Embarassed with your interests?

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Are you sometimes embarassed to talk about your obsessions to others? Either in real life or online, even on such forums like WP where one can come across a big dose of understanding for his interest?

I rather do my best not to reveal my obsessive interests when I'm among people (or at least I don't show to what extent they sometimes may be developed) because I would be found terribly boring like everybody who is still speaking about the same stuff, like for example when I encountered criticism in high school that I was interested in WW II too much and I was making people bored to death, telling them about the Third Reich and concentration camps all the time. I don't like others commenting on me so I keep them for myself, specially when they are strange by social estimation or don't seem to fit my age (about the last October I was really intensively obsessed with Sandman comics; my special interest is also Harry Potter world which doesn't fit a woman of 24 too much even if popularity of this book flourished among all age groups).

Speaking of weird interests which aren't understood by many people, some days ago a new interest of this kind hit me on the back on my head - Columbine massacre from 1999 (btw, today's the 9th anniversary if you don't know - well, maybe in the US it is being talked of in the media today) and for the last days I was wasting a huge amount of my time (all days long) I could devote to something more useful (like writing some stuff for my college), wading through sites about Eric and Dylan (Ana54 would understand my interest for sure ).

In spite of keeping a tight hand on myself, I get rid of this control when I am at home because my mother got used to my quirks and doesn't mind my prattling about serial killers nor pondering the issue whose X man's power is the coolest

For a long time, I was just too clueless to know. But I'm experiencing this now. My interest is music, listening to it and making it. My work and tastes are very unusual, however. I hardly ever meet someone who can actually relate to them. Yesterday I gave a CD of my lastest work to a friend, because she's really interested no matter what it is, but I know that her reaction is going to be interesting.

Harry potter #7 was one of the few fiction books I ever bought! I'm a male in my forties. I bought it because it seemed that EVERYONE was reading it. ONE was a woman here that is about 22-23! So you DO have company!

No, I can't say that I am. I flaunt South Park to everyone.

I don't really have any weird interest I would be ashamed of, I do like to watch cartoons
Hey this is my 700th post, cool

One of my interests/obsessions is veganism.
Lots of people don't want to hear about it.
Most people hate the idea of vegans.
And it's a giant part of my life.

It kinda bothers me.


Irulan - "In spite of keeping a tight hand on myself, I get rid of this control when I am at home because my mother got used to my quirks and doesn't mind my prattling about serial killers nor pondering the issue whose X man's power is the coolest "


I true crime.
I used to wonder how long I could get away with reading crimelibrary.com at my old job before they called me in to someone.

Congrats!! !

I've kept quiet about my interests for a long time, unless they come up in talking to other people (and even then I pretend to know less than I do). This comes from years of being mocked by my parents for talking about my interests too much as a small child.

Not really, no.

Sometimes if I am talking to someone and they have a friend along who casually says something about, oh I don't know, let's say 'Thomas The Tank Engine' I'll just walk away... but it's not to the point of being very embarassed, just slighty embarassed. Even if the person didn't know that they'd just spoken about one of my interests, I'd still walk away. It's just something I do. My face doesn't go red or anything, so I guess I'm not highly embarrased in situations like this.

There is an interest I am quite embarassed about liking, which is trains and model railways and everything like that. Because my friends are into boys, and my friends who are boys are into girls, while I am browsing in WH Smith looking for the latest magazine on railway modelling! So that's slightly embarassing too..

I guess most of my interests are what you consider normal.. but I dunno whether you can describe Anime/Manga as a normal interest! Nobody I know even knows what it is!

Yes, I have never, ever told about my interests in real life.

i often get told off by my NT m8s for talking about my interests too much lol. i live and breath them, 24/7, so i guess it cant be helped.

... I have a WWI obsession ... I understand where you're coming from.

I dont really talk about my intersts too much, generally because

a) they are kind of offbeat "not mainstream"
b) my relationship to my interests is extremely personal, even if i met someone with an interest in the same, i would still find it difficult to talk about it with them
c) after years of not really meeting anyone with similar interests, you kind of get used to not talking about them

just for your info, my interests include :

video games , but only from 80's/90's arcade era
dance music from 80's - earl 90's
comics
running
films

I always tell everyone my obsession. And in the end, I actually get most people to really like it!

I read crimelibrary as well but it's the thing I openly admit Others know I'm interested in crimes, horror, stuff of this kind. I like being perceived weird but not immature, like in case of those comics or books for kids.



I have no idea what music is being listened to by young people now. I don't have any precised music taste, I listen to those songs I simply like, it's everything. It happened to me once 4 or 5 years ago that some girls who saw some of my CD's mocked me because of it about which I found out later because another girl told me about it - as she was explaining it to me: "because you don't listen to such things like youth now". I have no idea what she could mean by this - I remember in my colection there were: Santana, hits from 60's-70's, Metallica, Mariah Carey, classical music and Toni Braxton, nothing compromiting so I don't know why...



I prefer reading fanfiction to novels by Rowling In very many cases some fics are WAY better than original books. Some ideas from them would never nestle in J.K. Rowling's head

I almost never tell people what I like doing - I feel embarrassed about my interests. Maybe because I am never that good at doing them or knowing about them and I dont want to be shown up. This is only in real life though, not embarrassed online. I think I am embarrassed because they are part of me and I am reluctant to reveal any part of me, perhaps to avoid getting hurt. I often think that if someone knows I like such a thing they can do something to try and take it away from me somehow. If I keep everything secret then I have less weak points.

I am also interested in Harry Potter (I am 30, but most of the people I work with, of roughly my age read it). I recently bought all 7 books in french and have been reading them all (most I have already read in english). I am currently on number 6 and looking forward to 7 as I havent read this in any language (although do vaguely know what happens at the end). At the moment, together with surfing the internet (mainly wrong planet and GR20 related sites) it is the main thing that I look forward to doing each day. I keep wanting to be in that world myself. I also think I have slightly fallen for Snape - he is my favorite character and in the films, there is something about him that I really like and find fascinating.