Obsession over a character and then trying to be like them?

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I do this. I obsess with an anime or just animated character or even just a book or movie character and try to be just like them. I'm usually not conscious about it either. I become conscious of it in the middle of it but that doesn't stop me. I'm trying to stop doing that though and be more me because doing that all these years as made "me" a blur. So I'm trying to retrace my steps and find out who I am.

How can fulfill this specific type of obsession without trying to become the character itself? Also does anyone else here with aspergers do this?

I did that many years ago with Austin Powers. I was in denial when my mum compared me to the drummer of my favourite band, so I decided that I was going to be a sex crazed nerd. I talked about sex all the time and I wore toe horn-rimmed glasses to prove to people how intelligent I am. Looking back now, I wish I accepted the truth that my mum pointed out and kept myself from doing that. The glasses didn't help me to be seen as an intelligent person by my family members. They still treated me like an idiot.

If I consciously or unconsciously imitate someone other than myself in some way, either
1. it's something I was already inclined to do and seeing it done elsewhere made me see it was OK to do.
or
2. it's something I'm naturally or inexplicably attracted to and want to figure out why.

With 2. I think that my "self" must have some inherent property that makes me attracted to that characteristic outside my self. Then there must be something related to it already in myself (a potential). Then I am not just copying characteristics of someone else; I'm discovering new ways to express a part of myself that was already there.

All you have to do is only what you want to do (including stuff you "have to do" because if you "have" to do it, you ought to want to do it (e.g. cleaning your dishes)). If you try something out that doesn't work then don't keep doing it. If you already know you don't like something, don't do it just because someone else is doing it (most likely it will eventually hurt you in some way).


Everyone imitates. But most people eventually become too busy just trying to get by with work etc. that they don't have time to experiment with new modes of self expression. They settle into a state of being that is a mixture of all the traits they've picked up from other people and places.


I do not recommend dressing like an anime character in public. It will not help you out socially. Maybe you could try an acting class or role-playing club, where you can fully take on a character you wonder what it's like to be, and in a space where everyone is eager to play along?

I've learned not to worry too much about who I am because it's all perception anyway. The people you imitate most likely do have similarities to yourself, and besides that, once you think you know who you are, you will find a lot of people telling you you're not who you think you are, and that gets really annoying and frustrating. My advice -- Don't try to grasp the "big picture" of who you are, and just be happy knowing a few things about yourself that no one else can know without you telling them, like your favorite food or what makes you happy or who your favorite character is -- even if that stuff changes, you will know it before anyone else does, and that's what makes you you.

It wasn't a character per se, but a very flamboyant public figure I was obsessed with as a kid.

I have the tendency to do this with real people but I've been holding it in for the most part because I feel like I'm stealing. I don't want to be seen as a poser and if I think I look like a poser then I am one in my books even if I'm not.

I haven't been holding back as much lately. I see people that I admire and I think their so amazing that I want to be like them and I imitate them. I don't imitate everything about them. I do have a line. I pick the things that don't feel as fake. I won't imitate someone's writing because I'm not a writer.

I'm currently getting some tattoos because a friend of mine that I am putting on a pedestal is a tattoo fanatic. I'm not imitating their hairstyle even though I adore it as well. I'm planning on doing something else for the same reason but I have a lot to set up. I might not do it but if I do it will be me taking a piece of someone else and incorporating it into my own personality.

My own personality is pretty narrow. I have a personality but there isn't much to it.

I suspect that 10 years from now my own identity will be a collage of many different people that I have met.

I've always obsessed over anime/game/movie characters, but it doesn't manifest itself as imitating their behavior. I fulfill this type of obsession by doing fanart of them, looking up pictures of them, sewing or buying plushies of them, wearing T-shirts with them on it, and most of all, by having those characters as imaginary friends and daydreaming about them on a continual basis.

I relate to my favorite characters in much the same way that IdahoRose relates to hers, although I find myself displaying a lot of the same vocal mannerisms as Wilt, my favorite character from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. I almost wonder if the creators of the show were creeping on me while they were developing Wilt's character/personality/idiosyncracies.

Me too. Not sure if I have a "real me", don't care, and don't think "knowing who I am" is even something worth striving for. Movie and TV characters bring out ideal qualities in us that are archetypal. They make us the best people we can be, even villains like Darth Vader.

When I was very young (pre-10yrs of age) I used to idolize Jim Carrey's style of acting. My friend and I used to frequently reenact scenes from Liar Liar and such, particularly the scenes with the blue pen and the bathroom ass kicking. Eventually I used to act in a goofy manner all the time trying to be like him.

A lot of people I know can't stand Jim Carrey because he always overacts. But that's what I love about his acting. He may overact, but he does it well.

i bought a telescope, white t-shirt, jean jacket...because of a canadian tv show back in the 90s...called The Odyssey
i often talk like the main character sometimes. french canadian...lol

Definitely; ever since I was little and became obsessed with the British children's TV series Noddy, I've been copying the characters I loved. There was a time between fifth and sixth grade when I loved Garfield the cat; I pretty much morphed into him from his habits to his selfish, dry sense of humour to his attitudes toward life. After that came Linus from the Peanuts cartoons. That one stuck around for nearly three years; I dragged a blanket around with me (given I was between twelve and fifteen at the time it was pretty strange) and managed to turn it into a fairly formidable weapon. I spouted lines from the strip constantly and even started picking up the slow, deliberate, methodical speech patterns that the kids on the TV episodes all had. Looking back, it was funny in a sad kind of way I suppose. When my Star Trek obsession started, I began picking up some of Spock's behaviours, but that dropped off pretty quickly when I saw what a radical difference there was between our personalities; I didn't have it in me to squash all emotion, though I certainly tried hard for a while, not just so I could be like Spock, but because the idea of not having to feel anything seemed so appealing. Right now I'm latching onto Star Trek Voyager's ex-borg, Seven of Nine (she's my avatar, for those who don't watch the show). Our personalities fit better, and it's easier for me to mimic her speech patterns without always realising I'm doing it. Sometimes it's deliberate because I think the way she talks is brilliant

I've been imprinted severely from time to time. When I discovered 1950s pop music, I dressed Sinatra all the time. My employers loved it. Later I went hair metal, & employers liked that much less.

Yep, been doing this all my life. Usually a TV or movie character who had the sort of life I wish I had. I'd talk and dress like them, and become interested in whatever their hobbies and/or professions were.

I'm not currently imitating anyone, but I still don't have a sense of who I really am. I've always felt like a blank slate. Not sure if it's related to this feeling or not, but when I was a child I thought that people could just swap bodies whenever they wanted to. That our minds weren't tethered to our bodies.

I go through stages of different characters. Most of the stuff I imitate is historically minded since I swear I was born in the wrong time. For the longest time I tried to be Sherlock Holmes after I discovered the book series around the age of 10. He was one of the first characters I really connected to. Unfortunately, my deduction skills are nowhere near that of the great Holmes and I just ended up annoying my family and friends.

At about 13, I started trying to imitate a hobbit lifestyle since that also fit into my personality. As you can see from my username, I haven't changed that imitation in a long while. However, it really is no longer an imitation for me.