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Feeling Lost Between Obsessions...?

Do you feel lost between obsessions?

  • Total voters
    12
Amy Stone

Amy Stone

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I am newly self-diagnosed with Asperger's. I tend to become fully obsessed with a topic until I burn out from learning about it, and then I move to a new one. The lifespan for my obsessions is typically 1-2 years, but they can last longer or shorter. Some of my obsessions I had through the years: Sci-Fi Books, Art, Social Media, Scuba Diving, Chickens, Food, etc...etc. One thing I noticed is that I feel absolutely lost when I am in-between obsessions. As if I don't know what my life is about and that I am stuck-in-a-rut. I get depressed until I can fixate on a new obsession.

Does anyone else feel this way?
 
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Do you think the depression comes first? It can often cause anhedonia which is a lack of pleasure/interest derived from hobbies and such like. Often depression has a slow build, and if the stress and negative thoughts are building, it may well trigger a point when you have no interesting in hobbies, and maintaining routines and expectations becomes increasingly difficult. You might reach a breaking point where you say to yourself "sod this" and then try and move onto something new.

As a species we seem to be fascinated and intrigued by new things, places, people and such like. When you take this fascination and have mood issues affecting current experiences, it's only natural that some people end up chopping and changing more frequently.

Other people on here will be very much set in their ways. But this can lead to stagnation and feeling trapped - which can also lead to depression and other issues.

Trying to find a happy medium in life is difficult for everyone, and probably even moreso for people with an ASD.

Ed
 
@Raggamuffin Not for me. I am fully engaged and almost in a "manic state" when I am into a hobby. Then it's like a candle that has run out of wax to burn. It starts to flicker and then just goes out. Same with my interests. I just burn out and look for the "next source of fuel". But while I am looking, I am in the dark and feeling lost. (how is that for an analogy lol) The depressive state doesn't occur until after the old one has ended and before I have found a new one.

Edited to say: I guess this really requires more thought on my part. I have to really analyze what happens when I am reaching an end of a hobby. I think mostly it is just that I get bored with it because I have already researched the topic to death, mastered it, or in the case of a location I have already seen everything and met everyone.
 
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Amy Stone said:
I am fully engaged and almost in a "manic state" when I am into a hobby. Then it's like a candle that has run out of wax to burn. It starts to flicker and then just goes out. Same with my interests. I just burn out and look for the "next source of fuel"
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That sounds like it might be an ADHD trait.
 
I do the same thing!!! I don't feel "lost" as much, because I just lose interest and transition to the next thing (there are enough things I'm obsessed with that there are gap fillers lol). But I definitely have a tendency to be obsessed with something for a few years and then lose interest in it and move on to the next thing.
 
@Progster I believe I have both Asperger's and ADD/ADHD. I guess a lot of people have both? I am still figuring out which traits belong to which and the overlap.
 
Too much of a good thing springs to mind. I'm the same with a video game. I'll obsess and put in crazy amounts of hours, and then one day it's gone, and I won't go back to it for years.

Ed
 
Some subjects l never lose interest in. Sometimes people change interests, but l don't feel lost as a result. I am finding happiness in just simply living after this panademic.

Good post, thanks for expressing what you feel.

Welcome too.
 
Amy Stone said:
@Progster I believe I have both Asperger's and ADD/ADHD. I guess a lot of people have both? I am still figuring out which traits belong to which and the overlap.
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I think it's quite common to have both. I think I do, too, because I have a lot of ADHD/ADD traits, but I was only tested for and diagnosed with Asperger's.

I recognise the intense enthusiasm, then loss of interest when something else comes along. I also seek novelty, and get bored easily. I seem to feed on and need stimulation, and if I don't get this, I feel down/depressed. So I can relate to what you are describing.
 
I have an obsession I can apply to my other obsessions: photography. I have been doing that since 10 (I am 57 and was diagnosed with ASD last year). Writing is another--my wife has kept a diary since her childhood. Both her writing and my photographs are really a document of our lives. It also creates a continuity.

But when an interest falls away, then it is a bit of a struggle to know what the direction is. I actually don't mind feeling a bit lost as it allows time to recalibrate. It is good to decompress from time to time. Time doing nothing is never wasted: you brain is actually going through a lot.
 
My range of special interests, current & back-burner, overlap. If I am at a lull, surfing YouTube will appeal to one or more of them.
 
Yeah, the depression is what knocked out your interests. You didn't get depressed because you lost interest.

I have multiple interests. If one runs out, the others move in to fill the empty space.
 
Yes, sometimes it will shift from one thing or another but my main things are specific kinds of music drum and bass and "noise" like for popular example merzbow), coins, videos of arcade machine and computer repair even though I have nothing to do with any of it, cooking certain meals and trying everything under the sun I could possibly do to them even though I prefer to keep things plain, trying ever kind of coffee ever, and I had a short love affair with mushrooms but I still passively learn about them since I'm into a lot of medicinal herbs/muchroom research and application and how they helped me so much get as functional as I am now.

Finder said:
I have an obsession I can apply to my other obsessions: photography. I have been doing that since 10 (I am 57 and was diagnosed with ASD last year). Writing is another--my wife has kept a diary since her childhood. Both her writing and my photographs are really a document of our lives. It also creates a continuity.

But when an interest falls away, then it is a bit of a struggle to know what the direction is. I actually don't mind feeling a bit lost as it allows time to recalibrate. It is good to decompress from time to time. Time doing nothing is never wasted: you brain is actually going through a lot.
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Yes photography too, I should soon be getting a decent camera again thanks to my girlfriend, passively I have an insta of random mostly nature stuff and it does the trick now but doesn't quite satisfy things enough. I don't want to be a professional photographer but it's like with you where I can apply it's use to everything like that and doing so really puts me at ease.
 
Ronald Zeeman said:
I'm obsessed with collecting data and analyzing it, at work it was colour data, currently Covid data.
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Same which is why I like doing work on the side in the Discogs database, I can't say why I get so much satisfaction out of expanding it but it's a good thing to use it to contribute to something too.
 
Pieceofmind said:
Same which is why I like doing work on the side in the Discogs database, I can't say why I get so much satisfaction out of expanding it but it's a good thing to use it to contribute to something too.
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I contribute to this database too, when I have a release that's not yet there.
 
Progster said:
I contribute to this database too, when I have a release that's not yet there.
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I'll often add a lot of web releases but sometimes in thrist/pawn shop I'll find a random album that hasn't been added yet.I do want to go to the local library and rent out a stack of their CD's at a time and just go through all of them adding missing missing information and anything that isn't there yet at all.
 
Amy Stone said:
One thing I noticed is that I feel absolutely lost when I am in-between obsessions. As if I don't know what my life is about and that I am stuck-in-a-rut. I get depressed until I can fixate on a new obsession.
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This is where I have been - and its dismal :confused:

But I was excited by glimmerings of a new obsession yesterday!! Can I assume, @Amy Stone, that this purgatory is your current curse???

Amy Stone said:
@Progster I believe I have both Asperger's and ADD/ADHD. I guess a lot of people have both? I am still figuring out which traits belong to which and the overlap.
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I believe ADHD to be a milder presentation of autism. Attention is part of the executive functioning that makes all but our narrow interests so difficult. Attention describes not only attending to something but also being able to ignore or stop something. ADHD also affects socio-communication skills. The difference b/t ADHD & Autism is one of degrees.
 
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