Latest Obsession.... Please Help!

Post Reply New Topic

My latest obsession is collecting action figures. There is nothing wrong with it but it is starting to get out of hand financially. I have had other obsessions like this before and it always ends ugly so I want to stop before it gets to that point. This is way more than one of my typical interests. How do some of you stop the obsession? I could really use some good advice.

aside from relinquishing control over your own finances, would it be possible to try buying them to sell for a profit, if you know what's worth money to people and where collectors might go to get rare items and so on?

Get a book and read up on techniques to reduce & control OCD compulsions. I think the same sort of self therapy techniques could be applied to curbing an obsessive spending compulsion.

I don't think you can stop our obsessions without great distress. I have tried several ways to stop my latest 2 obsessions ( researching AS & explosives and how to make them) with no prevail. I try to stop thinking about them or replace with some other activity, but I always go back. This has been going on for months now night and day. If I figure out how to stop obsessing i'll let you know, but it seems hard.

Wow, reading these, I feel quite lucky that 98% of my obsessions are almost purely information based with no collection or product acquisition necessary. I don't know what I'd do if I fell back into Legos or Pokemon as an adult with a credit card, ha. Now, if only I could become obsessed with success and making money. Hmm.

You might stop and ask yourself "why am I obsessed with this?" What is the emotional payoff? Break it down and analyze it. Then you might be able to put it aside, or find a better interest that serves you better for less cost.

I did that myself once.

I became obsessed with naval war gaming. Back in the pre computer seventies I played a "conflict simulation game" with some fellow geeks- that involved tape measures, steel models of world war two warships, dice, and all kinds of tables. It was like snorting a line.

I then invented my own board game that borrowed heavily from that game. It soon became an obsession. Would read Jane's Fighting Ships from world war two and became obsessed with piting ships against other ships that never actually fought ( the Iowa against the Yamato) in realistic combat ( like fantasy football). More a time waster than a money waister, but it was more addicting than crack. Ive tried crack-this was more addicting.

Then one day I sat down and actually thought about why the obsession was so damned addicting.

In my minds eye I went over the imagery of sea battles: armour, the attacking ship fires a shell at the armour, the shell PENETRATES the armour of the target ships hull, and then it EXPLODES INSIDE the target ship's hull ( not even gonna into torpedoes). Then that ship fires back, with guns which may or may not be able to PENETRATE the enemy's armor, and EXPLODE inside the enemy ship.

It was obvious that I desperately needed to...to....well,you know.

So I took up social dancing. Eventually found a girlfriend.

Have hardly thought about naval wargaming since.

instead of quitting your obsession altogether, is it possible that you could use it to push yourself along with other goals. Rather than immediately buying every action figure you see, perhaps you could do something like tell yourself if you manage to succeed in reaching some milestone in improving your social skills or if, your still in school or college, when you score well on a test. When you feel you've done extremely well, you could reward yourself by going out and buying an action figure you are really interested in. This way, you wouldn't have to kill your obsession and it would be a too to help make things better for you, rather than a deadweight that threatens to sink your ship.

Thanks for the helpful tips. I haven't had an obsession like this in a very long time. The last one I had took years to shake and it was a tough journey both financially and emotionally. The whole time I just felt like s**t because I knew I was doing wrong but I couldn't help it. I guess I was hoping some one had a magic cure or something that worked for them. I almost feel depressed just thinking about the work and toll its going to take to shake me out of it.

Thanks for the helpful tips. I haven't had an obsession like this in a very long time. The last one I had took years to shake and it was a tough journey both financially and emotionally. The whole time I just felt like s**t because I knew I was doing wrong but I couldn't help it. I guess I was hoping some one had a magic cure or something that worked for them. I almost feel depressed just thinking about the work and toll its going to take to shake me out of it.

In all seriousness, did you actually physically create the boardgame? If so, did you ever think about trying to market it?

Wow Legos that would be hard. Had that obsession too. My mother kept telling that I am too old. I was 10 I think that is still an ok age, but today no.

Yes I actually made a physical game : colored little pieces of card board to represnt ships, sheets of paper for them to move on, and tables, and score cards.Collected several kinds of dice. Decades later I still tinker with it from time to time.

When the seventies gave way to the higher tech 80's it became obvious that the game would lend itsself to being computerized. A friend who was a programmer, and his dad, were going to partner up with me to computerize it. But nothing happened, and the dad died, and friendship with the guy withered for other reasons, and I havent talked to him in 20 years.

By the late nineties Circuit City had racks and racks of Xbox games including naval war games (never played them nor any other video games) that from the copy on the packaging seemed to do much of the same stuff my game did. So my drive to market it gradually diminished. But I still have a big box in my closet with all of the crude hand made accouterments of the game. Might still try to market it. Havent actually even thought about that for some time.

I've gone through a lot of those phases. The pattern has been, it runs it's course and then I sell all the stuff on eBay which is where I mainly got it in the first place.
There's been a few times where I've sold everything, then recollected it again sometime later and then resold it again. I sell it in a way where I end up slightly below breaking even. Through strongly willing myself against this sort of behavior, I've managed over a long period of time to subdue "the fever" or nip it in the bud.

@naturalplastic: give it a shot. There's still some market for boardgames out there. Who knows--maybe you'll have a success that was several decades in the making.