Feeding the obsession monster

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Hello. Most of my life I have had a degree of financial difficulty mostly because whenever I have any money, I cant help but spend it on something that satisfies whatever my latest obsession is.
If I dont buy or do this that or the other, I end up getting angry/frustrated/depressed/twitchy etc. Also I am totally unable to think about anything else until I do give in.
kind of like trying to hold your breath - you can only do it for so long before things start going spotty.
This does sometimes affect my ability to focus on things like work and day to day stuff like remembering to eat etc...
Was just wondering if anyone else does this or if its just me.

I doubt that's a unique problem here. I'm the same way, with any spare cash I have on me being drawn inexorable toward my Transformer habit.

I don't like the new movie toys all that much, but now I find myself being drawn into the nearest Big Lots to blow it on whatever knock-offs they have of TFs from 3 to 22 years past!

So I guess I'm hardly qualified to dispense advice on impulse control, if that's what you're hoping for. Anyone have any success stories in that department?

Can we see some pictures of your collection?

Well, I kinda made an obsession out of online selling. I can allow myself to buy stuff that interests me as long as I can sell some or all of it for a good profit. I suppose that both my buying and selling could be considered 'obsessions', but I found a way to make that financially beneficial and therefore okay (well, okay and necessary at the same time).

The thing that I have been focused on for the last month is (sadly enough) Pokemon Trading Cards. In such a short amount of time I have already amassed a nice collection (and paid a nice amount of money for this collection...) .
Because of my desire to end up with complete sets of all 32 (going on 33) kinds, I will not be selling mine. It is money that is completely tied up.
I reassure myself with the fact that I am simply following in the footsteps of one of the worlds most successful Aspies: The Japanese guy who invented Pokemon is actually an Aspie.

My obsessions are relatively inexpensive. I will buy a book or watch a DVD on a favorite subject. Since I work in a library, I can check out all the books I want.

I collect old golden age,1950's EC comics! Titles like MAD (before it became a magazine!) Tales from the Crypt, Frontline Combat.

I'm slowing down collecting the real ones as they are kinda expensive (upto a few hundred an issue) to grabbing the archive reprints (50.00 for 5 issues)

It's so addictive and fun to obsess over too!!

I must posses them ALL!! !!

I'm lucky in that most of my obsessions don't cost much (except time!) but I do a lot of art/crafts and had a rubber stamp collection craze a few years ago that was quite expensive. I'm glad that's faded a bit although I do still buy the odd one.

My collecting obsession is with hard-to-find mp3 music files.

But thanks to Limewire and the others, I don't have to pay one red cent!!

I guess I am lucky in that most of my obsessional collections are not quite as expensive as those magazines/comics you guys were talking about. But that said, I think in the past few weeks, I have spent at least $400 AU. Normally I refuse to spend that sort of money on anything simply because I am normally a bit of a financial tight ass, but when it comes to my pokemon cards, I spend the money feel guilty then spend some more.
I feel particularly guilty because I am trying to pay off a couple of debts but instead am spending on such a trivial thing.
I am even willing to live off noodles and breakfast cereal so I can get those darned things
Previously to pokemon was my obsession with making jewellery (temporarily on hold while I collect pokemon stuff). It was not cheap either but at least I could get a little bit of money back from it.

I second third and fourth the comment above "why can't I just collect thimbles like the NT's".

My spare cash goes on CDs, DVDs, playing cards, soft toys, and figurines. I don't really have the space to store all of them, but at the same time I don't really want to part with any of them unless they're doubles. ^^; I do have problems controlling the urge to add to the collections as well, even if I don't really have the money to do so.

My main obsession is collecting irrelevant data. Google and libraries usually suffice for that, so I don't have to spend a lot of money.

My music collecting obsession is self-limiting due to poverty and the size of my hard drive..

Start investing.