"Special Interests" that get out of control

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I often find my interests can turn into a dysfunctional obsession. Particularly things that involve actively doing something, and particularly when my mental health is poor. For example, I'll start playing the piano (electric, with headphones) to distract myself from feelings of panic, and end up playing till my ears and body ache, missing meals or losing hours of sleep.

At the same time, I certainly don't want to /stop/ doing these things altogether. Just to learn to moderate them so I get the enjoyment and psychological benefits without messing myself up. Does anyone here have experience of managing this kind of problem?

Yep! Its what seperates Normal interests from special interest.

With me, i draw for hours on end until my wrist and eyes hurt and stay up until the sun rises and loose sleep. I have no interest in talking to a person or forming a relationship that isnt about sonic, actually i dred and easily get bored with conversations that arent about Sonic or my fan characters. In school id draw sonic instead of doing tests and work sheets and failed some classes because of it. I have once gone a year without taking off a shirt with sonic on it, and only washed it 3 times, wore it night and day. I would forget to cook for myself because ill be drawing sonic. I think of sonic and mynfan characters 24/7. And i agree, it gets worse when im in emotional distress

Ita getting better though, this year i started broadening my art skills to other things

Einstien had the same problem. He would sit up and think of his theories and not talk to anyone, he wouldnt make himself meals or change his clothes just because he was thinking.

Its both a blessing and a curse.

Right now im ITCHING Just to discuss sonic with SOMEONE. It comes out as word vomit sometimes. I was trained when i was younger to not talk about sonic because i would go on and on and on AND ON with anyone, even strangers, so my family kept reminding me not to talk about it with everyone. So i bite my tongue but lately i just want to talk to someone about it.

I know almost nothing about Sonic but I'm a sucker for any and all random information so feel free to PM me with Sonic stuff!

I often get so overloaded and distracted by my interests that I have to let them out. WP seems an appropriate outlet, that's why I'm talking a lot about Death Note/Mello recently (and before that, Giovanni and Team Rocket).

What do you think of the netflix movie trailer?

You sound just like me , I have no idea how to personaly stop. If left to my own devices I would make myself ill by not drinking , eating and sleeping ( I could easily play guitar until my fingers bled or play video games until my hands cramp and don't work properly ) . As I haven't been Dx I don't know if I'm being consumed by a special interest or just hyperfocusing to create a sort of escapism. Luckily for me I have a GF who knows me very well and who stops me from going too far - at the time I think she is nagging me and it usually causes frustration to build up inside and I resent her , but once I'm over that I realise she is just trying to help.

I have no useful advice to help as I need an external source to pull me out of it.

Perhaps you could leave notes to yourself by your piano asking yourself questions e.g. Are you thirsty ? etc

That happened to me a lot in the past, sometimes to a point where I would have to give up a special interest cold-turkey. I try to regulate it by allowing myself time every day to pursue my interest (it helps that I'm studying it in college). Like, two hours of Minecraft per day after dinner, five hours on the weekends. Set alarms/timers, and set them loud enough that you can hear them (but not loud enough to overwhelm yourself).

I have stayed up late, and awakened early, to watch tennis matches of my favorite players. When they win, it's all right, but when they lose, I get mad that I wasted a night's sleep.

(Heavy sigh) My uncontrollable obsession is the LOGO clothing line on QVC. I don't think there is any hope for me really except maybe to go cold turkey. I have at least 200 articles of LOGO clothing, if not more. Now I just need to buy a bigger place with tons more closet space. Hey! That rhymed!

These things were more recurrent with me when I was younger. Like you, I was used to miss meals, lose sleep, also refuse to cope with other daily activities like to take a shower and would hate having to interrupt whatever I was doing.

I don't know why and when these obsessions started to become less and less intense. These monotonic obsessions still get out of control from time to time and I remember when I was in a severe depression crisis years ago I was prescribed certain drugs for a period, which for some reason sparkled very intense emotions, bringing obsessions back. I found myself interested in things and engaged in activities I thought were long buried back in my childhood and teenage years, not only that, these interests were again as lively and passionate as when I was a child.

Sometimes I feel like... without these intense interests that I hold the dearest even to the point of somewhat destructive obsession, my life is bland, totally ruined. I feel like I'm the worse of the human beings, an empty vase. I feel much better when I'm home dealing with my "hobbies". I call them "hobbies" for other people's ears but in fact my interests go way beyond hobbies.

It's actually a very complicated feeling this I have, because for years now when I'm back home from work, there are days when I can't even think of my interests without a feeling of absolute shame and guilt. Then I think to myself words like: "what's the point? I will have to drop everything in an unfinished state so that I can rest and go to work tomorrow anyway! I better leave all this junk over there, I'll look into that the other day". That's because of course, I know when I start I'll hardly ever stop.

What I mean, then... my obsessions are mostly under control but in a not so sane way. I think I'd be happier obsessing over my stuff in a classic Asperger way... maybe! I don't know.

Hi guys, I am not sure if I am on the autism spectrum or not, I guess I'm wondering if I might have been all my life.

I do exactly the same thing, with what you call "special interests", but the thing is that, for people with conventional career paths/jobs these things seem to be more clearly noticeable. But I took a creative career path, as an art practitioner, so my "special interests" are also my work.

So if I go for days on end without normal social interaction (catching up with friends etc) because I'm staying up all night, every night until 6am working, barely eating and any interruption is incredibly annoying - I justify it to myself as sort of going with the territory.

Would anyone have any thoughts on this ?

That's pretty open ended when undiagnosed and not understanding the bigger picture and what could be several underlying issues,when undiagnosed.

Just saying....

Do you think there any particular benefits in being diagnosed ? And is your diagnosis something you share with everyone, or just close friends ?

Sorry that was directed to ElabR8Aspie (but all comments welcome

No,i don't believe an initial diagnosis in my early years would have helped,imo btw.
It would have stagnated progress,i wouldn't have learn't.
It's all about experiences either way,good and bad.

I'm an open book either way,i have nothing to hide.

Thanks,btw for your soul search.: )

Okie dokie, thanks to you too

There may be other ways to end up with obsessive focus. You're right, though, there can be ways of using it productively. That's what I need to work on. Just now, I had a long late-night session editing up some of my piano music, which was fine 'cos I don't have work on Sundays. Got a lot done. Getting sucked into the same thing on a /Monday/ night is a real problem.