), and the texture of the back of the neck. I also do all my own electronics work on the instruments. I've installed pickups, potentiometers, etc., done my own re-soldiering. Might be installing killswitches on all of my basses and guitars soon too. A killswitch is a button or switch or something, which cuts off the sound when you press/flick it - it makes lots of cool sound when you tap it over and over in patterns and all that (I can do it now on my Les Paul with one of the pickups volume turned to 0, by flicking the pickup toggle back and forth).