How do your obsessions develop?

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My obsessions with action figures and the Vietnam War built up over time, definitely - I'd had an intense interest in collecting toys since I was a boy, but it was only when I started earning my own money (at about 21) that I realised I could buy them myself. At which point I signed my life away to an eternity of collecting plastic tat.

As for the interest in the 'Nam, military history has interested me since I was a teenager, and when we started to learn about the Vietnam War in high school, and then again in university, the opportunity to learn about it and read accounts of the conflict just fascinated me, and I began buying books and films on the subject to read/watch in my own time. I haven't looked back since.

People obsessions, on the other hand, pop out of nowhere and tend to vanish just as quickly - I remember I started obsessing randomly about a girl at work I'd known for about 2 years. It lasted for about two months, if that, and then went away again. I still don't know what I was so obsessed about...

I don't obsess about people-ever
I obsess with useless things-like music and writting and warhammer (that's still going) it's been going since I was 13

Then you're lucky



Warhammer? I collect the Warhammer 40K books like there's no tomorrow.

Couldn't play the game if my life depended on it, though.

I don't like to often-too people oriented you know and I'm shy...

I don't take any interest in people...like that, I mean if I like them (IF) I get sad as I will never get to be with them

I read somewhere that AS obessions are fear based. Most of mine were/are.

Do you have any more info on that, KalahariMeerket? It sounds interesting, and I'd like to read up on it if you could maybe point me to a book or website?

Thank you!

I'll use my Phoenix Wright obsession to illustrate how my obsessions in general work:

1. Something catches my interest. Someone on GaiaOnline kept using sprites from the Phoenix Wright games in his posts, and I thought they looked neat.

2. I start searching the web to learn more about it. I read about the series on Wikipedia and Court-Records.net.

3. I indulge the interest. I bought the games that were out in the U.S. and played them.

4. The interest becomes an obsession. I make constant references to Phoenix Wright throughout the day, I fantasize about befriending the characters and I even dream about it at night occasionally.

My obsessions usually last 3 months or more. Sometimes an obsession is easy to give up, and sometimes I can't part with it even when I try. Sometimes one obsession will branch off of another (such as my interest in Ireland and Scotland, which stemmed from my fascination with the accent of Alexander Anderson on Hellsing).

People, objects, bits of knowledge, anything can spur an obsession. If I could correctly identify the "it" that spurs obsession, I'd be a gazillionaire and marketing genius.

A person says something interesting, and I might become obsessed with something the person said, like a subject, the person themselves, or something that belongs to the person. Like the person's car. Or clothing, like if it's a plaid, is it an official tartan and whose and when did it come about and what was the history of that tartan in the world.

Some teacher would bring up something in school and I'd be off, bursting through the starting gates, faster than the speed of light (insert other cliches here) and NEEDING to understand hieroglyphics or paleontology or astronomy and star movement and red shift and the clouds swirl like the toilet water.

A guy sitting next to me in the planetarium at community college looked at me really strange and asked if "stars were my life". hahaha Everything the instructor pointed at was memorized. I knew all their names. I knew what size and color they were. I knew a lot. I don't know squat now, because that obsession ended when the class did.

I am equally obsessed with people, and only on this forum can I admit it. Otherwise people (NTs) think it's weird. But I study them like I study a subject. I can get books on cars. Stars (astronomical or celebrity). But nothing on real people. With the internet I can often find their other messages.

By the way, you all might want to consider that your posts are searchable not only on this site, but via Google and probably other sites. Which is how I found this post.

I wondered if anyone else demands of themselves to completely understand something?

A friend pointed out that when I can't understand something, I beat myself up for it. It's true. I'm smart enough. Why don't I get it? It's because the "it" in people cases is simply because it has to do with people. I'm never going to get it. No matter how many posts I read.

I think people should come with the same instruction manuals that other things come with. Even if it's in PDF format.

Im usually obsessed with films and shows, and I always start by being curious after seeing them for the first time. I usually spend time looking them up online, and the more I learn, the more curious I become, until I'm obsessed.

My obsessions last as long as they are being fed. So for example one of my interests is Star Wars, and when the new movie came out a couple years ago I couldn't get enough. Now there's nothing new coming, people aren't talking about it, so I've lost interest. As long as there is something happening to keep my obsession new and interesting, I'll keep it. I've had some as long as 16 years!

My obsession with cats started from birth. We have always had cats and other animals in our house, so pets have always been a part of my life.

I don't seem to obsess like I used to , nowadays I have mini obsessions and Im not even sure I would class them as that , Usually they come about from reading something online and then i get gripped with a need to know more , they usually run there course withina few days or weeks at most. I often had bad obsessions in my head , a lot of them are negative , some are a craving to learn everything about a subject but i don't take action to follow through and do it. I think this maybe because of my depression , i have a very poor memory now so there seems little point in studying something only to forget it . As a child my obsessions lasted longer and were much more intense , since i came on to this site i have tried to remember the obsessions i had as a child and bit by bit i have rembered one . today i rembered a new one , when i was quite young i read the book swallows and amazons , i loved it and it sparked an obsession with sailing , i could name all the parts on any sailing boat/ship and i could draw them all in detail despite being unable to draw anything else , somewhere , although I dont know where is a large drawing pad with all my drawings of ships all neatly labelled Of course the sailing obsession involved the slightly more usefull obsession of learning to tie knots , which i rember finding extremly difficult but plugged away at it continuesly , I wish i had that determination now . The other one I rembered was horses i knew all the names for tack parts , how it should be cared for and whats its correct use was im not sure what started that obsession off , i have never had a horse.