Do you get depressed in between obsessions?

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I noticed something about myself this morning. I have been sort of depressed for about a week. Last week I suddenly lost interest in my latest obsession. I was heavily into it for four straight months, spending hours a day doing it (genealogy). I found myself this week "looking" for a new one but not finding one. I feel very odd and can't seem to make up my mind what to do during my leisure time. The result is that I have been sleeping a lot more lately due to boredom. Now that I look back, I have noticed that I've done this in the past. I will have times of "depression" in between times of "excitement and happiness" when I am involved in an activity that highly interests me. Does anyone else experience this?

Yes, absolutely.
I live for my obsession. When it is taken away, by some circumstantial demand, I am lost.
Each and every time it happens I don't know why I'm feeling that way..as if I've just completely forgotten who I am.

I get these periods of doing nothing in between taking part in special interests, but I don't feel that it is depression. I like you will lie in bed but feel numb rather than sad.

I get depressed pretty often and I guess you could say I get lazy in between special interests. Once I finish one project there's always a bunch of downtime before I start something else, but I wouldn't say that causes me to be depressed. I get depressed for what seems like no reason at all sometimes and it's almost like I look for reasons to be depressed or I'm just trying to find something to explain why I'm depressed.

God yes. I usually have more than one obsession and they are quite frequently unrelated. [At one point, it was making video games and horses, at another point it was the history of soda and rocks.]

Getting stuck between obsessions is really upsetting, because I look for stuff to do and it just doesn't appeal to me. Honestly though, I'm no more depressed than usual, aside from not having an outlet.

yes

Yes. But down time is good too.

Not to mention, I know a new interest is always around the bend. For me at least. And it does feel good when I realize, ah ha, my new special interest is up and running....

Yes.

I seem to have an on/off switch on my brain whereby when it's on I am generally interested in lots of things to an average extent and some things to a more obsessive level and I generally focus on getting things done and when it's off it's the opposite - no interest in anything and no motivation to do anything. Life changes seem to trigger it; too much stress or feeling down about something can turn it off and it needs some positive things to happen or me getting really angry about something to galvanise me back into the active/inspired mode.

Anger is often the trigger so the brain chemicals released when angry must trigger a brain
re-boot. Adrenaline probably.

I was between obsessions when I've joined WP in the Summer of 2004. I've grown out of Austin Powers and I didn't know what my next special interest was going to be. I guess that I was a little obstinate during my first two summers here. I was pretty depressed back than as well.

With my main special interest, I sometimes go through periods of "down time" when I don't feel obsessed with it anymore. During times like these, I become depressed and become desperate to find new interests. In the end, I always wind up going back to my main interest, but it's still pretty upsetting. It almost reminds me of a love-hate relationship where you're dating someone but keep breaking up and then getting back together with them.

I'm getting really tired of this whole "back and forth" thing (which has been going on for about a year) and sometimes I even wish that my interest would end for good so I don't have to keep going through this anymore.

This doesn't happen to me because I can always return to a past obsession or half-knowingly adopt a temporary, lightweight obsession to tide me over.

Yes. Often.

The feeling I get when I'm between obsessions is a bit different from the depression I get when my bipolar is acting up.

With bipolar depression, I feel heavy, like I deserve to be hated, like things will never get better, like breathing is an effort as well as a waste of time. I told a doctor once, "It feels like something is ripping my soul in half".

Between obsessions, I feel directionless and lost, but I don't feel like dying. I feel bored and anxious at the same time, and very lonely.

But they are definitely two different feelings.