Fascinations/special interests

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Do you feel excitement and curiosity and anticipation ect in regards to your special interests or fascinations when you think about them or is it different to that for you?

Yes, I get excited, fascinated, and curious with things that revolve around my interests. I don't always show it, but I do. I actually get pretty bummed out as well when I bring it to someone's attention and they look like a deer caught in headlights (wide eyed and confused), because most of my special interests ideas and concepts lay beyond what people around me tend to be knowledgeable about.

Sigh. I'd love to go back to the days when my special interests encompassed my whole day, when all I did was focus intently on it. Now that I'm in the midst of a depression, those things are on hold. My medication isn't working like it should and I have no therapy sessions lined up. It'll be a while till I get back to feeling jubilant about my special interests (music and writing). Until then I'm just coasting.

Yes, it is like a perpetual "happy place".

Having special interests and engaging in them is an emotional high unlike any others that I have ever experienced. That's why I become very upset/negative whenever I go through any period of time without an interest.

Has anyone found that being on medication decreased the intensity/duration of special interests? Mine used to be more intense until I was put on Lexapro (I was put on it for social anxiety, not depression), which helped me a lot with unwanted obsessive thoughts, but seems to have also affected the intensity of my special interests, even though I no longer take it. In a way it is good, because it was so hard to do non-special-interest-related things when in the middle of a special interest, but on the other hand, I miss the intensity After years off the Lexapro, I think my special interests might be rebounding a bit (but so are the unpleasant obsessive thoughts). Weirdly, the Lexapro did not affect all the OCD-like compulsions I've had since I was a little kid- so I guess those aren't tied into the same circuit. An adult developmental disorder specialist actually told me that they are not OCD (you would think they were if I described them), but rather an anxiety reaction to having difficulty processing what's around me, so I guess that makes sense. Wow, now I've gotten off topic.

My special interest is planes and whenever I go to an airport airfield aviation museum etc I feel quite excited

My special interest is planes and whenever I go to an airport airfield aviation museum etc I feel quite excited

Yes, I do get excited - I was incredibly excited when the Cars movies came out, since Cars are one of my special interests. When I was younger, I was also really excited for Finding Nemo, a movie that was another special interest of mine. I was so excited that I talked about it endlessly and flipped out whenever I saw anything Nemo-related. Drove my mom nuts-I'm amazed she still wanted to see the movie with me after having to put up with my fangirling about it for at least 3 or 4 months.

I feel a rush on the inside when I'm listening to British 60s radio and a Kinks song comes on. I feel even more excited than I do on Christmas Eve.

I watch every Olympiad on television with the same intensity of excitement that I felt watching the Olympics for the first time when I was nine. That's another happy place for me.

I feel very excited when I find out that one of the Austin Powers movies are going to be on TV. Austin Powers is one of the two fictional characters that I'm able to relate to.

I feel an internal rush of adrenaline when I find a book at the local library that I want to sign out, usually to do with one thing or another about psychology. I also felt shot down when my resource teacher wouldn't lit me take psychology in both Grades 11 and 12. She took my special interest away from me two times and I never really forgave her for that. I could have helped out a lot of people and families.

the kinks are pretty awesome.

Right now I'm rereading Enders Game over and over again and developing an incredibly detailed d&d based universe from the world the story is based on. I just get so excited an involved in creating that fictional universe, like its the coolest thing in the world. I would probably turn down going to the movies or a party invitation at this point because its so much fun. It's not a rush, but it brings a strange sense of joy. Like that first bite of ice cream or enjoying a new Christmas present.

Most certainly. I like to go to work, because the job involves my interest, I like to go home and work in my turnery and study about my interest in between work and messing about in the turnery.

Paxil made me completely lose interest in my special interests.

Ritalin made me even more absorbed in them and I could focus for longer and process far more, and if I had to write something could write so much more. My memory was enhanced too. I felt more euphoric about my interests too.

What you said about the perpetual 'happy place' is right. My special interests become the only thing I get excited about and it's like nothing else in the world matters to me but my current interest.


I love The Kinks! I just Ray Davies sort of biography. I get excited when I hear them played at a live show.

I love Ender's Game! < That sentence does not do justice to the intensity of my Ender's Game fandom. I have all the main saga books, one of Ender's Shadow, the prequel, the graphic novel and a few tie-in comic books. I rarely go to the movies but I forked out $19 to see the film in a cinema with 8 other people and I'm definitely buying the dvd as soon as it's released. I'm re-reading Speaker For the Dead. I love Orson Scott Card's dramatic characters. I felt I learned more about people through reading his books.
I've written many sci-fi stories of my own influenced by Ender's Game.

My current interest now is Marvel comics. I'm focused on Thor, Iron Man, Spiderman and Captain America. Orson wrote about Iron Man's early years that I can't wait to get my hands on. It's a very expensive special interest though. I am used to buying camera lenses over $1000 though. I'm used to it.


I love military aircraft but anything aircraft related gets me excited. Even those airbuses that fly overhead. I'd love to go to an aviation museum. I'm really trying to get down to a park and test out my radio controlled plane.

I've got so many special interests though that I find it hard to make time for them all.

My thing is movies, and while I'd describe my anticipation as normal I do feel an unusual amount of excitement and curiosity afterwards.

It's normal to me. So much thought and craft goes into the creation of films, so the desire to analyze and fully appreciate the results seems only natural. Nonetheless, I realize that the depths of my interest is unusual and oftentimes alienating to those around me, at least if I don't dial it down quite a bit.

Anyway, this has been a source of depression for me lately. Even among other people who enjoy film, I still feel like I'm a step too far, and that makes me feel like I'll never find someone who shares my interests and is consequently truly interested in myself.

I get excited when talking about them or learning something new about them or finding someone who shares my special interests. It is hard to explain the feeling. I think it is the feeling that more social people get from socializing. Perhaps they attach this feeling to people instead of special interests.

Nope. I've been on Anafranil for my OCD since 2008, and it makes no impact on my special interests whatsoever. And I'm glad. I wouldn't want my special interests to be diminished. I feel that my special interests' obsessiveness is a completely different entity than my OCD obsessiveness, so I'm not surprised that my Anafranil doesn't work on the special interests.