Survey on Changing Special Interests

Post Reply New Topic

1) How many major special interests have you had throughout your life?

2) How often do your special interests change?

3) Do you ever go through a period of time when you are in between interests and you have trouble finding something new? How does it make you feel?

4) Do you ever feel "guilty" for changing special interests? Almost like you're "cheating on" or "betraying" your old one?



To answer my own questions:

1) About ten. I think it's worth noting that six of those were anime-related.

2) I tend to obsess over specific things for about 1 to 2 years at a time. But if you were to count all of my individual anime obsessions (3/5 out of all of my major obsessions) together as a general interest, it would be my longest-running interest starting from age 8 to the present (12 years and counting). The one exception to the "no specific interest lasts longer than 1 - 2 years" rule was my Balto/wolves obsession, which lasted 6 years. I'm not sure why that specific topic held my interest for such a long period of time.

3) I have experienced this with my past 2 sets of interests (Hellsing/Trinity Blood and Tim Burton movies, respectively). It made me very sad and unfocused, and always feeling like I was missing something in my life. I wonder if it has something to do with age, since I used to transition from one interest to another rapidly and smoothly when I was a child. Another explanation could be that my last 2 interests were so intense that I had trouble finding "worthy" replacements.

4) Again, it's something I experienced with my last 2 interests (Hellsing/Trinity Blood and Tim Burton movies, respectively). I remember that the guilt from not being obsessed with Hellsing and Trinity Blood lasted only until I discovered Tim Burton's movies, and then it quickly faded. But the transition from Tim Burton's movies to my latest interests has not been a smooth one.

Not only did it take me about half of the year to find new interests, but even now I am still plagued by the guilt of not being obsessed with Tim Burton's movies anymore. I feel like I betrayed him, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter. I also feel like I betrayed the friends I made because of my Tim Burton interest, since a couple of them had expressed disappointment that I no longer had that obsession. I can think of a couple of explanations as to why I feel this way, but none of them seem to completely cover it.

1. 6-12, depending on the definition of major.

2. It varies, and is worth mentioning that some overlap. My latest change was in spring, and before that was probably summer last year.

3. Not particularly, as one fades out another fades in.

4. No.

1) How many major special interests have you had throughout your life?
Umm, lemme think. Three. c:

2) How often do your special interests change?
Minor ones, all the times. Major ones, every 3-5 years or so.

3) Do you ever go through a period of time when you are in between interests and you have trouble finding something new? How does it make you feel?
Yep. And sad, listless, hopeless.

4) Do you ever feel "guilty" for changing special interests? Almost like you're "cheating on" or "betraying" your old one?
Sometimes. c:

1) How many major special interests have you had throughout your life?
4/5 but ive always felt that the ones ive had have been passtime interests, like i dont feel ive found the right thing for me yet. They're good to fill the spare time but im still waiting for that thing to devote my life to. It'd be nice to find something that i know will keep me going for life.

2) How often do your special interests change?
Not often. 5-10 years. But as i said, they feel like semi-special interests.

3) Do you ever go through a period of time when you are in between interests and you have trouble finding something new? How does it make you feel?
Yeah, going through one now where i dont even really have a semi-interest, i spend all my time playing around with older interests but they don't cut it any more and i want something new. I think it might be in an area that i maybe put to the side till later. I think i'd like to have a go at something i didn't have the patience for when i was younger.

4) Do you ever feel "guilty" for changing special interests? Almost like you're "cheating on" or "betraying" your old one?
I don't know if guilty is the right word but i do sometimes wish to be able to go back and enjoy those other interests with the same enthusiasm i had when they were new and i was heavily obsessed with them.

1) How many major special interests have you had throughout your life?
5

2) How often do your special interests change?
The major ones rotate every few years or so. The minor ones change pretty often.

3) Do you ever go through a period of time when you are in between interests and you have trouble finding something new? How does it make you feel? Every now and then i'll be without an interest, it usually happens when one of my major interests are changing not so much with the minor ones. It makes me feel unfocused and I cant settle .

4) Do you ever feel "guilty" for changing special interests? Almost like you're "cheating on" or "betraying" your old one?
No

1) How many major special interests have you had throughout your life?
I can't really number them because I have a few that blend into each other, and I tend to focus on a specific area, but not change the interest completely. My major interests include cooking, preserving and gardening - the gardening is all focused on food production, the preserving is part cooking and part preserving what I have grown in the garden. The interest in cooking is sometimes more focused on producing food to eat, and sometimes more focused on nutrition & the chemistry of food production.

I am also interested in various crafts, and have had a number of special interest projects, such as planning a trip to Peru.


2) How often do your special interests change?

About every 3-6 months, but often it is just a move into a different aspect of what I was doing, rather than a total change.


3) Do you ever go through a period of time when you are in between interests and you have trouble finding something new? How does it make you feel?

I am in one now, which has been going on for a while. It is making me feel restless & a bit depressed.


4) Do you ever feel "guilty" for changing special interests? Almost like you're "cheating on" or "betraying" your old one?

No. I am always focused on the new interest - if anything I feel bad that I wasted time and money on the old interest that could have been available for what I am doing now.

[quote="IdahoRose"]1) How many major special interests have you had throughout your life?
Five I think, Tiny Toons, Lion King, manatees, meerkats, veternary medicine and Sonic the hedgehog. All of my obsessions have always been animal related.

2) How often do your special interests change?
Not often. It often takes years before I develop a new speical intrest and things I'm curious about will pop up in my dreams and eventualy it becomes a special intrest.

3) Do you ever go through a period of time when you are in between interests and you have trouble finding something new? How does it make you feel?
Not that I can remember.

4) Do you ever feel "guilty" for changing special interests? Almost like you're "cheating on" or "betraying" your old one?
YES!

1) I think around 13-14..

2) besides my Harry Potter time they used to change every year/6 months.

3) Yes i had that all the time.. i always felt like my interest decided where my life should go and then i would cry and scream WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH MY LIFE!!

4) Yess all the time, and i also felt bad for the person who invested in my interest(like my mom buying everything for me about Pokemon or Harry Potter) now i really have an interest that always came back and i'm gonna stick to it.. my interest was always about some artist or movie or television show.. so now i feel like i wanna make that myself. period.